Jeffrey D. Means

Department Chair & Associate Professor of History


portrait of UW History professor Jeff Means

Dr. Jeff Means, an Enrolled Member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, is an Associate Professor of History and Department Chair at the University of Wyoming. He arrived in the fall of 2007 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. His primary area of interest is Great Plains Indian culture and Colonial Cultural Encounters examined through the lens of Settler Colonialism.

Dr. Means has won numerous academic awards and grants, including the first Power-Tanner Graduate Student Fellowship in American Indian Studies and the first NCAIS Faculty Fellowship at the Newberry Library, the Burlingame-Toole Award from the Montana Historical Society for the best Graduate student article.

Dr. Means' website on Academia.edu

 

Publications

Jeffrey D. Means, “Oglala Paths, Oglala Choices: Identity and Economics on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 1877-1920,” Annals of Wyoming, Wyoming State Historical Society, Forthcoming

 

Jeffrey D. Means, “The Sioux Bill of 1889: A Turning Point in Oglala Lakota Culture,” in “50 Events That Shaped American Indian History,” anthology, edited by Donna Martinez and Jennifer Williams Bordeaux, ABC-CLIO Greenwood Press, 2016

 

Jeffrey D. Means, "Indians shall do things in common": Oglala Lakota Identity and Economics During the Early Reservation Era, 1868-1889. Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Fall 2011, Volume 60, No. 3

Jeffrey D. Means, 2002, "Deconstructing Dependency: Osage Subsistence and United States Indian Policy, 1800-1830." Heritage of the Great Plains Journal, Volume XXXV, No. 1, 23-38

Media

TED-Ed Co-Coordinator with Professor Ned Blackhawk, Yale University, “The Dark History of Mount Rushmore,” December: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX4IvoP1HTk&t=11s

 

“Sitting Bull,” film documentary project from Stephan David Entertainment for PBS

 

“The Warrior Tradition,” film documentary project from Bobo Entertainment, LLC, aired on PBS

 

Podcast Interviews by B.T. Newberg for “History of Sex” podcasts, “How the Lakota Became Cowboys—Sex on the Great Plains,” https://historyofsexpod.com/2022/06/06/how-the-lakota-became-cowboys-sex-on-the-great-plains/, and https://historyofsexpod.com/2022/07/04/to-save-the-lakota-an-interview-with-dr-jeff-means-sex-on-the-great-plains/

 

ABC-Radio Australia, “The History of Mount Rushmore,” and podcast. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/mt-rushmore/103037638

 

Service

Native American and Indigenous Studies Program (Adjunct Faculty and Advisory Council Board Member)-2007-Present

Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (DACODAI), Appointed by Lloyd J. Austin III, United States Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense, Committee Member, 2022-Present

 

Affiliations, Associations, Memberships

Organization of American Historians

Native American & Indigenous Studies Association

Phi Alpha Theta, History Honors Society

 

Curriculum Vitae


 CONTACT:

   History Building

   Room 258

   307-766-3198

   jmeans4@uwyo.edu

 
Contact Us

History Building

Dept. 3198

1000 E. University Ave.

Laramie, WY 82071

Phone: 307-766-5101

Email: uwhistory@uwyo.edu

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