Doug Kiel

Douglas Kiel is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Northwestern University, affiliated with the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2012) and is a citizen of the Oneida Nation. His research focuses on Indigenous histories of the American Midwest, settler colonialism, and U.S. colonialism, with an emphasis on law, policy, and environmental history.

Kiel’s work bridges academia and public history, including co-curating exhibitions like Indigenous Chicago (Newberry Library) and serving on the scholarly advisory committee for the Wisconsin History Center. He is currently completing a book manuscript, Power over the Land: Race, Colonialism, and the American Midwest, examining intersections of settler colonialism and industrialization. His Mellon Foundation fellowship (2025–2027) supports interdisciplinary research on cosmic frontiers and Manifest Destiny.

His scholarly contributions include award-winning articles on Indigenous land recovery disputes (NAIS, 2019), Midwestern historiography (Middle West Review, 2014), and legal frameworks shaping Native sovereignty. Kiel also engages in public advocacy, including testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives and expert witness roles in tribal land cases.

• Awards: Mellon New Directions Fellowship, Arrell M. Gibson Award, Dorothy Schwieder Prize
• Publications: Forthcoming book Unsettling Territory (Yale UP), special issue co-editor Indigenous Midwests (Middle West Review), and peer-reviewed articles in NAIS, Ethnohistory, and others.