Elizabeth Ellis Awarded MacArthur Fellowship for Indigenous History Research
Elizabeth Ellis, a historian based in Princeton, New Jersey, has been named a MacArthur Fellow for her work investigating Indigenous politics and diplomacy in early North America. Her research focuses on how small Indigenous nations in the Lower Mississippi Valley, including the Biloxi, Capinan, and Pointe-au-Chien Peoples, maintained their livelihoods and influence among European settlers. Ellis's book, 'The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South' (2022), details how these groups utilized practices such as refugee asylum, multinational settlements, and flexible alliances to interact with French and British settlers. This approach allowed them to limit settler political power and control European settlement patterns throughout much of the eighteenth century. Even after increased U.S. government oversight in the late eighteenth century, many avoided forced removal by migrating and forming multinational communities. Ellis also collaborates on community-engaged projects, such as ...
