Julie Reed

Julie L. Reed is a historian of Native American History, with an emphasis on Southeastern Indians and Cherokee History, as well as American Education. She is currently an associate professor in History at Penn State University. She is also a member of the Cherokee Nation and has focused her research mainly on Cherokee Nation history and Cherokee education.

Education
Reed finished her bachelor's degree from English Literature at the University of South Florida in 1998. In 2000, she got a Masters degree in Theological Studies at Perkins School of Theology. Then, she continued with a Master of Arts degree in American History at UNC-Chapel Hill, which she finished in 2008 with a thesis on “Family and Nation, Cherokee Orphan Care, 1835-1903”. In 2011, Julie Reed finished her studies with a PhD in American History at UNC-Chapel Hill with a dissertation on “A Nation’s Charge: Cherokee Social Services, 1835-1907”.

Academic career
Reed's academic career began at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. There, she worked as an Assistant Professor of American Indian and United States History (2011-2017) and later also as an Associate Professor of American Indian and United States History (2017-2019). Since 2019, Julie Reed has been working as an Associate Professor of American Indian and American History at Penn State University.

Research
In 2016, Reed published her first book, titled Serving the Nation: Cherokee Sovereignty and Social Welfare, 1800-1907. In this book, she discusses the system of social welfare policies implemented by the Cherokee Nation, focusing in particular on the ethic of gadugi and some other main principles of the Cherokee nation, including martilineal descent, egalitarian relations, kinship obligations and communal landholding. This system is analyzed in connection to U.S. government's social policies as well as a development of its own. The time frame of this book is the 19th century, therefore some of the main points in this period include the departure from the traditional matrilinear social policies, the role of missionaries and the aim to connect Cherokee traditions to U.S. institutions. Reed also discusses the implications of the Civil War and Reconstruction period on the Cherokee nation and implementation of the nation's own institutions. Finally, the consequences of allotment are explained and analyzed.

Julie Reed's new book, titled “The Means of Education Shall Forever Be Encouraged in this Nation: A Cherokee and American Educational History”, is also currently under advance contract with UNC Press. This work should be focusing on the history of Cherokee education until the 1970s. Reed is also currently working on a new book called Sovereign Kin: A History of the Cherokee Nation together with professor Rose Stremlau. This project received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and should be focusing on history of the Cherokee nation from before 1600 to 2010.

Selected works

 * Serving the Nation: Cherokee Sovereignty and Social Welfare, 1800-1907 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, April 2016)
 * “’An Absolute and Unconditional Pardon’: Nineteenth Century Cherokee Indigenous Justice.” In Legacies: Essays on the Native South, edited by Greg O’Brien and Tim Garrison (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017): 126-143.
 * “Whose Stories Get Told,” In Marked, Unmarked, Remembered: A Photographic Geography of American Historical Memory, edited by Alex Lichtenstein and Andrew Lichtenstein, (Morgantown: West Virginia Press, forthcoming).
 * Carroll, B., A. Cressler, T. Belt, M. White, W. Adams, J. Reed, and J. Simek, “The Red Bird River Shelter (15cy52) Revisited: The Archaeology of Cherokee Syllabary and of Sequoyah in Kentucky” (Forthcoming April 2019, American Antiquity)
 * Carroll, B., A. Cressler, T. Belt, J. Reed, and J. Simek, “Talking stones: Cherokee syllabary in Manitou Cave, Alabama.” (Forthcoming April 2019, Antiquity)

Community engagement
Julie Reed is active in presenting contextual knowledge of the Cherokee nation to non-citizens. She has given several interviews, for example on historical sites in the Southern Appalachia region for TIME, or on a Native American exhibition opening for Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Reed has also written several articles on Cherokee-related topics, e. g. an op-ed for New York Daily News on Elizabeth Warren's claims towards Native Americans or a commentary for TribLive on a Cherokee nation delegate to the House of Representatives.

Selected awards

 * Frances C. Allen Fellowship, Newberry Library, 2009
 * Phillips Fund Grant for Native American Research, American Philosophical Society, 2009
 * David J. Weber Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America, William P. Clements Center, SMU, 2013-2014
 * American Academy of Education/Spencer Small Research Grant, Spencer Foundation, 2018