I am an associate professor of Native American and United States History at Oklahoma State University and I was previously a research fellow at Southern Methodist University's Clements Center for Southwest Studies. My first book, Indians on the Move: Native American Mobility and Urbanization in the Twentieth Century (UNC, 2019), discusses the dynamic and consequential experiences Native American people shared throughout the twentieth century when moving to major cities for work, education, and social opportunities.

My second book, Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis (Liveright/W.W. Norton & Company, 2024), tells the extraordinary story of Jesse Ed Davis, the Kiowa/Comanche musician from Oklahoma City who played with Bob Dylan, John Lennon, George Harrison, Taj Mahal, and over one hundred more major artists before an untimely death. Davis amplified Indigenous peoples' important place in both the history of North American music and the transatlantic crosscurrents of popular music in the late twentieth century.

My third book, also under contract with Liveright/Norton, will be a comprehensive history of Native American peoples and incarceration from the colonial period to the present.

Alongside US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, I am co-curator of Natural Anthem: Jesse Ed Davis, which opened at the Bob Dylan Center (Tulsa, OK) in November 2024. This is the first ever museum exhibit dedicated to the important Indigenous musician from Oklahoma.

Additionally, I am co-producer of Jesse Ed Davis, Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day, an archival 2LP set of seventeen unissued Jesse Ed Davis songs released by Warner Music/Rhino/Real Gone Music in November 2024.

I have also published on the subjects of Indigenous Dallas, Indigenous Chicago, and Indigenous incarceration.

In my personal life, I enjoy time with my family and playing music.

Research Interests:

Native American history, United States history, Music history