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Grand Canyon Historical Society |
Scholarship
The Grand Canyon Historical Society's scholarship supports research that involves history, historic or environmental preservation in the Grand Canyon region. The Society awards a $1,000 scholarship to a graduate student at Northern Arizona University for use in research of the Grand Canyon area. |
Any Northern Arizona University graduate student doing work in the above fields of research is eligible. Eligible projects include any work that results in original research concerning historical individuals, events, sites, organizations, businesses or environmental issues in the Grand Canyon region; or any work that results in original research that supports or leads to historical preservation of any historical site, photographs, documents, or diaries with origins in the Grand Canyon region.
Papers and/or items submitted resulting from the research becomes a part of the GCHS Collection in the Special Collections and Archives at NAU's Cline Library for use by anyone doing research in those subjects involving the Grand Canyon region.
The Grand Canyon Historical Society accepts applications for its scholarship through Northern Arizona University. Applications are accepted through the end of February each year.
2004 Scholarship Recipient:
Mathieu Brown is currently a Masters candidate in the department of Forestry at Northern Arizona University. His thesis work is on the biophysical recreation impacts on the Colorado River corridor through Grand Canyon, while his coursework focuses on the recreation and tourism cultures of the Western United States. Mathieu has earned a B.S. in Business Economics and a B.A. in Southwest Studies. Dr. Pam Foti of the Planning and Recreation program in the Southwest Forest Science Complex is his program advisor.
The scholarship will be funding: Seeking Summits Below the Rim: The stories and history of climbing in Grand Canyon, a project to document the stories of early climbing in Grand Canyon. Despite the prolific activity of a handful of climbers little has been publicly written and documented on their pursuits. Like any time period in Grand Canyon history, that of the early summiteers carries its own perspectives and adds value and depth to our collective understanding of the Grand Canyon and its influence on the human individual and regional meaning. Although not publicly documented, the knowledge of early Grand Canyon climbing remains rich. It is held in the journals, letters, photographs, and memories of the individuals active in the pursuit. Luckily, many of these stories have yet to vanish and sit waiting to be uncovered and rediscovered from the climbers themselves on a local and regional scale.
Past Scholarship Recipients:
2003 - Steve Buckley of Flagstaff was the recipient of the 2003 Scholarship of $1,000 for his master's thesis project: Mountain Lying Down: An Environmental History of the Kaibab Plateau. This is our first award for an environmental history. Previous awards have been for variety of historical and anthropological projects in the Grand Canyon Region. This is a bit more significant in that this is the first year we offered the scholarship for an environmental project. His introduction to the application was "Presently, there is no environmental history of the Kaibab Plateau. The isolated geologic upwarp, which serves as the northern barrier to the Grand Canyon between Kanab Canyon and Marble Canyon, is a true sky island. This breadth of land mass has provided for a rich history of human use. From early archeological evidence and inferences from known patterns, human habitation has had an effect on the larger ecological system of the Kaibab. The famous Kaibab deer herd and the ecological lesson it taught concerning the extirpation of predators, is but one remarkable note from a complex past. The Kaibab, as it is known, is a derivative of the original Paiute word, kaibabits, meaning "mountain lying down." The name was given by Major John Wesley Powell in the course of his exploration in the 1870s. Until such time it had been commonly known as Buckskin Mountain. It is the ecological story of this mountain I wish to tell."
2002 - no scholarship awarded
2001 - no scholarship awarded
2000 - Russell K. Quinlan was awarded the GCPS 2000 Scholarship at the Northern Arizona University History Department Awards and Honors breakfast on April 26. Russell is a fourth year doctoral student at Northern Arizona University studying criminal history and law enforcement. His research will concentrate on the career of Hubert "Bert" Lauzon who served as a constable and a justice of the peace for the Grand Canyon District of Coconino County before becoming a National Park Service Ranger in 1928, a position he held until retiring in the early 1950s.
1999 - John S. Westerlund, a doctoral student at Northern Arizona University, was awarded the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society's 1999 Scholarship. John will use the money to pay for travel related research expenses pertaining to his doctoral dissertation in American history. His topic is titled "From Indian Village to Minuteman Missiles: Navajo Ordnance Depot in the American West." His research will take him to the Washington, DC area and to the reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah to obtain oral interviews with former Navajo and Hopi depot employees. The Navajo Ordnance Depot is a munitions depot located west of Flagstaff, Arizona.
1998 - John S. Westerlund, a doctoral student at Northern Arizona University, was awarded the GCPS 1998 Scholarship. John will use the money to pay for travel related research expenses pertaining to his doctoral dissertation in American history. His topic is titled "From Indian Village to Minuteman Missiles: Navajo Ordnance Depot in the American West." His research will take him to the Washington, DC area and to the reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah to obtain oral interviews with former Navajo and Hopi depot employees. The Navajo Ordnance Depot is a munitions depot located west of Flagstaff, Arizona.
1997 - Michael Anderson, Ph.D., was the recipient of the GCPS 1997 Scholarship for his research on the administrative history of the Grand Canyon National Park. This is the second time Mike has received the GCPS Scholarship.
1996 - Amy Jo Horn-Wilson, a master's candidate of the Department of Anthropology at NAU, was awarded the 1996 GCPS Scholarship of $500. Amy Jo's project will be a study of the Cohonina peoples that occupied the Coconino Plateau, including the South Rim and Esplanade of the Grand Canyon and Havasu and Cataract Canyons from approximately A.D. 700-1150. Some archaeologists believe they are ancestral to the modern Havasupai. For her thesis, she intends to examine projectile points created and used by the Cohonina to detect changes in form over time and space. In addition, she will compare Cohonina projectile points with those created by the Kayenta Anasazi and modern Havasupai to discern culture interactions and relationships. The materials she will use are excavated and surface-collected projectile points stored at Grand Canyon, Museum of Northern Arizona, and Kaibab National Forest in Williams. The results of her analysis will provide additional temporal information for archaeologists as they interpret the prehistory of the Grand Canyon and the entire Southwest.
1995 - Chris Johnson was awarded the 1995 GCPS Scholarship of $350 for his work on the history of the "discovery" of Rainbow Bridge. This is the second time Chris has received the GCPS Scholarship.
1994 - Chris Johnson was awarded a $350 Scholarship for his work on a completely different aspect of Grand Canyon regional cultural history. His subject was Jacob Hamblin, a noted explorer and settler of the region. Chris looked at how the Mormon Church has used Hamblin's image to benefit the institution through public representation of him as a larger-than-life western legend. This study resulted in the paper Bridging the Gap: Jacob Hamblin and Mormon Historiography.*
1994 - Juti Winchester was awarded a $350 Scholarship to continue studies at the Grand Canyon involving early master plans used to develop the Grand Canyon park site for visitor use. Her emphasis was on cultural ideas that influenced these plans. Included were Mary Jane Colter's vision of Indians, and how that vision effected the development of selected parts of the Grand Canyon visitor use area. These studies produced the paper Just Like the Real Thing: Mary Jane Colter and Her Artistic Endeavors.*
1993 - Susan Olberding was awarded the 1993 GCPS Scholarship of $380 for her work on her master's degree in history and her research on the Water, Water Nowhere: A History of Water Use at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.*
1992 - Michael F. Anderson was awarded the first GCPS Scholarship of $250 to study the trails and perform research on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The research resulted in the paper Thunder River Trail at Grand Canyon National Park.*
*All four of these papers are on file in the Grand Canyon Historical Society's collection at NAU Cline Library Special Collections. Anyone can access these papers by searching under the author's name, title, or reviewing the index of the GCHS Collection.