Oklahoma Historical Society Awards and Honors
E. E. Dale Award
Outstanding Book on Oklahoma History
The Oklahoma Historical Society has recognized outstanding books exploring topics in Oklahoma history since 1992. In 2021, the distinction was officially named the E. E. Dale Award. Recipients receive a plaque of recognition and are invited to give a public lecture at the Oklahoma History Center.
| Year | Title | Author | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State | Caleb Gayle | (Riverhead Books, 2025) |
| 2024 | By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land | Rebecca Nagle | (HarperCollins, 2024) |
| 2023 | Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street | Victor Luckerson | (Random House, 2023) |
| 2022 | Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe | David Maraniss | (Simon and Schuster, 2022) |
| 2021 | A Life on Fire: Oklahoma’s Kate Barnard | Connie Cronley | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021) |
| 2020 | Breaking Down Barriers: George McLaurin and the Struggle to End Segregated Education | David W. Levy | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) |
| 2019 | Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre | Randy Krehbiel | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019) |
| 2018 | Alfalfa Bill: A Life in Politics | Robert L. Dorman | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018) |
| 2017 | Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI | David Grann | (Doubleday, 2017) |
| 2016 | The Red River Bridge War: A Texas-Oklahoma Border Battle | Rusty Williams | (Texas A&M University Press, 2016) |
| 2015 | The Cherokee Kid: Will Rogers, Tribal Identity, and the Making of an American Icon | Amy M. Ware | (University Press of Kansas, 2015) |
| 2014 | Banking in Oklahoma, 1907–2000 | Michael J. Hightower | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2014) |
| 2013 | Trail Sisters: Freedwomen in Indian Territory, 1850–1890 | Linda Williams Reese | (Texas Tech University Press, 2013) |
| 2012 | Sam Sixkiller: Frontier Cherokee Lawman | Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian | (Globe Pequot Press, 2012) |
| 2011 | Shot in Oklahoma: A Century of Sooner State Cinema | John Wooley | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2011) |
| 2010 | Race and the University: A Memoir | George Henderson | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2010) |
| 2009 | Choctaw Crime and Punishment, 1884–1907 | Devon Abbott Mihesuah | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2009) |
| 2008 | Grappling with Demon Rum: The Cultural Struggle Over Liquor in Early Oklahoma | James E. Klein | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008) |
| 2007 | After the Massacre: The Violent Legacy of San Sabá Mission | Robert S. Weddle | (Texas Tech University Press, 2007) |
| 2006 | The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl | Timothy Egan | (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) |
| 2005 | Hidden Treasures of the American West: Muriel H. Wright, Angie Debo, and Alice Marriott | Patricia Loughlin | (University of New Mexico Press, 2005) |
| 2004 | Art of the Osage | Garrick Bailey and Daniel C. Swan | (University of Washington Press, 2004) |
| 2003 | Taking Indian Lands: The Cherokee (Jerome) Commission, 1889–1893 | William T. Hagan | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003) |
| 2002 | Fred Harris: His Journey from Liberalism to Populism | Richard Lowitt | (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2002) |
| 2002 | Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma | Circe Sturm | (University of California Press, 2002) |
| 2001 | Indian Orphanages | Marilyn Irvin Holt | (University Press of Kansas, 2001) |
| 2000 | Angie Debo: Pioneering Historian | Shirley Leckie | (University of Oklahoma Press, 2000) |
| 2000 | Bryce Harlow: Mr. Integrity | Bob Burke and Ralph G. Thompson | (Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2000) |
| 1999 | Agrarian Socialism in America: Marx, Jefferson, and Jesus in the Oklahoma Countryside, 1904–1920 | Jim Bissett | (University of Oklahoma Press, 1999) |
| 1998 | Beyond the Frontier: Exploring the Indian Country | Stan Hoig | (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998) |
| 1997 | Some Things Are Not Forgotten: A Pawnee Family Remembers | Martha Royce Blaine | (University of Nebraska Press, 1997) |
| 1996 | King of the Wildcatters: The Life and Times of Tom Slick, 1883–1930 | Ray Miles | (Texas A&M University Press, 1996) |
| 1995 | Caddo Indians: Where We Come From | Cecile Elkins Carter | (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995) |
| 1994 | The Story of Oklahoma | W. David Baird and Danney Goble | (University of Oklahoma Press, 1994) |
| 1993 | Mankiller: A Chief and Her People | Wilma Mankiller and Michael Wallis | (St. Martin’s Press, 1993) |
| 1993 | Quanah Parker: Comanche Chief | William T. Hagan | (University of Oklahoma Press, 1993) |
| 1992 | A Naturalist in Indian Territory: The Journals of S. W. Woodhouse | John S. Tomer and Michael J. Brodhead | (University of Oklahoma Press, 1992) |
