For over seventy-five years, the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has presented Leadership in History Awards to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all people.

Today, AASLH announces the winners of the History in Progress awards and the Awards of Excellence.

History in Progress Awards
The History in Progress Award is a special recognition given to Award of Excellence winners that are particularly inspiring and creative, and are only given to 5% or fewer of the total awardees per year. This year, the three History in Progress winners are focused on Native American history, culture, and voices.

First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for the Exhibit WINIKO: Life of an Object
WINIKO is a groundbreaking exhibit built using a curatorial framework that reunites objects collected over a century ago, held in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian collection, with their Indigenous relatives and cultures. The First American Museum’s all-Native curatorial team collaborated with the 39 tribal nations located in Oklahoma to affirm how each loan object fits into that framework, including appropriate object selections, reuniting each object with its Indigenous name, and reuniting the objects with their cultural relatives, ambitiously seeking descendants of the maker or owner. The gallery presents the objects within a space guided by Indigenous ethos and aesthetics, providing a centralized space to interrogate what happens when these objects are removed from tribal communities and placed in outside institutions.

Barona Cultural Center and Museum (BCC&M) in Lakeside, California, for the Exhibit Nya’waap Illyuw Uuchyuwp: Our Way of Knowing
The Barona Band of Mission Indians is one of 13 bands of the Kumeyaay Nation, living in what is now southern California. Through centuries of colonization, genocide, and assimilation, knowledge of the Nation’s creation story was systemically eroded, disconnected, and lost. BCC&M launched an effort to reconstruct the story, drawing on the expertise of community elders and ethnographic records. This project shares the reconstructed Kumeyaay Creation Story through an immersive multisensory exhibit, and has built community in the Nation, reinforced Barona connections to the land, and reached new generations of Barona children and non-Native visitors with the strength and vibrancy of their culture.

History Colorado in Denver, Colorado, for the Exhibit The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal That Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever
This powerful exhibit explores the deadliest day in Colorado history, when an 1864 assault by U.S. troops killed more than 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, wiped out their tribal leadership, and resulted in them being forcefully expelled from their homelands forever. It was created over the course of 10 years in deep consultation with representatives from the three Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. This project worked to repair relationships and trust between the museum and tribes, foregrounded the voices of Native people in this tragedy, and shared the experiences and enduring cultures of the state’s original landkeepers.

Awards of Excellence
The Award of Excellence is presented to recognize excellence for projects (including civic engagement, special projects, educational programs, exhibits, publications, etc.), and individual lifetime achievement. This is the main award in the Leadership in History Awards program.

Alabama
Priscilla Hancock Cooper for serving as a leader in the history field in Alabama and ensuring that the state’s vibrant Black community was not relegated to the margins of history or lost to time.  

Alaska
The NN Cannery Project team for the NN Cannery History Project  

Wrangell History Unlocked for Wrangell History Unlocked: The Rise & Fall of the Star of Bengal   

Arizona
Tempe History Museum for Guadalupe: Where Three Cultures Flourish    

California
Barona Cultural Center & Museum for Nya’waap Illyuw Uuchyuwp: Our Way of Knowing  

California African American Museum for Rights & Rituals: The Making of African American Debutante Culture   

Center for Sacramento History for Unlocking the Past: A History of Prejudice and Racism in Sacramento  

Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society for From Diggers Bend to River Rock: Dry Creek Rancheria People and History 

The Italian American Museum of Los Angeles for Woven Lives: Exploring Women’s Needlework from the Italian Diaspora  

Colorado
History Colorado for The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal That Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever    

Connecticut
Catherine Keene Fields for a career dedicated to the development and success of the Litchfield Historical Society   

Florida
Orange County Regional History Center for Figurehead: Music & Mayhem in Orlando’s Underground   

Georgia
Coffee County Historical Society and the Coffee County Memory Project for Overcoming Segregation: A Journey Through Coffee County’s Forgotten Stories 

Idaho
Dr. Mamie Oliver for foundational contributions to the understanding of Black history in Idaho 

Idaho State Historical Society for Idaho Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Sculpture  

Minidoka National Historic Site for 80 Years of Reckoning: The Lessons and Legacy of Minidoka 

University of Idaho Black History Research Lab for the Black History Research Lab at the University of Idaho  

Illinois
Cahokia Mounds Museum Society for Back to the City of the Sun: An Augmented Reality Experience  

Naperville Heritage Society/Naper Settlement for Unvarnished: Housing Discrimination in the Northern and Western United States 

The Salvation Army Central Territory Museum for Perspectives 

Iowa
Linn County Historical Society/The History Center for Oral Histories LIVE!    

Kansas
Humanities Kansas for the Kansas 1972 podcast  

Louisiana
The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company for The Six Blanches    

Massachusetts
Forbes House Museum for Opium: The Business of Addiction  

Marblehead Museum & Historical Society, Inc. for The Diverse History of Marblehead: A Research and Dissemination Project  

Massachusetts Historical Society for Disability and the American Past  

Worcester Historical Museum for Pretty Powerful: 100 Years of Voting & Style     

Minnesota
Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County for Daring to Dream: The Hjemkomst Saga  

Minnesota Historical Society and Twin Cities Pride for Twin Cities LGBTQ+ History Tours    

Missouri
Missouri Historical Society for the St. Louis Sound exhibition  

Montana
Montana Historical Society for Montana: A History of Our Home  

North Carolina
Greensboro History Museum for NC Democracy: Eleven Elections  

North Dakota
State Historical Society of North Dakota for Fashion & Function: North Dakota Style  

New Hampshire
Alan Rumrill for a lifetime of helping people connect with their local history stories  

Oklahoma
Claremore Museum of History for the Lynn Riggs Gallery  

First Americans Museum for WINIKO: Life of an Object  

Oregon
Vanport Mosaic for The Spirit of Vanport  

Pennsylvania
Beaver Area Heritage Foundation for Matthew Stanley Quay: Saint or Sinner? You Decide!  

Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center for Pool: A Social History of Segregation  

West Overton Village & Museums for Forging Ahead and Falling Behind: Industrial Growth in a Rural Community 

Rhode Island
Bristol Historical & Preservation Society for The Timeline of Enslavement in Bristol, RI  

South Carolina
Culture & Heritage Museums of York County for SC Liberty and Resistance: Reconstruction and the African American Community at Brattonsville 1865-1877   

South Dakota
The Journey Museum and Learning Center for 50th Commemoration of the 1972 Black Hills Flood   

Texas
Dr. Pepper Museum for Sit Down to Take a Stand Waco Lunch Counter Exhibition and soda fountain redesign    

Irving Archives and Museum and the Irving Black Arts Council for The Local Green Book Project  

Utah
Utah Humanities for Think Water Utah  

Virginia
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for Material Memory: HBCU Library Alliance Tour  

Virginia Museum of History & Culture for the Virginia Museum of History & Culture Reopening 2022  

Vermont
Historic New England for More than a Market: Food, Community, and Family in the Markets of Burlington and Winooski, Vermont   

Washington
Harbor History Museum for the HHM Shenandoah Project  

Wyoming
American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming for the Wyoming tour of the play A Sissy in Wyoming 

Publication Awards
Large Press: Here and Everywhere Else: Small-Town Maine and the World by Andrew Witmer (University of Massachusetts Press) 

Small Press: Following the Faith; A Bicentennial History of First Presbyterian Church, Clarksville: 1822-2022 by First Presbyterian Church Clarksville (self-published)