Elizabeth Ellis is an associate professor of history at Princeton University. She teaches early American and Native American history as well as Indigenous Studies.  She is a scholar of early North America with a focus on diplomacy, borderlands, cross cultural exchange, and Indigenous politics. Liz received her B.A. from Tulane University and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Her first book, The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South, examined the formation of Native American nations in the Lower Mississippi Valley. In this work, Ellis argues that Indigenous migration and immigration practices helped create powerful and resilient Native nations, and that these Native southerners shaped and limited the extent of European colonization during the eighteenth century. The Great Power of Small Nations has received awards from the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

Her current research interests include Indigenous migration, borderlands, early Native American art, Indian slavery, and twentieth-century Native American politics. She is presently working on projects on early Native American iconography and a long history of the Peoria Tribe. Her ongoing collaborative work includes, the Reclaiming Stories Project, the “Unsettled Refuge” working group on Indigenous histories of North American Sanctuary, and the “Indigenous Borderlands of North America” research project. She is also the primary investigator for the 2023-2024 Mellon Sawyer Seminar “Indigenous Futures in Times of Crisis” at New York University and Princeton University.

In addition to her work on early American history, Liz also writes about contemporary Indigenous issues and politics. She is committed to tribally engaged historical work and collaborative research practices that support Native self-determination. Liz is Peewaalia and an enrolled citizen of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. She currently serves as the Tribal History Liaison for her nation.

Photo credit: Zoë McWhirter