Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Papers
Title
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn Papers
Date(s)
- 1932-2016 (Accumulation)
Extent
16.21 linear feet (16 records center boxes, 1 oversize box)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn was born in 1930 in Fort Thompson, SD on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. She is an enrolled member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. She currently lives near Rapid City, SD.
Cook-Lynn earned her bachelor's degree from South Dakota State College (now South Dakota State University) in 1952, graduating with a BA in English and Journalism. In 1971 she completed her Masters of Education in Psychology and Counseling at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. She also attended the University of Nebraska in 1977-1978, enrolled in a doctorate program.
Cook-Lynn has taught high school in both South Dakota and New Mexico. Beginning in 1971 she taught English and Native American Studies at the Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA until her retirement in 1990. She is now a Professor Emerita. After her retirement, she also taught at the University of California at Davis as a Visiting Professor. While at Eastern Washington University, Cook-Lynn, along with Beatrice Medicine, Roger Buffalohead and William Willard, founded the Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Native American Studies. She also speaks at various conferences throughout the United States on issues relating to Native Americans, as well as at literary gatherings and conferences to discuss her works. Along with Dr. Charles Woodard, she organizes a yearly writers retreat for Dakota/Lakota/Nakota writers at Oak Lake Field Station, near Brookings, SD.
Cook-Lynn is now a full time writer and has published works in a number of different genres. Her writings deal primarily with stories and situations relative to the Native American experience. Cook-Lynn's first publications were in 1983 with Then Badger Said This, and Seek the House of Relatives, compilations of short stories and poetry. Her next work, The Power of Horses and Other Stories is a collection of short stories and was published in 1990. She continued to write and work on her fiction after that publication, and completed From the River's Edge in 1991, finishing that series with Aurelia: a Crow Creek trilogy, published in 1999. Between the completion of that trilogy, Cook-Lynn published some of her non-fiction works. Her book Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: a Tribal Voice was published in 1996, and in 1998 she published both The Politics of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty, written with Mario Gonzalez, and a work of poetry, I Remember the Fallen Trees: New and Selected Poems.
Some of Cook-Lynn's works have been included in anthologies of Native American literature, including Harper's Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry, ed. Duane Niatum, HarperCollins, and Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's Writing of North America, ed. Gloria Bird and Joy Harjo, W. W. Norton. In addition to these works, Cook-Lynn has also had published numerous book reviews and articles including journal articles and newspaper editorials. She is considered a leader for her Crow Creek Sioux Tribe because of her outstanding contributions to Native rights through exposing and detailing the Native experience through her writing and speeches.
Cook-Lynn has received a number of awards for her writing. She received the Literary Contribution Award for 2002 for the Mountain Plains Library Association. In 1995 she received the Oyate Igluwitaya from the Native American Club at SDSU. She was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1978. Her work, Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: A Tribal Voice was cited for a Gustavus Myers Award at Boston University from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection consists of biographical material about Cook-Lynn; correspondence; writings by Cook-Lynn including articles, books, editorials, essays, novels, novellas, poetry, and book reviews; material related to her teaching career as well as research project and other activities in which she was involved; material related to the Wicazo Sa Review: a Journal of Native Studies for which she was editor; and material related to Native American issues and topics.
System of arrangement
The Elizabeth Cook-Lynn papers are arranged into series:
- Series 1. Biographical material
- Series 2. Recognition
- Series 3. Correspondence
- Series 4. Writings
- Series 5. Teaching career
- Series 6. Other activities
- Series 7. Research
- Series 8. Wicazo Sa Review
- Series 9. Native American issues and topics
- Series 10. Collected material
- Series 11. Photographs
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Open. Items in this collection do not circulate and may be used in-house only. Researchers conducting extensive research are asked to make an advance appointment to access archival material. Please call or e-mail prior to visiting the collection and indicate as much detail as possible about a particular topic and intended use.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn retains the literary rights, including copyright, to this material. Patrons wishing to publish from this material must obtain permission directly from Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. For further information, consult with Archives staff.
South Dakota State University supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted as a result of their fragile condition or by contractual agreements with donors.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Expected
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Anti-Indianism in Modern America : a voice from Tatekeya's Earth, Urbana by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 2001
Aurelia : a Crow Creek trilogy by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 1999
From the river's edge by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 1991
I remember the fallen trees : new and selected poems by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 1998
New Indians, old wars by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 2007
Notebooks of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 2007
The power of horses and other stories by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 1990
The politics of hallowed ground : Wounded Knee and the struggle for Indian sovereignty by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn with Mario Gonzales
Publication Date: 1999
A separate country : postcoloniality and American Indian nations by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 2012
That guy Wolf Dancing : a novella by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 2012
Then Badger said this by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 1983
Why I can't read Wallace Stegner and other essays : a tribal voice by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Publication Date: 1996
Related descriptions
Notes element
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
ID
ID
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Care was taken to keep materials in the order that Cook-Lynn maintained. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by last name, or by organization (i.e. presses, universities, etc.), and chronologically within the folders. Some materials were removed to other locations because of inappropriate storage including photographs, floppy discs, and artwork. Files from floppy disks in the collection have been printed and the disks removed to more appropriate storage. Photographs were relocated to the MA Photograph Archives. Most news prints items are original, some have been photocopied due to deterioration of the original. Other materials considered irrelevant to the collection were returned to Cook-Lynn.
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth (Subject)