Dr. Clara Sue Kidwell, Native American academic scholar, historian, feminist, and author, died peacefully on Friday, November 26, 2025, in Owasso, Oklahoma, at the age of 84 years. She was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to Hardin Milton and Martha Evelyn Kidwell. A graduate of Muskogee Central High School in 1959, she continued her education at the University of Oklahoma earning her Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees. She was proud of her Choctaw and Chippewa Indian blood which inspired her to become a proponent of Native American studies at universities across the nation. Her extensive academic career began at the Kansas City Art Institute followed by the University of Washington, Haskell Indian Junior College, the University of Minnesota, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Oklahoma, Dartmouth, and Bacone College.
Dr. Kidwell established the American Indian Center at the University of North Carolina and also served as an associate director of Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. She assumed an interim operation director role with the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee before retiring full-time to Owasso.
Dr. Kidwell has written a multitude of books on Native American studies, particularly about her Choctaw tribe. On September10, 2022, the American Society of Ethnohistory awarded Dr. Clara Sue Kidwell, PhD, a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her pivotal role in the development of Native American studies programs and her contributions to the organization’s mission. Those she leaves behind who hold many cherished memories include: her brother, John Kidwell and his wife, Barbara, of Owasso; her sister Mona Hatfield and her husband Bill, of Cypress, Texas; nephew Chris Kidwell and his wife, Laura, and their son Micah, of Louisville, Colorado; nephew William Hatfield and his wife, Robin, and their sons, Will and Ben, of Cypress, Texas; niece Vicky Sharma and her husband, Sumit, and their twins Arjun and Clara, of Overland Park, Kansas; and niece Brandi Fiedler and her husband, Zach, and their son Viktor, of Overland Park, Kansas; She was preceded in death by her parents and nephew Steven Hatfield.
Obituary provided by Mowry Funeral Service.