YouAlberta
Logging on to our video call, Claire Thomson greets me with a bright, relaxed smile. A graduate of the PhD program in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion in the Faculty of Arts, Claire’s list of achievements is nothing short of outstanding. In addition to successfully completing her dissertation and convocating in June 2022, Claire is also the recipient of the Governor General’s Gold Medal, an award that celebrates outstanding graduate work and, at the University of Alberta, recognizes the doctoral graduate who achieves the highest academic standing. Her dissertation, “Digging Roots and Remembering Relatives: Lakota Kinship and Movement in the Northern Great Plains from the Wood Mountain Uplands across Lakóta Tȟamákȟočhe/Lakota Country, 1881-1940,” explores Lakota understandings of kinship, belonging and community, and how this understanding went across the border into the United States.
Prior to coming to the University of Alberta, Claire earned her Bachelor of Arts and her Master of Arts degrees from the University of Saskatchewan–but her path getting to the PhD program wasn’t an immediate or straightforward one. “I definitely did not take a linear path to get here,” Claire said. Growing up in Wood Mountain, she spent her life around animals on her family’s ranch. Initially, she thought becoming a veterinarian was her calling – animals have always been important to her, and it would have been something that lent itself to being able to stay in her rural community area. Though she loved history, she didn’t think there was really a career outcome for a history major. Instead, Claire stuck with her initial choice to study veterinary medicine for her undergraduate degree, but then moved into studying education.
Eventually, Claire realized that studying history was where she was the happiest, completing her undergraduate degree in History and Native Studies. However, graduate school still wasn’t in the cards. It wasn’t until a professor during her undergraduate degree suggested graduate school that she even considered it. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized she wanted to pursue it, as she has always had a love of research and writing, and an innate curiosity about family and community history – both of which appear in her PhD dissertation. Claire’s dedication and skill, both natural and cultivated, as a historian, is evident in her long list of scholarships and awards.
“I’ve always been interested in family and community history in Wood Mountain,” Claire said. Located in southern Saskatchewan, Wood Mountain, where Claire grew up, is home to Canada’s only Lakota First Nation. In her dissertation, she’s undertaken the work to reframe Lakota history within Lakota conceptions of place, especially Lakota Thamakoce/Lakota Country.
A particularly unique part of Claire’s dissertation is her use of photographs she found while conducting her archival research and through conversations with families and community members. “The amount of community [and] family photographs that I was able to use and that people shared with me was very exciting and surprised me,” Claire says. These images were what she calls “visual examples of the close connections” of the people she was writing about. Together, members of the Lakota community took studio portraits and sent postcards of their photos across the US-Canada border, some even featuring notes and messages in Lakota. “Because these photographs came from within the community, their meaning and place in kinship was still known and passed on, unlike so many photographs in institutional archives. So using the photographs as visual depictions of kinship and community like they originally served for the people who took them and received them was rewarding,” Claire explains, “and in some ways, unique, because we often just treat them like any other textual document for research purposes.”
After passing her candidacy exams, Claire was awarded a Fulbright Foundation Student Award in 2016 to study in the Lakota Studies Department at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota. While she was there, she continued to carry out her research and also took classes to learn the Lakota language–something she said was invaluable for her research. Something that sets Claire apart from others in her field is a deep commitment to her community.
As part of a non-status Lakota family herself, Claire’s own familial history appears in her research. “A lot of my own family shows up in my dissertation,” she says. “A lot of my ancestors … went back and forth across the border in that time period, so I was always interested in that.” Through her research, she continued to dig deeper into archives as a graduate student. Handling this type of research with care is imperative, she noted. The Wood Mountain community is small and tight-knit, so Claire was coming across information in the archives that were connected to people she knows. “I realized that more and more of my family was also in [archival] sources.” While she wasn’t surprised to see her ancestors appear in archival material, she didn’t expect the wealth and breadth of sources that they would appear in.“These things might be in the past, but they are definitely not dead. It’s still a part of a living relationship, [and] that’s really important for Indigenous people and Indigenous topics.”
Dr. Sarah Carter, a professor in the department and Claire’s supervisor, is less modest about Claire’s outstanding academic work. “Claire’s work is remarkable and pathbreaking,” she enthuses. “Her work goes beyond so many other Lakota histories, where there’s a huge emphasis on military events. [Claire] is looking at women, ordinary people and families. She challenges this trope of a vanishing culture and stresses resistance – but resistance in the form of everyday acts. It’s a really unique and a significant new contribution to emphasize Indigenous forms of resistance.” Dr. Carter says that Claire's work puts the Lakota people at the forefront, and it is her connection to the community, combined with all of the practical skills of a historian that makes her an outstanding scholar. “She’s really connected to the community and wants to use the history she writes to transform her community and its understanding of all the dimensions of their history.”
As many know, a PhD is no small commitment–Claire first began hers in 2014. When asked what kept her motivated throughout the degree, the first word that came to mind was curiosity. “I really love research,” she added, “I love doing archival research or talking to other people, connecting and storytelling.” With a chuckle, she admits that sometimes, the writing can be more difficult–something that we can all relate to. She’s also quick to mention the value her support system has provided her with, and the immense privilege she has even attending post-secondary. “As isolating as academic work can be, it’s not ever in isolation for me.”
Since successfully defending her dissertation, Claire has been busy ranching with her family, writing and working full-time as a historian for Parks Canada. There, Claire is contributing to a much-needed reframing of Canada’s history. Claire’s work as a historian, both through her dissertation and through her work as a Parks Canada historian, challenges long-standing ways of thinking and presenting Indigenous history. There, she primarily works for the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, working on nationally designated sites, events and people.
In addition to that, she’s also been volunteering with the Wood Mountain Historical Society, gearing up for another season for the museum. As a lifelong learner, Claire hopes she will be able to continue researching and writing in her free time, and also make sure to slot in time for horseback riding, one of her favourite hobbies.
If there’s anything to learn from Claire’s journey to her PhD and her incredible achievements along the way, it’s to remain true to your roots, to follow your passions like a North Star, and stay curious.
About Sabrina
Sabrina is an after-degree student majoring in Media Studies in the Faculty of Arts, with a keen interest in fans and fandom studies. When she's not knee-deep in coursework or pop culture news, Sabrina is an avid writer and moviegoer. In her free time, Sabrina can be found in the kitchen trying out a new recipe, or enjoying an afternoon curled up with her dog watching K-dramas.