History

Robert W. Galler

Professor of History

Education

Robert GallerB.A., English, The State University of New York at Albany, 1981
Master of Arts and Religion, Yale Divinity School, 1988
M.A. History, University of South Dakota, 1994
Ph.D., U.S. History/American Indian History, Western Michigan University, 2000

Teaching

Dr. Galler teaches classes in U.S. history, American Indian History and History Education.

In recent years he has taught:

  • Race in America (HIST 109)
  • America to 1865 (HIST 140)
  • U.S. Since 1865 (HIST 141)
  • American Indian History (HIST 352)
  • Readings in American Indian History (HIST 380)
  • Concepts, Theories and Methods for Teaching History (HIST 385)
  • HIST 651, Teaching American History
  • HIST 651, Readings in American Indian History

Research Interests

Dr. Galler researches and writes about U.S. and American Indian History, with a focus on the northern plains. He is currently finishing a manuscript on the history of a Catholic Indian boarding school on the Crow Creek Reservation while exploring intercultural relations between Hunkpati (Dakota) tribal members and Catholics during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He recently published an article on Native leaders and activism at Crow Creek during the Progressive Era in the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2017)

Selected Publications

“Councils, Petitions, and Delegations: Crow Creek Activism and the Progressive Era in Central South Dakota 16,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 16, no. 2 (2017): 206-27.

“Sustaining the Sioux Confederation: Yanktonai Initiatives and Influence on the Sioux Confederation, 1680-1880,” Western Historical Quarterly 39 (Winter 2008): 467-490.

“Making Common Cause: Yanktonais and Catholic Missionaries on the Northern Plains, 1680-1880” Ethnohistory 55, no. 3 (Winter 2008): 439-464.

 “Tribal Decision-Making and Intercultural Relations: Crow Creek Agency, 1863-1885,” Indigenous Nations Studies Journal 3, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 95-112. 

“A Triad of Alliances and Philosophies: The Roots of Holy Rosary Mission,” South Dakota History 28, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 144-60. 

 

Grants

Faculty Research Grants, St. Cloud State University, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2016

Co-authored with Darlene St. Clair, grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities and American Library Association to bring national exhibit “Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country” to SCSU October 14, 2009 – December 11, 2009” (awarded $1,000)

Co-authored with Darlene St. Clair, grant application to the Land O’ Lakes Foundation, to support public programs related to the national exhibit “Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country” to SCSU October 14, 2009 – December 11, 2009” (awarded $1,000 in 2010)

 

Awards and Honors

“Sustaining the Sioux Confederation” (Western Historical Quarterly, 2008)

  • Nominated for the Western Historical Association Michael P. Malone Award (prize awarded biennially for the recognition of the best article, essay, or commentary on state, provincial, or territorial history of North America), July 2009
  • Nominated for the Western Historical Association Arrell Gibson Award (prize awarded biennially for recognition of the best essay on the history of Native Americans), July 2009