Arrell Gibson was a historian and author specializing in the history of the state of Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. He was born in Pleasanton, KS on December 1, 1921. He earned degrees from Missouri Southern State College and the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

. He is best known for writing Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries (University of Oklahoma Press 1965, 1981) and The Oklahoma Story (University of Oklahoma Press 1978). He died in Norman, OK on November 30, 1987.

There have been two literary awards created in Gibson's honor. The Oklahoma Center For The Book grants its Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award annually to an Oklahoman for a body of literary work.
The Indian Territory Posse of Westerners International awards a $500 cash prize annually to the year's best essay on the history of Native Americans

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

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Academic career

• B.A. - Missouri Southern State College - 1946
• M.A. - University of Oklahoma - 1948
• Ph.D. - University of Oklahoma - 1954
• Professor of History and Government - Phillips University
  Phillips University
  Phillips University was a private, coeducational institution of higher education located in Enid, Oklahoma, United States, from 1906 to 1998. It was affiliated with the Christian Church . It included an undergraduate college and a graduate seminary...
  
  , Enid, OK - 1949-1957
• Professor; George Lynn Cross Research Professor of History - University of Oklahoma - 1957-?
• Curator: Western History Collections - University of Oklahoma - 1957-1970
• Curator: Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
  Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
  The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Norman, Oklahoma, operated by the University of Oklahoma. It is currently housed in a building on Chautauqua Avenue that opened on May 1, 2000. The museum's exhibits include a Native American gallery and collections of...
  
   (then called the Stovall Museum) - University of Oklahoma - 1960-1987
• Visiting Professor - University of New Mexico
  University of New Mexico
  The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
  
   - 1975
• Visiting Distinguished Professor; Graduate Studies Consultant - University of South China
  University of South China
  The University of South China is a university in Hengyang, China, founded through the merger of its two predecessors: the Central South Institute of Technology and Hengyang Medical College...
  
   - 1985
• Goldwater Distinguished Professor of American Institutions - Arizona State University
  Arizona State University
  Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
  
   - 1986

Honors

• Research Grant - American Philosophical Society
  American Philosophical Society
  The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
  
  
• Research Grant - Duke Foundation
• Research Grant - University of Oklahoma
  University of Oklahoma
  The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
  
  
• Rockefeller Foundation Award
• Oklahoma Writer of the Year Award from the University of Oklahoma School of Journalism
• American Association for State and Local History Award of Merit for his book Wilderness Bonanza
• Oklahoma Hall of Fame Award
• University of Oklahoma's Distinguished Citation Award
• Honorary Doctorate - University of South China
• Honorary Doctorate - College of Idaho
• Board Member - Oklahoma Historical Society
  Oklahoma Historical Society
  The Oklahoma Historical Society is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma....
  
  
• Board Member - Museum of the Great Plains
  Museum of the Great Plains
  The Museum of the Great Plains is a history museum located in Lawton, Oklahoma, USA. The museum’s major exhibits reveal the diverse cultures inhabiting the Great Plains region beginning with the arrival of the Paleo-Indians known as the Clovis culture at approximately 11,500 BCE...
  
  
• Board Member - Mississippi Choctaw Cultural Center
• First President - Oklahoma Center for the Book
• President Elect - Western History Association
  Western History Association
  The Western History Association was organized in 1961 at Santa Fe, New Mexico, to "promote the study of the North American West in its varied aspects and broadest sense." Included in the field of study are the American West and western Canada. The Western History Association is headquartered at...
  
  

Books

• The Kickapoos (1963)
• The Life and Death of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain (1965)
• Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries (1965)
• The Chickasaws (1971) which placed second for a Pulitzer Prize
• Wilderness Bonanza (1972)
• The West in the Life of the Nation (1976)
• The Oklahoma Story (1978)
• The American Indian: Pre-History to the Present (1980)
• The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses 1900-1942 (1983)
• editor - The West Wind Blows: The Autobiography of Edward Everett Dale (1984)
• editor - Between Two Worlds: The Survival of Twentieth Century Indians (1986)