Leading Native American History Scholar at SUNY Geneseo: “Much Hangs in the Balance at Standing Rock”

Michael Oberg is Distinguished Professor of History at SUNY Geneseo. He is among the top Native American history scholars in the country and a leading international authority on the intersection of colonial English and Native American societies.

He is an expert in a variety of Native American issues, including the current national dispute over construction of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline (DAPL).

"Native peoples long have faced the combined force of state and corporate power, but the crisis at Standing Rock is unprecedented in its brazenness,” says Oberg. “In the face of a growing non-violent movement that has drawn in native peoples from across the United States, the oil company, allied police forces, the North Dakota National Guard, and private security, are attempting to silence the protestors and coerce compliance. The #NoDAPL movement is raising to the forefront issues that have simmered for centuries. Much indeed hangs in the balance at Standing Rock."

Oberg has published seven books, including his latest, Peacemakers, a history of the Treaty of Canandaigua. He is currently preparing a second edition of his college textbook, Native America: A History, for publication in 2017, and has started work on a massive history of the Onondaga Nation, from the founding of the Iroquois League to the present.
Oberg has been a member of the Geneseo faculty since 1998. He was elected a fellow of the New York Academy of History last year, a distinguished group of 200. In 2013, he received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities and in 2003 the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Oberg earned his doctorate from Syracuse University and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State University, Long Beach.