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CU-Boulder historian Elizabeth Fenn鈥檚 book on plains indians was a decade in the making.

The news of a lifetime reached Elizabeth Fenn, chair of CU-Boulder鈥檚 history department, at about 1 p.m. on April 20, just as she sat at her desk to eat lunch. An email from a聽New York Times聽reporter caught her attention: It said she鈥檇 won a prize, but not which.

A quick Google search revealed it was no ordinary honor: It was a Pulitzer.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 sure I was seeing things right,鈥� says Fenn, 55, who goes by Lil.

She had won in the history category for her 2014 book聽, a 10-year project detailing the story of the Mandans, a Plains Indian tribe that lived in what is now North Dakota.

鈥淚 never envisioned myself winning,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 even know I was a finalist.鈥�

The associate professor is believed to be the first CU-Boulder faculty member to win a Pulitzer. It comes just two years after New York Times 谤别辫辞谤迟别谤听John Branch聽(Mktg鈥�89, MJour鈥�96) won a Pulitzer in feature writing for his story 鈥淪now Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek.鈥�

Encounters at the Heart of the World聽(Hill and Wang) describes how the arrival of Europeans in the West proved disastrous for the Mandans, who hosted Lewis and Clark during the winter of 1804-05.

鈥淚 was blown away by what I learned about these enormous plains populations,鈥� says Fenn. 鈥淭hey deserve to be a part of our early American canon.鈥�

Her research specialty is the early American West, specifically epidemic disease, Native Americans and environmental history. She鈥檚 now at work on a book about Sacagawea.

鈥淥ne of the things I like so much about the early American period and the American West is that we don鈥檛 have reams and reams of evidence,鈥� Fenn says. 鈥淚t allows us to speculate.

Photos courtesy Elizabeth Fenn