Storybook career: La Conner High alum chosen for WSU library honor
A La Conner High School alum and Fulbright Scholar who has written extensively about Native American tribes on the western frontier is the recipient of an annual library award at Washington State University, where he is a popular assistant professor of history.
Ryan Booth has been tabbed for the 2026 WSU Library Excellence Award, which recognizes one of the university’s non-library faculty or staff members for their consistent support of campus libraries.
“I had no idea that this was in the works,” Booth, a 1995 La Conner High grad, said on Friday. “I just learned that a team of three librarians wrote a nomination for me. They were all ones I worked with over the past few years. They’ve been helpful in suggesting useful ways I can get students into the library and using their resources.”
Those three librarians and award nominators — Erin Hvizdak, Will Gregg and Corey Johnson — have praised Booth for “making a significant mark on student success” through integration of WSU libraries into his history courses.
“He truly advocates for the importance of libraries throughout the college experience, not just in history classes,” the trio said in their nomination submission.
Booth, a member of the Upper Skagit Tribe who grew up on Swinomish Reservation, often refers to “the thrill of the hunt” when his students visit the Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections sections at WSU’s Terrell Library for research to find an article or other source that helps with their assigned topic.
“It’s retro but important in the 21st century to be able to sift through all this information,” Booth acknowledged. “It’s also important to understand how we actually ‘know’ anything.”
“As you know,” he added, “I’ve always loved looking behind the scenes to know it really works.”
For the last two years, Booth has worked with Hvizdak and Gregg to design and carry out an assignment about tribal fishing rights in which students choose a Pacific Northwest tribe from which to do historical research and create posters for the Terrell Library Atrium.
Booth has frequently noted that Indigenous fishing rights take into account more than access to salmon and other species. They also address cultural preservation plus environmental concerns such as water quality and the impact of dams on Pacific Northwest rivers.
A former Jesuit seminarian who arrived in Pullman nearly a decade ago to begin his doctoral studies, Booth specializes in 19th and early 20th century U.S. Indigenous and military history. His dissertation focused on U.S. Indian scouts from 1866-1947.
In 2019, Booth was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to India, where his research compared the experiences of Indian soldiers who served the British Raj with Native Americans who scouted for the U.S. Army after the Civil War.
As an instructor, Booth has engaged WSU librarians as co-teachers in his courses, bringing students in multiple times each semester to ensure they are comfortable using library resources and confident asking library faculty and staff for help navigating roadblocks they might encounter.
Of his numerous academic achievements to date, Booth puts the WSU Library Excellence Award at the top of his list.
“It means the most to me,” he said, “because the librarians picked me for this honor and I love working with them.”
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
