The Howard F. Cline Memorial Prize, established in 1976, is awarded biennially (in odd years) to the book or article in English, German, or a Romance language judged to make the most significant contribution to the history of Indians in Latin America, referring to any time before the immediate present.  Items appearing in the two calendar years just preceding may be considered for a given year’s award. In exceptional cases, the award committee may decide on co-winners. The co-winners will split the prize. In such cases, there would not be an honorable mention.

Winners:

2023
Heather Roller, Contact Strategies: Histories of Native Autonomy in Brazil (Stanford University Press, 2021)

2021
Elizabeth Penry, The People are King: The Making of an Indigenous Andean Politics (Oxford University Press, 2019)
Honorable Mention:
Allison Bigelow, Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World (University of North Carolina Press, 2020)

2019
Matthew Restall, When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History (Harper Collins, 2018)
Honorable Mention:
Yuko Miki, Frontiers of Citizenship: A Black and Indigenous History of Postcolonial Brazil (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

2017
Camilla Townsend, Annals of Native America (Oxford University Press, 2016)

2015
Heather Roller, Amazonian Routes: Indigenous Mobility and Colonial Communities in Northern Brazil (Stanford University Press, 2014)

2013
Laura Matthew, Memories of Conquest: Becoming Mexicano in Colonial Guatemala (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)

2011
Gabriela Ramos, Death and Conversion in the Andes: Lima and Cuzco, 1532-1670 (Norte Dame University Press, 2010)

2009
Yanna Yannakakis, The Art of Being In-Between: Native Intermediaries, Indian Identity, and Local Rule in Colonial Oaxaca (Duke University Press, 2008)

2007
Cecilia Mendez, The Plebeian Republic: The Huanta Rebellion and the Making of the Peruvian State, 1820-1850 (Duke University Press, 2005)

2005
Frank Salomon, Cord Keepers: Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village (Duke University Press, 2004)
Honorable Mention:
Stephanie Wood, Transcending Conquest: Nahua Views of Spanish Colonial Mexico (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003)

2003
Kevin Terraciano, The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui History, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries (Stanford University Press, 2001)

2001
Dorothy Tanck de Estrada, Pueblos de indios y educación en el México colonial, 1750-1821 (Colegio de México, 1999)
Honorable Mention:
Greg Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation (Duke University Press, 2000)

1999
Thomas A. Abercrombie, Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History among an Andean People (University of Wisconsin Press, 1998)

1997
Karen Vieira Powers, Andean Journeys: Migration, Ethnogensis, and the State in Colonial Quito (University of New Mexico Press, 1995)
Honorable Mention:
Susan Kellogg, Law and Transformation of Aztec Culture: 1500-1700 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995)

1995
David Block, Mission Culture on the Upper Amazon: Native Tradition, Jesuit Enterprise, and Secular Policy in Moxos, 1660-1880 (University of Nebraska Press, 1994)
Honorable Mention:
John Manuel Monteiro, Negros da terra: Indios e bandeirantes nas origens de São Paulo (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994)

1993
James Lockhart, The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries (Stanford University Press, 1992)
Honorable Mention:
Ramón Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality and Power in New Mexico 1300-1846 (Stanford University Press, 1991)

1991
Serge Gruzinski, Man-Gods in the Mexican Highlands: Indian Power and Colonial Society, 1520-1800 (Stanford University Press, 1989)
Honorable Mentions:
Grant D. Jones, Maya Resistance to Spanish Rule: Time and History on a Colonial Frontier (University of New Mexico Press, 1989)
Louise Burkhart, The Slippery Earth: Nahua-Christian Moral Dialogue in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (University of Arizona Press, 1989)

1989
Galo Ramón Valarezo, La resistencia andina: Cayambe, 1500-1800 (Quito: Centro Andino de Acción Popular, 1987)

1987
Ross Hassig, Trade, Tribute and Transportation: The Sixteenth-Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico (University of Oklahoma Press, 1985)

1985
Karen Spalding, Huarochiri: An Andean Society Under Inca and Spanish Rule (Stanford University Press, 1984)
Jerome A. Offner, Law and Politics in Aztec Texcoco (Cambridge University Press, 1983)

1983
Victoria Reifler Bricker, The Indian Christ, The Indian King: The Historical Substrata of Maya Myth and Ritual (University of Texas Press, 1981)
Honorable Mention:
Steve J. Stern, Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest: Huamanga to 1640 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1982)

1981
Frank Salomon, Los señores étnicos de Quito en la época de los Incas (Otavalo, Ecuador: Instituto Otavaleño de Antropología, 1980)
Honorable Mentions:
Edward Spicer, The Yaquis: A Cultural History (University of Arizona Press, 1980)
María Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, Señoríos indígenas de Lima y Canta (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1980)
Louis Necker, Indiens Guaraní et Chamanes Franciscains: Les premières réductions du Paraguay (1580-1800) (Paris: Anthropos, 1979)

1979
Franklin Pease G. Y. Del Tawantinsuyu a la historia de Perú (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1978)

1978
Peter Gerhard, “Congregaciones de indios en la Nueva España antes de 1570,” Historia Mexicana 26 (January-March 1977): 347-95.

*Established 1976

Howard F. Cline Prize Committees (by year in which award is made, chair listed first):

2023 Bradley Benton, Amara Solari, Carmen Soliz
2021 Kevin Terraciano (chair), Barbara Sommer, Miguel León.
2019 Alex Hidalgo , Ignacio Díaz Gallup, Alejandra Boza Villareal
2017 Heather Roller, Catherine Komisaruk, Jose Carlos de la Puente
2015 Laura Matthews, Hal Langfur, Jeremy Mumford
2013 Cecilia Méndez, Seth Garfield, Gabriela Ramos
2011 Pete Sigal, Laura Gotkowitz, Alan Durston
2009 Robert Haskett, Cecilia Mendez, Brooke Larson
2007 Thomas Klubock, Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Michael Ducey
2005 Susan Ramirez, Kevin Gosner, Rebecca Horn
2003 Catherine Julien, Grant Jones, David Block
2001 Matthew Restall, Cynthia Radding, Tom Abercrombie
1999 Susan Schroeder, Karen M. Powers, Susan M. Deeds, Kevin Terraciano
1997 Ann Wightman, Cynthia Radding, Francisco Scarano
1995 Erick Langer, Kevin Gosner, Mary Karasch
1993 Arnold Bauer, Rebecca Horn, Jorge Klor de Alba, Anthony Pagden
1991 Karen Spalding, Susan K. Bessee, Benjamin Keen
1990 Karen Spalding, Susan K. Bessee, Benjamin Keen
1989 Nancy Fariss, Sabine MacCormack, Frank Salomon
1987 John Chance, Victoria Bricker, Steve Stern
1985 John V. Murra, William Taylor, S. L. Cline, Franklin Pease
1983 Stuart Schwartz, John Chance, Peter Gerhard, Donald Gibbs
1981 Nobel David Cook, Michael Hamerly, Mary Karasch
1980 Robert Padden, Michael Hamerly, Mary Karasch
1979 James Lockhart, Karen Spalding, Murdo MacLeod
1978 John J. TePaske, John V. Murra, Donald Robertson, William B. Taylor
1977 Dave Warren, John Murra, Donald Robertson
*Established 1976