[2] His work, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians, won the Ray Allen Billington Award and was one of the two finalists for the 1985 Pulitzer Prize in History.
[5] When the editor of Marquette Magazine asked readers to write about their greatest teachers, Prucha was identified among a group of classroom legends for instilling a love of learning in students.
[7] In the late 1960s, while studying under a Guggenheim Fellowship, Prucha began work on a comprehensive history of US Indian policy.
[2] Marquette University's Archives and Special Collection's reading room in its Raynor Library was named in his honor.
[10] In 1987, he became a Fellow of the Society of American Historians in recognition of a lifetime of scholarship characterized by "literary distinction" and "scholarly merit".
[4] Prucha's books have been praised for their thorough scholarship, but also attacked for their alleged favorable treatment of government officials, such as President Andrew Jackson.
Attacks from his detractors made Prucha broaden his research interests and accumulate more evidence to support his views.
The archival collections of Francis Paul Prucha includes his correspondence, books (1950–2002), articles, book reviews (1942–2002), public talks and lectures (1956–1998), courses taught (1952–1987), awards and honors (1971–2003), professional activities, research fellowships and grants (1954–2003), personal papers (1927–1993), and research materials (1955–2003).