John Reed Swanton (19 February 1873 – 2 May, 1958) was an American
anthropologist who
worked with Native American peoples throughout the United
States.
Born in
Gardiner,
Maine
, Swanton's work in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory is well recognized. He is
particularly noted for his work with indigenous peoples of the
Southeast and
Pacific Northwest.
He attended Harvard
University
from which he earned a Masters in 1897 and a
doctorate in 1900. His mentor was the famous
Franz Boas, whose influence on Swanton is clear.
Following his education, he did fieldwork in the Northwest, and
then began working for the
Bureau of American Ethnology,
where he remained employed for almost 40 years.
In his early career in the Northwest, he mostly worked with the
Tlingit and
Haida. He
produced two extensive compilations of Haida stories and myths, and
transcribed many of them in Haida. These transcriptions have served
as the basis for
Robert
Bringhurst's recent (1999) translation of the poetry of Haida
mythtellers
Skaay and
Gandl. Swanton spent roughly a year with the
Haida.
After that, Swanton studied
Muskogean
speaking peoples in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. He published
extensively on the
Creek people,
Chickasaw, and
Choctaw as well as recording information about many
other less well-known groups, such as the
Biloxi and
Ofo. He argued
in favor of including the
Natchez
language with the Muskogean language group. His works included
partial dictionaries, studies of linguistic relationships,
collections of native stories, and studies of social organization.
He also worked with
Earnest Gouge, a
Creek who recorded a large number of traditional Creek stories at
Swanton's request. These materials were never published by Swanton,
but have recently been republished
[73528].
He also worked with the
Caddo, and published
briefly on the
quipu system of the
Inca.
He was president of the
American Anthropological
Association in 1932. He also served as editor of the American
Anthropological Association's flagship journal, American
Anthropologist in 1911 and from 1921-1923.
Swanton
died in Newton,
Massachusetts
at the age of 85.
List of Works
- 1905. Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida.
Publications of the Jesup North Pacific
Expedition 5(1); American Museum of Natural History
Memoirs 8(1). Leiden: E.J. Brill; New York: G.E.
Stechert.
- 1905. Haida Texts and Myths: Skidegate Dialect.
Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, No. 29. Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office.
- 1909. Tlingit Myths and Texts. Bureau of American
Ethnology Bulletin, No. 39. Smithsonian Institution;
Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office.
- 1911. Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and
Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Bureau of
American Ethnology Bulletin, No. 43. Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office.
- 1918. An Early Account of the Choctaw Indians.
American Anthropologist, Vol. 5, pp. 51-72.
- 1922. Early History of the Creek Indians and Their
Neighbors. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, No.
73. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office.
- 1927. Religious Beliefs and Medical Practices of the Creek
Indians. Forty-Second Annual Report of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, pp. 639-670. Washington, D.C.: Government
Printing Office.
- 1928. Social Organization and the Social Usages of the
Indians of the Creek Confederacy. Forty-Second Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the Years
1924-1925, pg. 279-325. Washington, D.C. Government Printing
Office.
- 1929. Myths & Tales of the Southeastern Indians.
Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, No. 88, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
- 1931. Modern Square Grounds of the Creek Indians.
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 85, No. 8.,
pp. 1-46 + Plates.
- 1931. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of
the Choctaw Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin, No. 103. Washington, D.C.:Government Printing
Office.
- 1946. The Indians of the Southeastern United States.
Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, No. 137.
Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
- 1952. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian
Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, No.
145. Washington: Government Printing Office, available from Native
American Documents Project, http://www.csusm.edu/nadp/swanton
With
James Owen Dorsey:
- 1912. A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages.
Bureau of America Ethnology Bulletin, No. 47. Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office.
Further reading
- Bringhurst, Robert (1999) A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The
Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World. Vancouver:
Douglas & McIntyre.
External links
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