John R. Swanton
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'''John Reed Swanton''' ([[19 February]] [[1873]] – [[2 May]], [[1958]]) was an [[United States|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 [[Southeastern United States|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 [[Tunica-Biloxi|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 (http://www.wm.edu/linguistics/creek/gouge/).
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 29. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
*1909. Tlingit Myths and Texts. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 39. Smithsonian Institution; Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office.
*1911. [http://texashistory.unt.edu/permalink/meta-pth-29404:1 Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico]. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 43. Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office.
*1918. An Early Account of the Choctaw Indians. American Anthropologist 5:51-72.
*1922. Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 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 pg. 639-670. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
*1928. Social Organization and the Social Usages of the Indians of the Creek Confederacy. In Forty-Second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1924-1925, pg. 279-325. Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office.
*1929. Myths & Tales of the Southeastern Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 88, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
*1931. Modern Square Grounds of the Creek Indians. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, v. 85, no. 8., pg. 1-46 + plates.
*1931. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103. Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office.
*1946. The Indians of the Southeastern United States. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 137. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
*1952. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 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 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==
* [http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/swanton_john.html]
* [http://www.abcbookworld.com/?state=view_author&author_id=7605]
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[[Category:1873 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:American anthropologists]]
[[Category:History of British Columbia]]
[[Category:History of Alaska]]
[[fr:John R. Swanton]]