Bertha Parker Pallan Explained

Bertha Parker Pallan
Birth Name:Bertha Parker
Birth Date:August 30, 1907
Birth Place:Chautauqua County, New York, United States
Death Place:Los Angeles, California, United States
Ethnicity:Abenaki, Seneca -->
Field:Archaeology, ethnology
Work Institutions:Southwest Museum
Spouse:Joseph Pallan
(192?; 1929/30)

Also an anthropologist
Children:3, including Robert Tree Cody

Bertha Pallan Thurston Cody (née Parker; August 30, 1907 – October 8, 1978) was an American archaeologist, working as an assistant in archaeology at the Southwest Museum. She was also married to actor Iron Eyes Cody. She is thought to be the first Native American female archaeologist, of Abenaki and Seneca descent.

Early life

Bertha (Yeawas) "Birdie" Parker was born in 1907 in Chautauqua County, New York. Her mother, Beulah Tahamont (later Folsom), was an actress; as a teen, she and her mother reportedly performed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus as part of the “Pocahontas” show.[1] [2] Her father, Arthur C. Parker, was an archaeologist and the first president of the Society for American Archaeology.[3] Her maternal grandparents were the actors Elijah "Chief Dark Cloud" Tahamont and Margaret (Dove Eye) Camp. As a child, she assisted her father in his excavations.

Her parents divorced in 1914, and the Tahamonts (Elijah, Margaret, and Beulah) relocated to Los Angeles, with Bertha in tow, to work in Hollywood films. Bertha and her mother also performed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as part of a "Pocahontas" show during her teenage years.[4]

Family

Bertha married Joseph Pallan in the early 1920s and had a daughter, Wilma Mae ("Billie") Pallan in 1925.[5] When the marriage ended, she moved to Nevada to work on an archaeological site for the Southwest Museum, directed by Mark Raymond Harrington. Harrington had recently married Bertha's aunt, Endeka Parker. During the Gypsum Cave expedition, Bertha met, in 1930, and later married, in 1931, the paleontologist, James Thurston[6] after the expedition. In 1931, both became ill during their work at the Gypsum Caves; Bertha became ill due to the large amounts of cave guano and Thurston died suddenly from a heart attack while lifting a rock on site.[7] [8] This illness caused Bertha to move back in with her parents for a time in Los Angeles.[9] [10]

She was hired, first as a secretary, and then as an assistant archaeologist and ethnologist, for the Southwest Museum. In 1936, she married the actor Espera Oscar de Corti, also known as Iron Eyes Cody.[11]

In 1942, her 17-year-old daughter Billie was visiting her grandmother Beulah's farm when she died of an accidental gunshot wound.[12] Bertha and Iron Eyes later adopted two sons, Robert "Tree" Cody and Arthur William Cody (1952–1996). Bertha and Iron Eyes were central figures in the success of the Los Angeles Indian Center, a gathering place for urban Indians relocated to Los Angeles.[13] [14] [15]

Death

Bertha Parker Pallan died in 1978, aged 71. Her gravestone simply reads "Mrs. Iron Eyes Cody".[16] [17]

Archaeological career

Mark Raymond Harrington, her uncle, hired Parker as a camp cook and expedition secretary.[18] shortly after marrying her aunt Endeka.[19] She participated in excavations at the site of Mesa House and other locales, and Harrington taught her archaeological methods in the field. In 1929, she discovered and did a solo excavation at the pueblo site of Scorpion Hill; the finds were exhibited in the Southwest Museum.[20]

Bertha worked at Gypsum Cave in 1930,[18] [21] a site that Harrington promoted as having the earliest evidence for human occupation of North America during the Pleistocene.[22]

As the expedition secretary, Bertha worked at cleaning, repairing, and cataloguing finds;[23] in addition, she explored the rooms of the cave in her spare time and was able to reach into some of the most inaccessible crevices. On one of these occasions she discovered the skull of a species of extinct giant ground sloth, Nothrotherium shastense Sinclair, alongside ancient human tools, in Room 3.[24] Harrington noted that the find was the most important one of the expedition, because it drew the support of additional institutions, notably the California Institute of Technology and later the Carnegie Institution of Washington.[25]

While on this expedition, Bertha also discovered the site of Corn Creek after seeing fossil camel bone protruding from an eroding lake bed.[26]

From 1931 to 1941, Bertha worked as an Assistant in Archaeology and Ethnology at the Southwest Museum. She published a number of archaeological and ethnological papers in the museum journal, Masterkey, from the early 1930s through the 1960s. These included papers such as "California Indian Baby Cradles", "Kachina Dolls" and several articles on the Yurok Tribe, including "Some Yurok Customs and Beliefs".

Bertha Parker Pallan Thurston Cody is notable in the field of archaeology for her role as a ground-breaker: she was one of the first (if not the first) Native American female archaeologists.[27] [28] She was certainly first in her ability to conduct this work at a high level of skill, yet without a university education, making discoveries and gaining insights that impressed the trained archaeologists around her.[25]

Publications

The following are listed as they appear in a list compiled by Marge Bruchac.[29] [19] [30]

Masterkey is Southwest Museum’s journal.[31]

Published under the name of Bertha Parker Thurston:

Published under the name of Bertha Parker Cody:

Published under the name of her Yurok interviewee, Jane Van Stralen:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Hayden, Julian D.. Field Man: Life as a Desert Archaeologist. 12 September 2018. University of Arizona Press. 12 September 2018. Google Books. 9780816529056.
  2. Web site: Bertha "Birdie" Parker. trowelblazers.com. 8 May 2014 . 12 September 2018.
  3. Web site: Society for American Archaeology. SAA Native American Scholarships.
  4. Book: Hayden, Julian D.. Field Man: Life as a Desert Archaeologist. 2011. University of Arizona Press. 22. 9780816529056.
  5. Web site: Wilma Mae "Billie" Pallan (1925-1942) - Find A. .
  6. Web site: THE CAREER OF JAMES E. THURSTON AND THE EXTINCTION OF THE PROFESSIONAL FIELD COLLECTOR IN NORTH AMERICAN VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY. gsa.confex.com. 12 September 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180912131148/https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2007AM/finalprogram/abstract_131608.htm. 12 September 2018. dead.
  7. Book: Bruchac, Margaret M.. Savage Kin: Indigenous Informants and American Anthropologists. 10 April 2018. University of Arizona Press. 9780816538300. 12 September 2018. Google Books.
  8. Web site: Southern Nevadans work to save state's historic roots - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper. 1996-11-03. lasvegassun.com. 12 September 2018.
  9. Book: Colwell-Chanthaphonh. Chip. John Stephen. Colwell-Chanthaphonh. Inheriting the Past: The Making of Arthur C Parker and Indigenous Archaeology. 2009. University of Arizona Press. 172. 9780816526567.
  10. Web site: Bertha Parker Pallen Cody – First Native American Archaeologist. alexis-george.com. 12 September 2018. 17 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190117002330/http://alexis-george.com/bertha-parker-pallen-cody-first-native-american-archaeologist/. dead.
  11. News: Waldman. Amy. Iron Eyes Cody, 94, an Actor And Tearful Anti-Littering Icon. New York Times. January 1999.
  12. Web site: Wilma Mae Pallan. Rootsweb.
  13. Web site: Newspaper, California, Los Angeles Indian Center. loc.gov. 12 September 2018.
  14. Web site: About SCIC. Southern California Indian Center, Inc.. 12 September 2018. 25 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190125140633/http://www.indiancenter.org/about-scic.html. dead.
  15. Review. Coll. Thrush. 1 August 2013. Pacific Historical Review. 82. 3. 451–452. 10.1525/phr.2013.82.3.451.
  16. Web site: Iron Eyes Cody (1904-1999) - Find A Grave.... www.findagrave.com. 12 September 2018.
  17. Web site: Bertha Alden "Birdie" Parker Cody (1907-1978) -.... www.findagrave.com. 12 September 2018.
  18. Harrington. M.R.. Man and Beast in Gypsum Cave. Desert Magazine. April 1940. 3–5. https://web.archive.org/web/20131022123533/http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/194004-DesertMagazine-1940-April.pdf. 2013-10-22.
  19. Web site: Margaret M. Bruchac - School for Advanced Research. sarweb.org. 12 September 2018.
  20. 1933. Thurston, Bertha Parker. "Scorpion Hill." Masterkey. v. VII, pp. 171–177.
  21. Web site: Arthur, Beulah, and Bertha: The Extended Parker Family. 26 March 2014. lamokaledger.com. 12 September 2018.
  22. Harrington. M.R.. Ashes Found with Sloth Remains. The Science News-Letter. June 1930. 17. 478. 365. 3905773. 10.2307/3905773.
  23. Web site: Amanda Wilson and granddaughter. Calisphere. 12 September 2018.
  24. Harrington. M.R.. Man and Beast in Gypsum Cave. Desert Magazine. April 1940. 3–5. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20131022123533/http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/194004-DesertMagazine-1940-April.pdf. 2013-10-22.
  25. Bruchac, Margaret M. April 9, 2014. "Breaking Ground in the 1930s: Bertha Parker, First Female Native American Archaeologist." Keynote for the Sixth Annual Regina Herzfeld Flannery Lecture on the Cultural Heritage of Native Americans at Catholic University, Washington, DC.
  26. Book: Rafferty, Kevin. Cultural Resources Overview of the Las Vegas Valley. 1984. 19. 2013-10-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20150923232138/http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/nv/cultural/reports/technical_reports.Par.38006.File.dat/13_Cultural_Resources_Overview_Las_Vegas_Valley.pdf. 2015-09-23. dead.
  27. Web site: Bertha Parker Pallan [Cody] (1907-1978)]. Smithsonian Institution. 20 October 2013.
  28. Book: Browman, David L.. Cultural Negotiations: The Role of Women in the Founding of Americanist Archaeology. 2013. UNP - Nebraska. Lincoln. 978-0-8032-4547-1. 127–129.
  29. Bruchac. Marge. First Female Native American Archaeologist. H-Net Email Listserv. 2005-04-27. 2013-10-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20121229104304/http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx. 2012-12-29. dead. pdf
  30. Web site: CUA Anthropology Department Symposia. anthropology.cua.edu. 12 September 2018.
  31. Web site: BIOGRAPHY: Bertha Cody – Native American Archaeology. 19 April 2016. theheroinecollective.com. 12 September 2018.
  32. Web site: Kachina dolls. https://web.archive.org/web/20131017020510/http://uair.arizona.edu/item/256861. dead. 17 October 2013. Bertha Parker Cody. 17 October 2013. UAiR: University of Arizona Institutional Repository. archive.org. 12 September 2018.
  33. Book: Cody, Bertha Parker. California Indian Baby Cradles: Southwest Museum Leaflets, No. 12. Southwest Museum. 12 September 2018. Amazon.
  34. Web site: A California Basketry Bibliography. Palomar College. 12 September 2018.

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