Bertha Pallan Thurston Cody (néeParker; August 30, 1907 – October 8, 1978) was an American archaeologist, working as an assistant inarchaeology at the Southwest Museum. She was also married to actorIron Eyes Cody. She is thought to be the firstNative American female archaeologist, ofAbenaki andSeneca descent.[1][2]
Her parents divorced in 1914, and the Tahamonts (Elijah, Margaret, and Beulah) relocated to Los Angeles, with Bertha in tow, to work in HollywoodHayden, Julian D. (2011).Field Man: Life as a Desert Archaeologist. University of Arizona Press. p. 22.ISBN9780816529056.</ref>
Bertha married Joseph Pallan in the early 1920s and had a daughter, Wilma Mae ("Billie") Pallan in 1925.[6] 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 theGypsum Cave expedition, Bertha met, in 1930, and later married, in 1931, thepaleontologist, James Thurston[7] 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.[8][9] This illness caused Bertha to move back in with her parents for a time in Los Angeles.[10][11]
She was hired, first as a secretary, and then as an assistant archaeologist and ethnologist, for theSouthwest Museum. In 1936, she married the actor Espera Oscar de Corti, also known asIron Eyes Cody.[12]
In 1942, her 17-year-old daughter Billie was visiting her grandmother Beulah's farm when she died of an accidental gunshot wound.[13] 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.[14][15][16]
Mark Raymond Harrington, her uncle, hired Parker as a camp cook and expedition secretary.[19] shortly after marrying her aunt Endeka.[20] 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 theSouthwest Museum.[21]
Bertha worked atGypsum Cave in 1930,[19][22] a site that Harrington promoted as having the earliest evidence for human occupation of North America during thePleistocene.[23]
As the expedition secretary, Bertha worked at cleaning, repairing, and cataloguing finds;[24] 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 giantground sloth,Nothrotherium shastense Sinclair, alongside ancient human tools, in Room 3.[25] Harrington noted that the find was the most important one of the expedition, because it drew the support of additional institutions, notably theCalifornia Institute of Technology and later theCarnegie Institution of Washington.[26]
While on this expedition, Bertha also discovered the site ofCorn Creek after seeing fossil camel bone protruding from an eroding lake bed.[27]
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 theYurok 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.[28][2] 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.[26]
Published under the name of Bertha Parker Thurston:
1933. "Scorpion Hill." Masterkey. v. VII, pp. 171–177.
1933. "A night in a Maidu shaman's house." Masterkey.v.VII, pp. 111–115.
1934. "How he became a medicine-man." Masterkey. v. VIII, pp. 79–81.
1935. "How a Maidu-medicine man lost his power; related to Bertha Parker Thurston by a Maidu Indian herbalist." Masterkey. v. IX, p. 28–29.
1936. "A rare treat at a Maidu medicine-man's feast." Masterkey. v. X, pp. 16–21.
Published under the name of Bertha Parker Cody:
1939. "A tale of witchcraft as told by a Tewa Indian of New Mexico." Masterkey. v. XIII, pp. 188–189.
1939. "A Maidu myth of the first death; by Bertha Parker Cody, as related by Mandy Wilson of Chico, California." Masterkey. v. XIII, p. 144.
1939. "A Maidu myth of the creation of Indian women; by Bertha Parker Cody, as related by Mandy Wilson, Maidu Indian of Chico, California. Masterkey. v. XIII, p. 83.
1939. "Kachina dolls." Masterkey. v. XIII, pp. 25–30.[31]
1940. "Pomo bear impersonators." Masterkey. 1940. v. XIV, pp. 132–137.
1940. "California Indian baby cradles." Masterkey. v. XIV, pp. 89–96. (Southwest Museum Leaflets, No. 12)[32][33]
1940. Photograph: "Amanda Wilson and granddaughter" (Southwest Museum MSS 160:143:58)[24]
1941. "A note on basket care." Masterkey. v. XV, pp. 23–24.
1941. "Gold ornaments of Ecuador." Masterkey.v. XV, pp. 87–95.
1942. "Simply strung on a single strand." Masterkey. v. XVI, pp. 175–176.
1942. "Some Yurok customs and beliefs." Masterkey. v. XVII, pp. 81–87.
1943. "Some Yurok customs and beliefs." Masterkey. v. XVI, pp. 157–162.
1955. "Enrique" crosses the divide." [Obituary]. Masterkey. vol.XXX, p. 102.
1961. "Clarence Arthur Ellsworth [1885-1961]; gifted painter of Indians."Masterkey. vol. XXXV, (no. 1), pp. 75–77.
Published under the name of her Yurok interviewee, Jane Van Stralen:
1941. "Yurok tales, as told by Jane Van Stralen to Bertha Parker Cody." Masterkey. v. XV, pp. 228–231.
1942. "Yurok fish-dam dance; as told by Jane Van Stralen to Bertha Parker Cody." Masterkey. v. XVI, pp. 81–86.
^abBruchac, 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.
^Bertha Parker Cody (17 October 2013)."Kachina dolls".UAiR: University of Arizona Institutional Repository. Archived fromthe original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved12 September 2018 – via archive.org.
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