Arthur C. Parker
Encyclopedia
Arthur Caswell Parker (April 5, 1881 – January 1, 1955) was an American archaeologist, historian
, folklorist, museologist
and noted authority on American Indian
culture
. Of Seneca and Scots
-English
descent, he was director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences from 1924 to 1945, when he developed its holdings and research into numerous disciplines for the Genesee Region. He was an honorary trustee of the New York State Historical Association
. In 1935 he was elected first president of the Society for American Archaeology
.
of the Seneca Nation of New York
in western New York
. He was the son of Frederick Ely Parker, a multiracial Seneca, and his wife Geneva Griswold, of Scots-English
-American descent, who taught school on the reservation. As the Seneca are a matrilineal nation, the young Parker did not have membership status at birth, as his mother was not part of the tribe, but he was descended from prominent Seneca through his father. As his father was also multiracial, Parker was three-quarters European by heritage.
In 1903 Arthur was adopted into the tribe as an honorary member, when he was given the Seneca name Gawaso Wanneh (meaning "Big Snowsnake"). His grandfather Nicholson Henry Parker was an influential Seneca leader. As a youth, Arthur lived with Nicholson on his farm and was strongly influenced by him.
His grandfather's younger brother (Arthur's great-uncle) Ely S. Parker
was a Seneca life chief. As a young man he had collaborated with Lewis Henry Morgan on his study of the Iroquois. He served as a brigadier general
and secretary to Ulysses S. Grant
during the American Civil War
. After the war, Ely Parker was appointed the first Indian Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Arthur Parker was influenced by both the Seneca culture and the Christian
missionary
culture of his mother’s family, and his social status of bridging peoples. He explored his Seneca lineage as a way of connecting himself to a powerful, symbolic past and integrating into twentieth-century American life. Although his own family was Christian, he also witnessed followers of the Seneca prophet
Handsome Lake
, who was resurrecting traditional Seneca religion.
. He entered public school at around age 11 and graduated from high school
in 1897. Before going on to college
, he spent considerable time at the American Museum of Natural History
in New York City. He was befriended by Frederick W. Putnam, its temporary curator of anthropology
and a professor of anthropology at Harvard. Putnam encouraged the young Parker to study anthropology.
However, Parker followed the wishes of his grandfather, and attended Dickinson Seminary in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
from 1900 to 1903 to study for the ministry
. He left before graduating and became a reporter for the New York Sun
.
He worked as an apprentice to archaeologist Mark Harrington (1882–1971), digging at sites in New York State and learning techniques. He volunteered at the Museum of Natural History in New York in his spare time.
data on the New York Iroquois
. Then in 1906, he took a position as the first archaeologist at the (http://www.nysm.nysed.gov) New York State Museum.
In 1911, together with the Native American
physician
Charles A. Eastman and others, he founded the Society of American Indians
to help educate the public about Native Americans. From 1915 to 1920, he was the editor of the society’s American Indian Magazine.
In 1925 Parker became director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, where he developed the museum holdings and its research in the emerging fields of anthropology, natural history
, geology
, biology
, history
and industry
of the Genesee Region. During the 1930s and the Great Depression
, he also directed the WPA
-funded Indian Arts Project, which was sponsored by the Franklin D. Roosevelt
administration.
In 1935, Parker was elected the first President of the Society for American Archaeology
. In 1944, Parker helped found the National Congress of American Indians
.
, where he felt his ancestors had lived. There he overlooked Canandaigua Lake
. He died there on New Years Day, 1955, aged 73.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, folklorist, museologist
Museology
Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...
and noted authority on American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
. Of Seneca and Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
-English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
descent, he was director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences from 1924 to 1945, when he developed its holdings and research into numerous disciplines for the Genesee Region. He was an honorary trustee of the New York State Historical Association
New York State Historical Association
The New York State Historical Association is a private, non-governmental educational organization founded in 1899 to encourage research, educate general audiences, and start a library and museum of manuscripts, artwork, and other objects associated with the history of New York State, USThe...
. In 1935 he was elected first president of the Society for American Archaeology
Society for American Archaeology
The Society for American Archaeology is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world. The Society was founded in 1934 and today has over 7000 members. The Society holds an annual conference and publishes the flagship journal of American archaeology,...
.
Background
Arthur C. Parker was born in 1881 on the Cattaraugus ReservationCattaraugus Reservation
Cattaraugus Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Seneca Indian Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy located in New York. As of the 2000 census, the Indian reservation had a total population of 2,412. Its total area is about 34.4 mi²...
of the Seneca Nation of New York
Seneca Nation of New York
The Seneca Nation of New York, also known as the Seneca Nation of Indians is a federally recognized tribe of Seneca people in New York...
in western New York
Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
. He was the son of Frederick Ely Parker, a multiracial Seneca, and his wife Geneva Griswold, of Scots-English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
-American descent, who taught school on the reservation. As the Seneca are a matrilineal nation, the young Parker did not have membership status at birth, as his mother was not part of the tribe, but he was descended from prominent Seneca through his father. As his father was also multiracial, Parker was three-quarters European by heritage.
In 1903 Arthur was adopted into the tribe as an honorary member, when he was given the Seneca name Gawaso Wanneh (meaning "Big Snowsnake"). His grandfather Nicholson Henry Parker was an influential Seneca leader. As a youth, Arthur lived with Nicholson on his farm and was strongly influenced by him.
His grandfather's younger brother (Arthur's great-uncle) Ely S. Parker
Ely S. Parker
Ely Samuel Parker , was a Seneca attorney, engineer, and tribal diplomat. He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel during the American Civil War, when he served as adjutant to General Ulysses S. Grant. He wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox...
was a Seneca life chief. As a young man he had collaborated with Lewis Henry Morgan on his study of the Iroquois. He served as a brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
and secretary to Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. After the war, Ely Parker was appointed the first Indian Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Arthur Parker was influenced by both the Seneca culture and the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
culture of his mother’s family, and his social status of bridging peoples. He explored his Seneca lineage as a way of connecting himself to a powerful, symbolic past and integrating into twentieth-century American life. Although his own family was Christian, he also witnessed followers of the Seneca prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
Handsome Lake
Handsome Lake
Handsome Lake was a Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois people. He was also half-brother to Cornplanter....
, who was resurrecting traditional Seneca religion.
Education
Parker started his formal education on the reservation, but in 1892, his family moved to White Plains, New YorkWhite Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
. He entered public school at around age 11 and graduated from high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in 1897. Before going on to college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
, he spent considerable time at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in New York City. He was befriended by Frederick W. Putnam, its temporary curator of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and a professor of anthropology at Harvard. Putnam encouraged the young Parker to study anthropology.
However, Parker followed the wishes of his grandfather, and attended Dickinson Seminary in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. In 2009, the population was estimated at 29,304...
from 1900 to 1903 to study for the ministry
Christian ministry
In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith. 2003's Encyclopedia of Christianity defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", indicating that it is "conferred on each Christian in baptism." It is performed by all Christians...
. He left before graduating and became a reporter for the New York Sun
New York Sun (historical)
The Sun was a New York newspaper that was published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city's two more successful broadsheets, The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune...
.
He worked as an apprentice to archaeologist Mark Harrington (1882–1971), digging at sites in New York State and learning techniques. He volunteered at the Museum of Natural History in New York in his spare time.
Career
In 1904, Parker was given a two-year position as collector of culturalCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
data on the New York Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
. Then in 1906, he took a position as the first archaeologist at the (http://www.nysm.nysed.gov) New York State Museum.
In 1911, together with the Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Charles A. Eastman and others, he founded the Society of American Indians
Society of American Indians
The Society of American Indians was a progressive group formed in Columbus, Ohio in 1911 by 50 Native Americans, most of them middle-class professional men and women. It was established to address the problems facing Native Americans, such as ways to improve health, education, civil rights, and...
to help educate the public about Native Americans. From 1915 to 1920, he was the editor of the society’s American Indian Magazine.
In 1925 Parker became director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, where he developed the museum holdings and its research in the emerging fields of anthropology, natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
of the Genesee Region. During the 1930s and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, he also directed the WPA
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
-funded Indian Arts Project, which was sponsored by the Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
administration.
In 1935, Parker was elected the first President of the Society for American Archaeology
Society for American Archaeology
The Society for American Archaeology is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world. The Society was founded in 1934 and today has over 7000 members. The Society holds an annual conference and publishes the flagship journal of American archaeology,...
. In 1944, Parker helped found the National Congress of American Indians
National Congress of American Indians
The National Congress of American Indians is a American Indian and Alaska Native indigenous rights organization. It was founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies that the U.S. government forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and...
.
Legacy and honors
- Honorary trustee of the New York Historical Association*1935, first president of the Society of American Archeology
- Since 1998, the Society for American Archaeology has annually awarded the Arthur C. Parker Scholarship, which provides funds to Native Americans for training in archaeological methods.
Retirement
After retiring from directing the Rochester museum in 1946, Parker became very active in Indian affairs. He moved to Nunda-wah-oh, near present-day Naples, New YorkNaples, New York
Naples may refer to two municipalities in Ontario County, New York in the United States:*Naples , New York*Naples , New York, located entirely within the town...
, where he felt his ancestors had lived. There he overlooked Canandaigua Lake
Canandaigua Lake
Canandaigua Lake is the fourth largest of the Finger Lakes, in the U.S. state of New York. The city of Canandaigua is located at the northern shore of the lake and the village of Naples is just a few miles south of the southern end...
. He died there on New Years Day, 1955, aged 73.
Publications
- Excavations in an Erie Indian village and burial site at Ripley, Chautauqua Co., New York State Education Dept, Albany, 1907
- Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Food Plants, University of the state of New York, 1910
- The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet, University of the state of New York, 1913
- The Constitution of the Five Nations, University of the state of New York, 1916
- Life of General Ely S. Parker: Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois and General Grant's Military Secretary Buffalo Historical Society, Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, 1919 - The Archaeological History of New York, University of the state of New York, 1922
- An Analytical History of the Seneca Indians, New York State Archeological Association, Rochester, 1926
- The Indian How Book, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc., 1931
- Seneca Myths and Folk Tales, Bison Books
- Skunny Wundy: Seneca Indian Tales, Syracuse University Press
- New York History: Sources and Range of Cooper's Indian Lore, New York State Historical Association, 1954
- The History of the Seneca Indians, Port Washington, NY: I. J. Friedman, 1967
- Parker on the Iroquois, Edited by William N. Fenton, Syracuse University Press, 1986