Women’s contributions to early American Indian linguistics

Abstract

This chapter focuses on women who contributed significantly to American Indian linguistics before World War II. It highlights the lives, work, and impact of the influential scholars Mary Haas, Gladys Reichard, and Lucy Freeland, as well as the contributions of Native American women such as Ella Deloria and Flora Zuni in this period of early linguistic work on Native American languages. The personal and professional histories of these women and the challenges they faced in male-dominated academia are discussed. Despite those challenges, they contributed significantly to the discipline through their fieldwork on Native American languages, their commitment to language documentation and to their students, and the knowledge they passed on to subsequent generations. Their perseverance at a turning point in American linguistics advanced the role of women and has had a lasting effect on the climate of American scholarship.