Who is John Reed Swanton? His name has been connected to several of the tales mentioned in this blog, but who is he?
One of the most prominent folklorist of the twentieth century, John Reed Swanton studied linguistics at Harvard and Columbia, before departing to the Pacific Northwest in 1900.
Working for the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, Swanton collected tales and translated them for the museum. He lived with the Tlingit and Haida, transcribing their stories and translating them into English.
He worked for the Smithsonian for over 40 years. In addition to his work with the Tlingit,
Some of his major works include dictionaries, studies of linguistic relationships, collections of native stories, and studies of social organization.
In addition to his work with the Tlingit and Haida people, Swanton did research on the Muskogean-speaking people, the Creek, Chickasaw and Choctaw. He also worked with the Caddo, and wrote some papers on the Inca.
Swanton was the president of the American Anthropological Association in 1932, and edited the American Anthropologist from 1921-1923.
But he wasn’t Tlingit.
Can his stories be trusted? Do outsiders really understand what the tales mean, and can they tell them the right way?
It is impossible to say that his stories are correct; however, the fact that he did make extensive notes on the original tribal location and transcribed them in the original language does give him a strong authenticity that other folklorist do not have. And, it is also true that without him, many important and beautiful stories would have been lost.
It is impossible to say that his stories are correct; however, the fact that he did make extensive notes on the original tribal location and transcribed them in the original language does give him a strong authenticity that other folklorist do not have. And, it is also true that without him, many important and beautiful stories would have been lost.
Recently, a Haida scholar uncovered a previously forgotten story, in the original Haida, when looking through the Swanton notes at the Smithsonian
For further reading on the life and work of John Reed Swanton:
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