Bertha Parker Pallan


Bertha Pallan Thurston Cody 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 "Birdie" Parker was born in 1907 in Chautauqua County, New York. Her mother, Beulah Tahamont, 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. Her father, Arthur C. Parker, was an archaeologist and the first president of the Society for American Archaeology. Her maternal grandparents were the actors Elijah "Chief Dark Cloud" Tahamont and Margaret Camp. As a child, she assisted her father in his excavations.
Bertha's mother divorced her father in 1914, and the Tahamonts 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.

Family

Bertha married Joseph Pallan in the early 1920s and had a daughter, Wilma Mae Pallan in 1925. 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 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. This illness caused Bertha to move back in with her parents for a time in Los Angeles.
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.
In 1942, her 17-year-old daughter Billie was visiting her grandmother Beulah's farm when she died of an accidental gunshot wound. Bertha and Iron Eyes later adopted two sons, Robert "Tree" Cody and Arthur William Cody. 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.

Death

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

Archaeological career

, her uncle, hired Parker as a camp cook and expedition secretary. shortly after marrying her aunt Endeka. 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.
Bertha worked at Gypsum Cave in 1930, a site that Harrington promoted as having the earliest evidence for human occupation of North America during the Pleistocene.
As the expedition secretary, Bertha worked at cleaning, repairing, and cataloguing finds; 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. 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.
While on this expedition, Bertha also discovered the site of Corn Creek after seeing fossil camel bone protruding from an eroding lake bed.
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 Native American female archaeologists. 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.

Publications

The following are listed as they appear in a list compiled by Marge Bruchac.
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: