Alice Lee Marriott, née ''Goulding'' (8 January 1910 – 18 March 1992), was an American

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 species; as well as the ...

and anthropologist of the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

and Native Americans. She is a member of the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.

Early life

Marriott was born in Wilmette, Illinois, on 8 January 1910. She was awarded a B.A. degree in English and French by

Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's degrees and docto ...

in 1930 and a B.A. in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

by the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

five years later. Marriott was the first woman to earn an anthropology degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Career

Marriottspent the summers of 1935 and 1936 conducting fieldwork among the Modoc Indians in southern Oregon and the

Kiowa Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...

in southwestern Oklahoma. Marriott was a field representative with the

U.S. Department of Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relating ...

Indian Arts and Craft Board from 1938 to 1942. Next, she worked for the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

in the Southwest until 1945. She became a consultant to the Oklahoma Indian Council in 1961 and was appointed

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma from 1964 to 1966. Two years later, Marriott became

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

Central State University Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio, United States. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Established by the state legislature in 1887 as a two-y ...

in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Publications

In 1945, she began writing ''The Ten Grandmothers'' with her frequent collaborator, archaeologist Carol K. Rachlin, for the

University of Oklahoma Press The University of Oklahoma Press (OU Press) is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. Founded in 1929 by the fifth president of the University of Oklahoma, William Bennett Bizzell, it was the first university press to be established ...

. Eight more solo books on Native American and Southwestern topics followed in 1953. Marriott published a biography, ''Sequoyah: Leader of the Cherokees'', in 1956 and ''Black Stone Knife'' in 1956. In 1968 she published with Carol K. Rachlin ''American Indian Mythology''. As a freelancer, she continued to write, producing four more books with Rachlin by 1975.

Awards and honors

She was awarded the University of Oklahoma Achievement Award in 1952 and won the Oklahoma City University Achievement Award in 1968. She was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame in 2004.

Personal life

She died in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

on March 18, 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marriott, Alice 1910 births 1992 deaths Oklahoma City University alumni University of Oklahoma alumni 20th-century American historians