Kathrine Story ("Kay") French (June 5, 1922 – June 14, 2006) was an American anthropologist born in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Educated in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, she studied ceremonialism and naming practices on the

Warm Springs Indian Reservation The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Tribes Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and ...

in the state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. She was married to fellow anthropologist David H. French.

Early years

Kathrine McCullough Story was born on June 5, 1922, in

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in ...

. In 1942, she received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in philosophy and anthropology from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

in California. Her father, Russell M. Story, a political scientist, was President of the

Claremont Colleges The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private university, private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)� ...

and Graduate School. At Pomona she met David H. French, who was pursuing his own anthropological career. They married in 1943, and they both pursued graduate work in anthropology at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in New York, where Americanists such as

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...

and

Ruth Benedict Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist. She was born in New York City, attended Vassar College, and graduated in 1909. After studying anthropology at the New School of Social ...

were working.

Career

From 1943 to 1946, the Frenches served as relocation advisers and community analysts with the

War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was t ...

, monitoring conditions at relocation centers for Japanese-Americans, as part of a program to mitigate abuses. After David French took a teaching post at his former undergraduate institution,

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

, in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, in 1947, the couple began a decades-long involvement with the Warm Springs community. While her husband's research focused on

ethnobotany Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of natural and social sciences that studies the relationships between humans and plants. It focuses on traditional knowledge of how plants are used, managed, and perceived in human socie ...

and language, hers focused on naming practices and ceremonialism, in a community composed of Sahaptins, Paiutes, and—the Frenches' specialization -- Wasco

Chinook Chinook may refer to: Chinook peoples The name derives from a settlement of Indigenous people in Oregon and Washington State. * Chinookan peoples, several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest ** Chinook Indian Nation, an organiza ...

ans. French received her Ph.D. from Columbia in 1955. Her dissertation, though unpublished, is considered an important contribution to the study of ceremonialism in the region and an innovative study in the semiotic analysis of ritual. The Frenches' fieldwork at Warm Springs often involved mentoring the inaugural fieldwork experiences of budding anthropologists and linguists (many as Reed undergraduates) such as Yvonne Hajda,

Dell Hymes Dell Hathaway Hymes (June 7, 1927, in Portland, Oregon – November 13, 2009, in Charlottesville, Virginia) was a linguist, sociolinguist, anthropologist, and folklorist who established disciplinary foundations for the comparative, ethnographic ...

, Gail M. Kelly, and

Michael Silverstein Michael Silverstein (12 September 1945 – 17 July 2020) was an American linguist who served as the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of anthropology, linguistics, and psychology at the University of Chicago. He was a theoretician ...

. French served on the faculty of

Oregon Health Sciences University Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public university, public research university, research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded ...

in Portland from 1959 to 1980, pursuing an interest in the intersection of pediatrics, gerontology, cultural anthropology, and public policy. From 1981 until her death, she was an adjunct member of Reed's anthropology department. In the 1980s and 1990s French and Yvonne Hajda, a former student of David French's, collaborated in a long-term study of change and continuity in ceremonialism on Warm Springs, with

Wenner-Gren Foundation Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren (5 June 1881 – 24 November 1961) was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s. Early life He was born on 5 June 1881 in Uddevalla, a town on the west coast of Sweden. He ...

funding. That material still awaits publication.

Later years

She collaborated with her husband on numerous projects and publications, including an important survey of naming practices, which was published after David French's death in 1994. In later years of her life she remained active in anthropology, advising students as well as taking on numerous consulting projects on behalf of tribal groups, including research for Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc., throughout the lower

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

area. Kathrine French died on June 14, 2006, of pneumonia resulting from complications from cancer.

Selected works

* (1955) ''Culture Segments and Variation in Contemporary Social Ceremonialism on the Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon.'' Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York. * (1996) (with David H. French) "Personal Names." In ''Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 17: Languages,'' ed, by Ives Goddard, pp. 200–221. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

References

External links

* Brightman, Robert, Robert Moore, and Michael Silverstein (2006) Obituary for Kathrine Story French. ''Anthropology News,'' vol. 47, no. 6, p. 50. * Hymes, Dell (1994) Obituary for David H. French. ''Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter,'' vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1–3. * Moore, Robert E. (2006) "Self-Consciousness, Ceremonialism, and the Problem of the Present in the Anthropology of Native North America." In: ''New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, and Representations,'' ed. by Sergei A. Kan and Pauline Turner Strong, pp. 185–208. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * Obituary for Kathrine S. French. ''Oregonian'' (Portland, Ore.), June 25, 2006. * Obituary for Kathrine S. French. ''Reed'' magazine, summer 2006, p. 67. {{DEFAULTSORT:French, Kathrine 1922 births 2006 deaths American women anthropologists Oregon Health & Science University faculty 20th-century American women scientists Pomona College alumni 20th-century American anthropologists American women academics 21st-century American women