Ernest William Hawkes

Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Ernest William Hawkes was an American anthropologist whose life is usually dated from July 19, 1883, to March 13, 1957. He studied at Dakota Wesleyan University and later at the University of Pennsylvania, building the academic background for a career centered on northern Indigenous cultures.

Hawkes is best remembered for his research on the peoples of Alaska and northern Canada. Sources describe him making multiple trips to the region and drawing on that experience for books including The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo, The "Inviting-in" Feast of the Alaskan Eskimo, and The Labrador Eskimo. One account notes that he observed the Inuit Messenger Feast while serving as a government teacher at St. Michael during the winter of 1911–1912.

Across a career that also included teaching and other academic posts, Hawkes helped record ceremonies, daily life, and material culture in the North at a time when relatively little of this work had been widely published. For readers coming to his books now, his work offers both a historical snapshot and a window into the early years of North American anthropology.