Gilbert Livingstone Wilson

Born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1868, Gilbert Livingstone Wilson trained for the ministry and became a Presbyterian pastor. Alongside his church work, he developed a lasting interest in ethnography and in the history and lifeways of Native communities in the northern Plains.

Wilson is most closely associated with his work among the Hidatsa at Fort Berthold in North Dakota. With help from Hidatsa knowledge keepers including Buffalo Bird Woman, Henry Wolf Chief, and Edward Goodbird, he recorded traditions, farming practices, stories, and daily life in unusually rich detail. His writings later became important resources for historians, anthropologists, and Hidatsa readers interested in preserving community knowledge.

He is known for books such as Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden and Waheenee: An Indian Girl's Story. Although written from the perspective of an early twentieth-century ethnographer, his work remains notable for the depth of firsthand material it preserved before his death in 1930.