author
Gilbert Livingstone Wilson
1868–1930
A Presbyterian minister turned ethnographer, he is remembered for carefully recording Hidatsa life through the voices of Buffalo Bird Woman, Henry Wolf Chief, and Edward Goodbird. His books still matter for readers interested in Native history, agriculture, and everyday life on the northern plains.
3 Audiobooks
Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation
by Waheenee, Gilbert Livingstone Wilson
Waheenee: An Indian Girl's Story
by Waheenee, Gilbert Livingstone Wilson
Goodbird the Indian: His Story
by Edward Goodbird, Gilbert Livingstone Wilson
About the author
Born in Springfield, Ohio in 1868, Gilbert Livingstone Wilson trained for the ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary and later served as a Presbyterian minister in North Dakota. His years there led to a deep interest in the Hidatsa people and their history, and he gradually devoted much of his work to ethnography.
Wilson is best known for documenting the knowledge and memories of Hidatsa community members, especially Buffalo Bird Woman, her brother Henry Wolf Chief, and her son Edward Goodbird. Rather than writing only from an outside observer's view, he helped preserve detailed accounts of farming, food, family life, and tradition that have remained valuable to historians, anthropologists, and Hidatsa readers alike.
His published works include Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden and other studies of Hidatsa life. Though shaped by the methods and assumptions of his era, his writing remains an important historical record because of the richness of the firsthand material he preserved.