author
J. N. B. (John Napoleon Brinton) Hewitt
1859–1937
Born on the Tuscarora Reservation and active at the Smithsonian for more than 50 years, this pioneering linguist and ethnographer devoted his career to recording Iroquoian languages, oral traditions, and ceremonial life. His work helped preserve important Haudenosaunee knowledge at a time when much of it was at risk of being lost.
1 Audiobook
A constitutional league of peace in the stone age of America : The League of the Iroquois and its constitution
by J. N. B. (John Napoleon Brinton) Hewitt
About the author
John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt (December 16, 1859 – October 14, 1937) was an American linguist and ethnographer best known for his work on Iroquoian and other Native American languages. Sources agree that he was born near Lewiston, New York, on the Tuscarora Reservation, and that he came from a family with Tuscarora and European ancestry.
Hewitt spent most of his professional life with the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian, where he worked from the 1880s until 1937. He became a leading authority on the Haudenosaunee, especially their language, traditions, political organization, and ceremonial life, and his writings remained important to later researchers in anthropology, folklore, and Native American studies.
What makes Hewitt especially notable is that he was not simply studying Iroquois culture from the outside. His background and language knowledge gave him unusual access to stories, beliefs, and historical traditions, and much of his career was devoted to preserving that material in print and archival collections.