author
Pliny Earle Goddard
1869–1928
A pioneering linguist and ethnologist, he helped preserve knowledge of Athabaskan languages and cultures through detailed fieldwork in western North America. His writing opened an early path for readers interested in Native American language, story, and social life.
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About the author
Born in Lewiston, Maine, in 1869, Pliny Earle Goddard first worked as a missionary among the Hupa in northern California. That experience shaped the rest of his career: he turned toward anthropology and became known for careful documentation of Indigenous languages and traditions, especially among Athabaskan-speaking peoples.
His early research focused on the Hupa and neighboring communities in northwestern California, and later expanded to work in the Southwest, Canada, and Alaska. He was associated with the University of California, Berkeley, and later the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he continued his studies of language, ethnology, and oral tradition.
Goddard is remembered as one of the important early figures in American linguistic anthropology. He also served as editor of American Anthropologist and helped found the International Journal of American Linguistics with Franz Boas. He died in 1928, leaving behind work that remains part of the historical record of Native North American languages and cultures.