Alice Lee Marriott, née ''Goulding'' (8 January 1910 – 18 March 1992), was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and anthropologist of the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

and Native Americans. She is a member of the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.

Life and work

Marriott was born in

Wilmette Wilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a population of 27,087 at the 2010 census. The ...

, Illinois, on 8 January 1910. She was awarded a B.A. degree in English and French by

Oklahoma City University Oklahoma City University (OCU) is a private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The university offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, graduate master's degrees and doctor ...

in 1930 and a B.A. in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

by the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

five years later. Marriott was the first woman to earn an anthropology degree from the University of Oklahoma. She spent the summers of 1935 and 1936 conducting fieldwork among the

Modoc Indians The Modoc are a Native American people who originally lived in the area which is now northeastern California and central Southern Oregon. They are currently divided between Oregon and Oklahoma and are enrolled in either of two federally recogni ...

in southern Oregon and the

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...

in southwestern Oklahoma. Marriott was a field representative with the

U.S. Department of Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the man ...

Indian Arts and Craft Board in 1938–42 and then she worked for the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

in the Southwest until 1945. That year she began writing ''The Ten Grandmothers'' with her frequent collaborator, archaeologist Carol K. Rachlin, for the

University of Oklahoma Press The University of Oklahoma Press (OU Press) is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. Founded in 1929 by the fifth president of the University of Oklahoma, William Bennett Bizzell, it was the first university press to be established i ...

. Eight more solo books on Native American and Southwestern topics followed by 1953 and she was awarded the University of Oklahoma Achievement Award in 1952. Marriott published a biography, ''Sequoyah: Leader of the Cherokees'', in 1956 and then followed it with ''Black Stone Knife'' the following year. She became a consultant to the Oklahoma Indian Council in 1961 and was appointed

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma from 1964 to 1966. Two years later, Marriott became

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

Central State University Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Established by the state legislature in 1887 as a two-year program for te ...

Edmond Edmond is a given name related to Edmund. Persons named Edmond include: * Edmond Canaple (1797–1876), French politician * Edmond Chehade (born 1993), Lebanese footballer * Edmond Conn (1914–1998), American farmer, businessman, and politician ...

, Oklahoma, and won the Oklahoma City University Achievement Award. In 1968 she published with Carol K. Rachlin ''American Indian Mythology''. As a freelancer, she continued to write, producing four more books with Rachlin by 1975. She was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame in 2004. Nothing further is known of her life. She died in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

on March 18, 1992.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marriott, Alice 1910 births 1992 deaths Oklahoma City University alumni University of Oklahoma alumni 20th-century American historians