Jay Miller is an American anthropologist who is known for his wide-ranging fieldwork with and scholarship about different Native American groups, especially the

Delaware (Lenape) The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

Tsimshian The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace and Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only ...

, and

Lushootseed Lushootseed (txʷəlšucid, dxʷləšúcid), also Puget Salish, Puget Sound Salish or Skagit-Nisqually, is a language made up of a dialect continuum of several Salish tribes of modern-day Washington state. Lushootseed is one of the Coast Sali ...

Salish. He is himself of Lenape ancestry. He grew up in upstate New York, where he was given a

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...

(

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

) name. As an undergraduate, he was influenced by the anthropologist

Florence Hawley Ellis Florence May Hawley Ellis (née Florence May Hawley, also known as Florence Hawley Senter; September 17, 1906 – 1991) was one of the first anthropologists to work extensively on dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating. She conducted archaeologica ...

. He received his Ph.D. from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

, for a dissertation on the

Keresan Keres (), also Keresan (), is a Native American language, spoken by the Keres Pueblo people in New Mexico. Depending on the analysis, Keres is considered a small language family or a language isolate with several dialects. The varieties of eac ...

Pueblo people. While in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

, he began working with speakers of the Delaware language. In this context he was adopted and named in the Delaware Wolf clan, his clan mother being

Nora Thompson Dean Nora Thompson Dean (July 3, 1907 – November 29, 1984), also known as Weenjipahkihelexkwe (modern Unami orthography: Weènchipahkihëlèxkwe), which translates as "Touching Leaves Woman" in Unami, was a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians. As ...

, with whom he collaborated on a publication on the Delaware "Big House" rite. Friendship with the anthropologist

Viola Garfield Viola E. Garfield (December 5, 1899 – November 25, 1983) was an American anthropologist best known for her work on the social organization and plastic arts of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia and Alaska. Early life Viola Edmundson was b ...

while living in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

led to fieldwork among the

Hartley Bay Hartley Bay is a First Nations community on the coast of British Columbia. The village is located at the mouth of Douglas Channel, about north of Vancouver and south of Prince Rupert. It is an isolated village accessible only by air and wate ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

, where Miller was adopted into the

Gispwudwada {{short description, Indigenous people of British Columbia/Alaska The Gispwudwada or Gisbutwada (variously spelled) is the name for the Killerwhale "clan" (phratry) in the language of the Tsimshian nation of British Columbia, Canada, and southeast A ...

(Killerwhale clan). He was formerly Associate Director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rel ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. He has also done fieldwork with the Salish people at the

Colville Indian Reservation The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the northwest United States, in north central Washington, inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is federally recognized. Established i ...

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washingto ...

and received names among the

Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

and

Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities: * ...

tribes.

Bibliography

* Miller, Jay (1984) "Feasting with the Southern Tsimshian." In: ''The Tsimshian: Images of the Past: Views for the Present,'' ed. by Margaret Seguin, pp. 27–39. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press * Miller, Jay (1988) ''Shamanic Odyssey: A Comparative Study of the Lushootseed (Puget Salish) Journey to the Land of the Dead in Terms of Death, Power, and Cooperating Shamans in Native North America.'' Menlo Park, Calif.: Ballena Press. * Miller, Jay (ed.) (1990) ''Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * Miller, Jay (1997) ''Tsimshian Culture: A Light through the Ages.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * Miller, Jay (1999) ''Lushootseed Culture and the Shamanic Odyssey.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * Miller, Jay (2001) "Naming as Humanizing." In: ''Strangers to Relatives: The Adoption and Naming of Anthropologists in Native North America,'' ed. by Sergei Kan, pp. 141–158. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * Miller, Jay, and Nora Dean (1978) "A Personal Account of the Delaware Big House Rite." ''Pennsylvania Archaeologist,'' vol. 48, nos. 1-2, pp. 39–43. Living people American anthropologists Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-anthropologist-stub