James Gilchrist Swan (January 11, 1818 – May 18, 1900) was an American

Indian agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Background The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of t ...

in what is now the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, who was known as an authority on the

indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast The Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and prac ...

, an Indian artifact collector on behalf of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, and for writing the first ethnography of the Makah tribal group, among whom he lived. A curious and creative man, his imaginative ambitions included a fantasy of making paper from Puget Sound seaweed.

Sources

* Doig, Ivan (1980) ''Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America.'' New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. * McDonald, Lucile (1972) ''Swan among the Indians: Life of James G. Swan, 1818–1900.'' Portland, Oregon: Binfords and Mort.

References

Writings

* *

External links

"Swan, James G. (1818–1900)"
By Kit Oldham. HistoryLink.org. January 9, 2003. *
James Gilchrist Swan
, University of Washington Libraries 1818 births 1900 deaths {{NorthAm-native-stub