William N. Fenton

William N. Fenton (December 15, 1908 - 17 June, 2005) was a US scholar and writer known for his extensive studies of Iroquois history and culture. He started his studies of the Iroquois in the 1930s and published a number of significant works over following decades with his final work published in 2002. During his career, Fenton was director of the New York State Museum and a professor of anthropology at the State University of New York.

Early career (1908-1955)

Fenton was born William Nelson Fenton in New Rochelle, New York, in 1908. The Fenton family had had interactions with the Seneca people since the 1860s. He grew up in the west of New York State and attended the University of Rochester graduating in 1931 and received a doctorate from Yale University in 1937. In the 1930s, he lived among the Seneca in the 1930s in western New York, becoming fluent in the Iroquois language. He was adopted into the Seneca Hawk clan (the same lineage into which Lewis Henry Morgan had been adopted) on January 26, 1934.

He soon made his mark on the field becoming known as a leader of Iroquois studies. Fenton issued a number of position papers during the 1940s and 1950s outlining problems and issues relating to the Iroquois that required further studies. He encouraged other students of the Iroqouis to meet and discuss issues of concern in the field notably in meetings at Red House in New York. Fenton focussed attention on such issues as diversity in culture and connections between northern and southern tribes.

In his work as an ethnologist with the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology, he drew attention to the substantial historic and ethnographic sources. He undertook substantial studies of Iroquois music and dance during the 1930s and 1940s while working at the Smithsonian.

Later career (1956-2005)

Dr Fenton reached the position of senior ethnologist at the Smithsonian Institution in the 1950s before he left to work at the New York State Museum at Albany. He reached the position of director and built an extensive collection of Iroquois materials. Fenton was criticised by some tribes for not returning artefacts as he regarded museums as necessary safeguards for cultural heritage. He was also criticised by some tribal leaders for revealing sacred rituals.

Fenton chaired the Committee on Anthropological Research in Museums (CARM) during the majority of its duration from 1965 to 1973. CARM, which was a subcommittee of the American Anthropological Association, worked to encourage the use of museums and museum collections in anthropological research. CARM also encouraged the early use of computers in documenting and inventorying museums collections across North America.

Fenton left the New York State Museum to become Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York in Albany, retiring from that position in 1979. He remained active in studies of the Iroquois publishing "The Great Law and the Longhouse: a political history of the Iroquois" in 1998 when he was nearly 90.

He died on June 17 2005 in Cooperstown, New York, at the age of 96, on the way to the hospital.

Publications

Fenton wrote extensively on Iroquois ethnology, historiography, the history of anthropology, and museum anthropology for several decades. Some of his works include:

* "An Outline of Seneca ceremonies at Coldspring Longhouse" 1936 work at Yale University studying for his doctorate
*Citation
publisher = Smithsonian Institution
pages = 159–252
editors = Julian H. Steward (ed.)
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "Essays in Historical Anthropology of North America"
chapter = "Problems Arising from the Historic Northeastern Position of the Iroquois"
location = Washington, DC
series = Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 100
date = 1940
*Citation
pages = 503–526
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1941"
chapter = "Contacts between Iroquois herbalism and colonial medicine"
location = Washington, DC
date = 1942
isbn = 0-8466-4032-5
* "Songs from the Iroquois longhouse : program notes for an album of American Indian music from the eastern woodlands" 1942 Library of Congress music collection;
*Citation
publisher = United States Government Printing Office; Smithsonian Institution
editors = William N. Fenton
title = "Symposium on Local Diversity in Iroquois Culture"
location = Washington, DC
series = Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 149
date = 1951
*Citation
issn = 0002-7294
volume = 54
issue = 3
pages = 328–339
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "The Training of Historical Ethnologists in America"
journal = "American Anthropologist"
date = 1952
url = http://www.jstor.org/view/00027294/ap020284/02a00040/0?currentResult=00027294%2bap020284%2b02a00040%2b0%2cFF1F&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26gw%3Djtx%26jtxsi%3D1%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3DThe%2BTraining%2Bof%2BHistorical%2BEthnologists%2Bin%2BAmerica%26wc%3Don
* "The Roll Call of the Iroquois Chiefs" 1950 ISBN 0-404-15536-7
* "The Iroquois Eagle Dance: an offshoot of the Calumet Dance" 1953 ISBN 0-8156-2533-2
*Citation
volume = 3
issue = 4
pages = 327–355
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "The Museum and Anthropological Research"
journal = "Curator"
date = 1960
*Citation
issn = 00141801
volume = 9
issue = 1
pages = 1–23
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "Ethnohistory and Its Problems"
journal = "Ethnohistory"
date = 1962
url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0014-1801%28196224%299%3A1%3C1%3AEAIP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
*Citation
issn = 0014-1801
volume = 13
issue = 1/2
pages = 71–85
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "Field Work, Museum Studies, and Ethnohistorical Research"
journal = "Ethnohistory"
date = 1966
url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0014-1801%28196624%2F21%2913%3A1%2F2%3C71%3AFWMSAE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
*Citation
publisher = Louisiana State University Press
pages = 15–36
last = Fenton
first = William N.
editors = Miles Richardson (ed.)
title = "The Human Mirror: Material and Spatial Images of Man"
chapter = "The Advancement of Material Culture Studies in Modern Anthropological Research"
location = Baton Rouge, LA
date = 1974
*Citation
volume = 3
issue = 4
pages = 239–249
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "Cherokee-Iroquois Connections Revisited"
journal = "Journal of Cherokee Studies"
date = 1979
*Citation
publisher = John Benjamins
pages = 215–240
editors = William Cowan, Michael K. Foster, E. F. K. Koerner (eds.)
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "New Perspectives in Language, Culture, and Personality"
chapter = "Sapir as Museologist and Research Director, 1910-1925"
location = Amsterdam
date = 1986
*Citation
publisher = University of Oklahoma Press
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "The False Faces of the Iroquois"
location = Norman, OK
date = 1987
isbn = 0-8061-2039-8
*Citation
publisher = University of Oklahoma Press
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy"
location = Norman, OK
date = 1998
isbn = 0-8061-2039-8
*Citation
publisher = University of Nebraska Press
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "Iroquois Journey - An Anthropologist Remembers"
location = Norman, OK
date = 2007
isbn = 978-0-8032-2021-8
*Citation
publisher = Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
last = Fenton
first = William N.
title = "The Little Water Medicine Society of the Seneca"
location = Norman, OK
date = 2002
isbn = 0-8061-3447-X.

References

* [http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050622/ca_pr_on_wo/obit_iroquois_scholar Canadian Press obituary]
* Fenton, William N. (2001) "He-Lost-a-Bet (Howanʔneyao) of the Seneca Hawk Clan." In: "Strangers to Relatives: The Adoption and Naming of Anthropologists in Native North America," ed. by Sergei Kan, pp. 81-98. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
* Foster, Michael K., Jack Campisi, and Marianne Mithun (eds.) (1984) "Extending the Rafters: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Iroquois Studies." Albany: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-87395-780-6
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/nyregion/23fenton.html "New York Times" obituary, June 23 2005]
* [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:T27xyLU55K4J:www.pequotmuseum.org/uploaded_images/CC2DB15E-FC71-4988-BC3D-4481CE33CA70/MSS%2520295%2520William%2520Fenton%2520Research%2520Collection.pdf+%22William+Fenton%22+iroquois&hl=en&client=firefox-a%20target=nw William Fenton research collection]
* [http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=LimitWkLsRslt&BY=Author&TERM=FENTON%2C+WILLIAM+NELSON&MAXRECORDS=20&lang=english&MAXMATES=100&RSLTID=1&FROMRSLT=1 RedLightGreen list of written works by William Nelson Fenton]