Bertha Dutton

Bertha Dutton

University of New Mexico

Quick Facts

Significance:

Archeologist, role model, mentor

Place of Birth:

Algona, Iowa

Date of Birth:

March 29, 1903

Date of Death:

September 11, 1994

Place of Burial:

Galisteo Basin

Bertha Dutton was an archeologist and ethnologist whose research focused on Mesoamerica and the southwestern United States. She participated in a field school at Chaco Canyon as a student, then led expeditions of Girl Scouts on digs in the southwest. Her long career at the Museum of New Mexico resulted in an expansion of the exhibit halls and public education programs. Bertha also served on the National Park Service Advisory Board. A warm, fun-loving person, Bertha’s enthusiasm for archeology inspired her friends and students alike. 

Between 1929 and 1931, Bertha studied history and philosophy at the Lincoln (Nebraska) School of Commerce and the University of Nebraska. Although taking business courses, a professor suggested that, given her actual interests in history and philosophy, she study archeology at the University of New Mexico. She enrolled in 1932. Bertha joined Edgar J. Hewett’s field school at Chaco Canyon, where her work at Leyit Kin became the basis of her master’s thesis. Bertha earned her master’s degree from the University of New Mexico in 1937. She received a PhD in 1952 from Columbia University, where her dissertation focused on the Toltec city of Tula. Her original project became the book Sun Father’s Way: The Kiva Murals of Kuana (1963), a study of the murals at the Kuaua site in Coronado State Monument. In addition, New Mexico State University bestowed an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1973.

Bertha was an administrative assistant at the Museum of New Mexico until 1939. She then became the curator of ethnology (1939-1959), instructor of television and adult education classes (1947-1957), curator of interpretive exhibits (1959-1962), and head of the Division of Research until she retired in 1965. She remained a research associate at the museum until the end of her life. In retirement, Bertha taught for a year at St. Michael’s College, then accepted the appointment as director of the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art (1966-1975). From 1973 to 1975, she served as the only female member of the National Park Service Advisory Committee. Throughout her career, she maintained close relationships with local Native American tribes and conducted many ethnographical studies.

Bertha’s greatest project was the Girl Scout Archeological Mobile Camp. From 1947 to 1957, in partnership with the Girl Scouts of America, Bertha led senior Scouts from across the country on a two-week camping tour of archeological sites in the Southwest. Their route covered hundreds of miles and changed slightly every year, including places like the Kuaua ruins at the Coronado State Monument, Chetro Ketl and Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon, Wupatki National Monument, a Navajo summer camp, among other sites. The girls also toured museums and attended lectures given by National Park Service staff, visiting scholars, and “Bert” herself on ancient lifestyles and artifacts. Though the girls did not excavate in the early years of the camp, they toured so many archeological sites and got so covered with desert road dust that they took to calling themselves “Dutton’s Dirty Diggers.” Bertha bowed to the girls’ pleading to let them excavate, first in 1951 at Pueblo Large in the Galisteo Basin then for five more years.

Bertha received many honors for her archeological and ethnographic work. The Girl Scouts awarded her the “Thanks Badge” in 1957. The U.S. Department of the Interior presented her with a Certificate of Appreciation in 1967. In 1968, Lady Bird Johnson invited Bertha  for a luncheon at the White House for “Women Doers.” 1985, she received the Society for the American Archeology 50th Anniversary Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Archeology. She was featured in the Arizona State Museum exhibit “Daughters of the Desert: Women Anthropologists and the Native American Southwest, 1880-1980.” From her scholarly work, dedication to public education and mentorship to girls, Bertha is remembered as a enormous force in American archeology.

Dutton, Bertha P.
1963  Sun Father's Way: The Kiva Murals of Kuana. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, and Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe.

Dutton, Bertha P. and Edgar J. Hewett
1945 The Pueblo Indian World. University of New Mexico Press and the School of American Research, Albuquerque.

Olin, Caroline and Bertha P. Dutton
1978 Myths and Legends of the Indians of the Southwest. 2 vols.

Sources

Bloom, Jo Tice
2012  “Dr. Bertha Dutton and Her Dirty Diggers.” In Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past Volume 3: The Statehood Period, 1912-Present. Edited by Richard Melzer, Historical Society of New Mexico Centennial Series.

Cohen, Leslie
2006 “Dutton’s Dirty Diggers: ‘She Taught Us to Be Bold.’” El Palacio 111: 2, p. 36. 

Joiner, Carol
1992 “The Boys and Girls of Summer: The University of New Mexico Archeological Field School in Chaco Canyon.” Journal of Anthropological Research 48:1. 

Morris, Elizabeth Ann and Caroline B. Olin
1997 "Bertha Pauline Dutton." American Antiquity 62:4. pp. 652-658.