Last updated: March 27, 2023
Person
Sallie Pierce Brewer Van Valkenburg Harris
NPS
Quick Facts
Significance:
Archeologist
Place of Birth:
Victor, Colorado
Date of Birth:
April 13, 1911
Place of Death:
Prescott, Arizona
Date of Death:
1994
Sallie Pierce Harris conducted excavations and research in seven different national monuments in the Southwest, laying the foundation for NPS archeology today. Over the 34 years of her NPS career, Sallie experienced the challenges of women archeologists carving a profession and life for themselves in the second third of the 20th century.
Sallie received BA in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1932. During the summers, she attended field schools with the University of New Mexico in Jemez and Chaco Canyon.
After graduation, the National Park Service employed Sallie as an archeological technician and an archeologist in then-region 3. She first worked through the Civil Works Administration at Montezuma’s Castle National Monument to classify artifacts and in 1934 excavated the Castle A site.
In 1936, Sallie moved to Wupatki National Monument, where she was the first Honorary Custodian Without Pay (HCWP), a term given to the fully qualified but unpaid wives of NPS employees. There, Sallie lived in the ruins of a 12th-century pueblo. She also worked as an unpaid research assistant associated with the University of Arizona. In 1939, she moved to Navajo National Monument, where she became one of the first people to live in the cliff dwellings in over 500 years. She co-founded and co-edited The Grapevine, a journal by HCWPs about their experiences, and published in archeological journals.
When World War II began, many NPS rangers left their posts to join the war effort. In 1943, Sallie became the first permanent NPS woman ranger in the Southwestern Monuments. She served at Casa Grande National Monument for a year, then Tumacacori National Monument for over six years.
In the 1950s, Sallie worked for the Southwest Archaeological Center in Globe, Arizona, where her archeological work took her to Casa Grande National Monument and Canyon de Chelly National Monument, among many other parks. She surveyed the north rim of Walnut Canyon National Monument in 1955, 1957, and 1958. She retired in 1967 from her position as Museum Curator.
Sallie wrote and co-wrote a number of research articles about archeological sites. Sallie’s publications from the course of her career can be found under the names Sarah Louise Pierce, Sallie Brewer Pierce, Sallie Brewer Van Valkenburgh, Sallie Pierce Van Valkenburgh, Sallie Pierce Harris, and Sallie Van Valkenburgh Harris.
Learn more about Sallie's career across the NPS at 50 Nifty Finds #17: Common Threads.
Van Valkenburgh S.
1961 Archeological site survey at Walnut Canyon National Monument. Plateau. 34(1):1-17.
1971. The History of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
Van Valkenburgh, Sallie P.
1958 Archeological Site Survey, North Rum, Walnut Canyon National Monument. MS, Walnut Canyon National Monument, National Park Service, Flagstaff.
1962 The Casa Grande of Arizona as a Landmark on the Desert, a Government Reservation, and a National Monument. The Kiva, vol. 27, no. 3.
Sources:
Browman, David L.
2013 Cultural Negotiations: The Role of Women in the Founding of Americanist Archaeology. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.