Bertha Parker Pallan

Bertha Parker Pallan
Bertha Parker Pallan (Cody) at Gypsum Cave c. 1930
Born	(1907-08-30)August 30, 1907 Chautauqua County, New York, United States
Died	October 8, 1978(1978-10-08) (aged 71) Los Angeles, California, United States
Fields	Archaeology, ethnology
Institutions	Southwest Museum

Bertha Pallan (née Parker; August 30, 1907 – October 8, 1978) was an American archaeologist.

Bertha "Birdie" Parker was the first Native American female archaeologist, of Abenaki and Seneca descent. She was born in 1907 in Chautauqua County, New York. Her mother, Beulah Tahamont (later Folsom), was an actress. Her father, Arthur C. Parker, was an archaeologist and the first president of the Society for American Archaeology. Her maternal grandparents were the actors Elijah “Chief Dark Cloud” Tahamont and Margaret (Dove Eye) Camp. As a child, she assisted her father in his excavations.

Bertha's mother divorced her father in 1914, and the Tahamonts (Elijah, Margaret, and Beulah) relocated to Los Angeles, with Bertha in tow, to work in Hollywood films. Bertha and her mother also performed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as part of a “Pocahontas” show during her teenage years.

Bertha married Joseph Pallan in the early 1920s and had a daughter, Wilma Mae ("Billie") Pallan in 1925. When the marriage ended, she moved to Nevada to work on an archaeological site for the Southwest Museum, directed by Mark Raymond Harrington. Harrington had recently married Bertha's aunt, Endeka Parker. In 1931, Bertha married the paleontologist James Thurston. Thurston died after a sudden illness in 1932, and she herself became ill for an extended period of time.

Bertha relocated again, this time to Los Angeles. She was hired, first as a secretary, and then as an archaeologist and ethnologist, for the Southwest Museum. In 1936, she married the actor Espera Oscar de Corti, also known as Iron Eyes Cody.

In 1942, her 17-year-old daughter Billie was visiting her grandmother Beulah's farm when she died of an accidental gunshot wound. Bertha and Iron Eyes later adopted two Native American sons, Robert "Tree" Cody and Arthur William Cody (1952–1996). Bertha and Iron Eyes were central figures in the success of the Los Angeles Indian Center, a gathering place for urban Indians relocated to Los Angeles.