Gary Witherspoon

Gary J. Witherspoon is Professor of American Indian studies at the University of Washington. His area of expertise is the Navajo language and Navajo culture.

Born in 1943, in a Mormon family of Baltimore, Maryland, he attended Ohio State then served on a religious mission to the Navajo in 1962 for 2 years. This time with the Navajo had a profound impact upon him personally. He married in 1964 and became part of a Navajo family. He received his BS degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University in 1966.

Witherspoon's academic career is somewhat unusual from 1966 onward. While working on the Navajo Reservation he attended Arizona State University until 1968. At the University of Chicago, he earned his MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1970—only two years after enrolling. After 1 year at Yale University, Witherspoon returned to the Dine and focused on research and teaching. His publication record in the early 1970s caught the attention of anthropologists, and he was hired in 1975 by University of Michigan. In 1979 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. From 1982 to 1987 he lived among the Navajo. He taught and was Director of The Navajo Language Institute, part of the Navajo Academy near Farmington, NM. In 1987 Witherspoon accepted an offer at the University of Washington, where he chairs the American Indian Studies Department.

His book Language and Art in the Navajo Universe is his most significant work. Sheep in Navajo Culture and Social Organization was placed in the centennial version of American Anthropologist as an example of the best articles in the field of anthropology in last 25 years.

Books Authored

• 1995 Dynamic Symmetry and Holistic Asymmetry in Navajo and Western Art and Cosmology, co-authored with Glen Peterson, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York, N.Y. (April, 1995)
• 1987 Navajo Weaving: Art in its Cultural Context. The Museum of Northern Arizona: Flagstaff, Arizona.
• 1985 Diné Bizaad Bóhoo’aah I. The Navajo Language Institute: Farmington, New Mexico.
• 1977 Language and Art in the Navajo Universe. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• 1975 Navajo Kinship and Marriage. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, Illinois
• 1969 Navajo Basic Course. Co-authored with Robert Blair and Leon Simmons. Brigham Young University Press: Provo, Utah
• 1968 Black Mountain Boy. Co-authored with Veda Carlson. Navajo Curriculum Center: Rough Rock, Arizona.

Selected Journal Articles

• 1980 "Language in Culture and Culture in Language." International Journal of American Linguistics, 46:1-14.
• 1973 "Sheep in Navajo Culture and Social Organization." American Anthropologist 75:1441-1448.
• 1971 "Navajo Categories of Objects at Rest." American Anthropologist 73:110-125.
• 1970b "The Role of the Social Scientist in Indian Affairs." Journal of American Indian Affairs (Fall) 1:18-23.
• 1970a "A New Look at Navajo Social Organization." American Anthropologist 72:55-65.