George Bird Grinnell

Portrait of George Bird Grinnell

George Bird Grinnell (September 20, 1849 – April 11, 1938) was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880. Originally specializing in zoology, he became a prominent early conservationist and student of Native American life. Grinnell has been recognized for his influence on public opinion and legislation which ultimately led to the preservation of the American buffalo.

Exploration and conservation

Grinnell had extensive contact with the terrain, animals and Native Americans of the northern plains, starting with his participation in the last great hunt of the Pawnee in 1872. He spent many years pursuing the natural history of the region. As a graduate student, he accompanied Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s 1874 Black Hills expedition as a naturalist but declined a similar appointment to the ill-fated 1876 Little Big Horn expedition. (Punke, p. 109) In 1875, Colonel William Ludlow, who had also been on Custer's gold exploration effort, approached him to serve as naturalist and mineralogist on an expedition to Montana and the newly established Yellowstone Park. The expedition reports included an attachment by Grinnell, documenting the poaching of buffalo, deer, elk and antelope for hides. "It is estimated that during the winter of 1874-1875, not less than 3,000 Buffalo and mule deer suffer even more severely than the elk, and the antelope nearly as much." (Punke, pp. 102) His experience in Yellowstone led to the publication of the first of many magazine articles dealing with conservation, the protection of the buffalo, and the American west.

The Salamander Glacier and Lake Josephine, Glacier National Park. The Salamander used to be part of Grinnell Glacier but was given its own designation in the mid 20th century after Grinnell dwindled and split in two. Grinnell Glacier lies immediately beneath the Salamander, and is not visible in this photograph.

In 1885, Grinnell discovered the glacier in Montana that now bears his name and he was later influential in establishing Glacier National Park in 1910. He was also a member of the Edward Henry Harriman expedition of 1899, a two-month survey of the Alaskan coast by an elite group of scientists and artists.

Grinnell was prominent in movements focusing on preservation of wildlife and conservation in the American west. For many years, he wrote and published articles and personally lobbied for congressional support for the endangered American buffalo. In 1887, Grinnell was a founding member, with Theodore Roosevelt, of the Boone and Crockett Club, dedicated to the restoration of America's wildlands. Other founding members included General William Tecumseh Sherman and Gifford Pinchot. Grinnell and Roosevelt published the Club's first book in 1895. Grinnell also organized the first Audubon Society and was an organizer of the New York Zoological Society.

With the passage of the 1894 National Park Protective Act, the remaining 200 wild buffalo in Yellowstone National Park received a measure of protection, but it was nearly too late for the species. Poaching continued to reduce the animal's population, reaching its lowest number of 23 in 1902. (Punke, pp. 218-219) However, Grinnell's actions led to ongoing efforts by the Department of Interior to find additional animals in the wild and in managed herds to supplement the Yellowstone herd. This ultimately led to a genetically pure viable herd, and the survival of the species.

The tower of George Bird Grinnell in Woodlawn Cemetery

Grinnell was editor of "Forest and Stream Magazine" from 1876 to 1911 and contributed many articles and essays to magazines and professional publications, including:

• "In Buffalo Days", a long essay, published in "American Big-Game Hunting", edited by Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell, New York, 1893.
• "The Bison," a long essay, published in "Musk-Ox, Bison, Sheep and Goat", edited by Caspar Whitney, George Bird Grinnell, and Owen Wister, New York, 1904.

Ethnology of the Plains cultures

Grinnell’s books and publications reflect his life-long study of the northern American plains and the Plains tribes. Along with J. A. Allen and William T. Hornaday, Grinnell was a historian of the buffalo and their relationship with Plains tribal culture. In "When Buffalo Ran" (1920), he focuses specifically on hunting and working buffalo from a buffalo horse.

Grinnell’s best-known works are on the Cheyenne, including "The Fighting Cheyennes", published in 1915, and a two-volume work on "The Cheyenne Indians" (1923). In 1928, he presented the story of Frank Joshua North and Luther North in "Two Great Scouts and their Pawnee Battalion." Other works on the Plains culture area focusing on the Pawnee and Blackfeet people include "Pawnee Hero Stories" (1889), "Blackfoot Lodge Tales" (1892) and "The Story of the Indian" (1895).

Of his work President Theodore Roosevelt said:

“In his books… Mr. George Bird Grinnell has portrayed [the Indians] with a master hand; it is hard to see how his work can be bettered.”

Selected papers by Grinnell were edited by J. F. Reiger in 1972.

Partial list of works

• When Buffalo Ran (1920, 2008) ISBN 978-1443768450
• The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Lifeways, Edited and Illustrated, (World Wisdom, 2008) ISBN 978-1933316604
• Native American Ways: Four Paths to Enlightenment, (A & D Publishing, 2007) ISBN 978-1934451939
• Hunting In Many Lands: The Book Of The Boone And Crockett Club, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) ISBN 978-0548085257
• The Fighting Cheyennes, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) ISBN 978-0548134009
• Blackfeet Indian Stories, (BiblioBazaar, 2007) ISBN 978-1434607300
• The Cheyenne Indians V1: Their History And Ways Of Life, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) ISBN 978-1432588465
• American Big Game in Its Haunts, (Dodo Press, 2007) ISBN 978-1406547412
• Blackfoot Lodge Tales, (BiblioBazaar, 2006) ISBN 978-1426447440
• My Life As An Indian: The Story Of A Red Woman And A White Man In The Lodges Of The Blackfeet, (Kessinger Publishing, 2005) ISBN 978-1417955275
• Two Great Scouts and Their Pawnee Battalion, (University of Nebraska Press, 1996) ISBN 978-0803257757
• Alaska 1899: Essays from the Harriman Expedition, (University of Washington Press, 1995) ISBN 978-0295973777
• American Duck Shooting (Classics of American Sport), (Stackpole Books, 1991) ISBN 978-0811724272
• The Whistling skeleton: American Indian tales of the supernatural, (Four Winds Press, 1982) ISBN 978-0590078016
• The Cheyenne Indians, Vol. 1: History and Society, (Bison Books, 1972) ISBN 978-0803257719
• The Cheyenne Indians, Vol. 2: War, Ceremonies, and Religion, (Bison Books, 1972) ISBN 978-0803257726
• The passing of the Great West, (Winchester Press], 1972) ISBN 978-0876910658
• By Cheyenne Campfires, (University of Nebraska Press, 1971) ISBN 978-0803257467
• The Last of the Buffalo (American Environmental Studies), (Ayer Co Pub, 1970) ISBN 978-0405026652
• Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales, (University of Nebraska Press, 1961)

• Hunting on Three Continents, by George Bird Grinnell, Kermit Roosevelt, W. Redmond Cross, and Prentiss N. Gray (editors). New York: The Derrydale Press (1933) -- The seventh book of the Boone and Crockett Club, this wide-ranging collection includes accounts of Expeditions toward the North Pole and to the south of the Equator, articles relating to wild animals, and other pieces that speak the perils of hunting game to the brink of extinction. Among the most noteworthy contributions are "The Vanished Game of Yesterday" by Madison Grant, "An Epic of the Polar Air Lanes" by Lincoln Ellsworth, "Aeluropus Melanoleucus" by Kermit Roosevelt, "Taps for the Great Selous" by Frederick R. Burnham, "Volcano Sheep" by G.D. Pope, "Three Days on the Stikine River" by Emory W. Clark, and "Giant Sable Antelope" by Charles P. Curtis.
• The Boy Scout's Book of True Adventure, Fourteen Honorary Scouts, with Foreword by Theodore Roosevelt and Biographical Notes By James E. West. Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York (1931) -- Essays include: "A Tobacco Trade" by George Bird Grinnell, "Scouting Against the Apache" by Frederick R. Burnham, "How I Learned to Fly" by Orville Wright, "Adventurous Hunting" by Kermit Roosevelt, "An Arctic Mirage" by Donald B. MacMillan, "The First Crossing of the Polar Sea" by Lincoln Ellsworth, "In the Arctic" by Lincoln Ellsworth, "The Black Ghosts of the Tana River" by James L. Clark, "My Flight Over the Atlantic" by Richard E. Byrd, "In the Jungles of Cochin-China" by Theodore Roosevelt, "Shipwreck" by Robert A. Bartlett, "Written in the Air" by Charles A. Lindbergh, "Tiger! Tiger!" by Merian C. Cooper, "Bandits" by Clifford H. Pope, and "Adventure" by Stewart Edward White. All 13 photo plates of the honorary Scouts are present; both Roosevelts in the same photo.

References

• Punke, Michael, "Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West", Smithsonian Books, 2007, ISBN 978 0 06 089782 6

External links

• Works by George Bird Grinnell at Project Gutenberg
• George Bird Grinnell at Find a Grave