Bertha Pallan Thurston Cody (née Parker; August 30, 1907 – October 8, 1978) was an American archaeologist, working as an assistant in archaeology at the Southwest Museum. She was also married to actor Iron Eyes Cody. She is thought to be the first Native American female archaeologist of Abenaki and Seneca descent. EARLY LIFE Bertha (Yeawas) "Birdie" Parker was born in 1907 in Chautauqua County, New York. Her mother, Beulah Tahamont (later Folsom), was an actress; as a teen, she and her mother reportedly performed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus as part of the “Pocahontas” show. 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 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. During the Gypsum Cave expedition, Bertha met, in 1930, and later married, in 1931, the paleontologist, James Thurston after the expedition. In 1931, both became ill during their work at the Gypsum Caves; Bertha became ill due to the large amounts of cave guano and Thurston died suddenly from a heart attack while lifting a rock on site. This illness caused Bertha to move back in with her parents for a time in Los Angeles. DEATH Bertha Parker Pallan died in 1978, aged 71. Her gravestone simply reads "Mrs. Iron Eyes Cody". ARCHAEOLOGICAL CAREER Mark Raymond Harrington, her uncle, hired Parker as a camp cook and expedition secretary. shortly after marrying her aunt Endeka. She participated in excavations at the site of Mesa House and other locales, and Harrington taught her archaeological methods in the field. In 1929, she discovered and did a solo excavation at the pueblo site of Scorpion Hill; the finds were exhibited in the Southwest Museum. Bertha worked at Gypsum Cave in 1930, a site that Harrington promoted as having the earliest evidence for human occupation of North America during the Pleistocene. While on this expedition, Bertha also discovered the site of Corn Creek after seeing fossil camel bone protruding from an eroding lake bed. From 1931 to 1941, Bertha worked as an Assistant in Archaeology and Ethnology at the Southwest Museum. She published a number of archaeological and ethnological papers in the museum journal, Masterkey, from the early 1930s through the 1960s. These included papers such as "California Indian Baby Cradles", "Kachina Dolls" and several articles on the Yurok Tribe, including "Some Yurok Customs and Beliefs". Bertha Parker Pallan Thurston Cody is notable in the field of archaeology for her role as a ground-breaker: she was one of the first (if not the first) Native American female archaeologists. She was certainly first in her ability to conduct this work at a high level of skill, yet without a university education, making discoveries and gaining insights that impressed the trained archaeologists around her.

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