As the first Indigenous archaeologist, Bertha Parker made important contributions to the field. While excavating in Gypsum cave, she found the skull of a ground sloth near tools used by humans. The discovery suggested that humans and the sloth lived in the cave 10,000 years ago — the earliest evidence of humans in America at the time. What’s even more shocking is that Parker had no formal training to become an archaeologist. She was an apprentice under her father and later her uncle, Mark Harrington, in Nevada. Other important sites she worked on were Scorpion Hill and Corn Creek. Parker helped lead the way for underrepresented people in archaeology.
Bertha Parker
Archaeologist