Archives West Finding Aid

Nile Robert Thompson was born in Seattle on August 12, 1950. He earned a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. As an undergraduate he studied Haida with Carol Eastman, Blackfoot with Allan Taylor and Puget Sound Salish with Thom Hess. Thompson has conducted extensive linguistic and anthropologic fieldwork among the Twana, Puget Sound Salish and Kwagulth. He was employed by the Skokomish Tribe from 1975-80 (directing projects on language and basketry) and the Steilacoom Tribe from 1982-89 (directing a federal acknowledgment project and establishing a museum). He has also worked as a consultant for the Squaxin, Snohomish, Muckleshoot and Confederated Chehalis tribes as well as the Wahelut Indian School. He has served on a number of boards including the American Indian Basketry Magazine, the Swedish Finn Historical Society, the Heritage League of Pierce County and the Tribal Museum Association of Washington. Among his numerous publications, the most influential is probably Crow’s Shells: The Artistic Basketry of Puget Sound . He has also written a history of the Puget Sound Sheet Metal Works and another on all of the Seattle Public Schools.