NOVEMBER 15, 1897

KIOWA LINGUIST PARKER McKENZIE BORN

Parker, born near Rainy Mountain, Oklahoma (OK), was educated at the Rainy Mountain Kiowa Boarding School, Phoenix Indian School, Union High School, Lamson College, and OK State University. At Phoenix Indian School, he met Nettie Odlety whom he married in 1919. They were two of the earliest Kiowa photographers. In 1918, McKenzie translated for anthropologist John Peabody Harrington of the Smithsonian Institute as he studied Kiowa language. Together, they recorded the language and developed a phonetic alphabet which led to a Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language (1928) and Popular Account of the Kiowa Indian Language (1948). From the 1920s to the 1950s, McKenzie was a stenographer at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 1984, with Laurel Watkins, McKenzie published A Grammar of Kiowa. He also translated many texts from English, including Baptist hymns. McKenzie died on March 5, 1999. Posthumously, he was inducted into the OK Historians Hall of Fame.

Source: Liz Pollard, “Kiowa Elder & Scholar Dr. Parker McKenzie, 101, Passes,” Native News, 3/9/1999.  Retrieved 1/8/2024, https://www.mail-archive.com/nativenews@mlists.net/msg00739.html    
Photo:  Author Unknown, 3/21/1916.  Photograph of Nettie Odelty and Parker McKenzie in front of the Administration Building at the Phoenix Indian School, March 1916.  Permissive Use.