The extent to which infectious diseases threatened to eradicate many of the Aboriginal tribes of the Pacific Northwest in their first century of contact with Europeans has been forcefully presented by Robert Boyd in an essential study, The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874 (UBC Press 1999). Concurrently he edited Indians, Fire, and the Land in the Pacific Northwest (1999). Using fire as their primary tool Aboriginal tribes of the Northwest actively shaped and managed their landscape in a quest for food. The relationship between the Aboriginal peoples and the land is critical and this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore a traditional ecological knowledge.

Robert Boyd's first book, People of the Dalles: the Indians of Wascopam Mission (1996), was selected as a "Choice Outstanding Academic Book" for 1996.

Co-edited by Boyd, Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia (U. of Washington 2013), amalgamates research by archaeologists, ethnologists, scientists and historians to profile the Chinook tribe who are still not officially recognized by the United States government. Readers are given a picture of the Chinookan homeland, their landscape, history and culture from 10,000 years ago to the present.

Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma on September 27, 1945, Boyd received a BA from Portland State University in 1967, an MA from UCLA in 1969 and a Ph.D from the University of Washington in 1985, all in sociocultural anthropology. He is affiliated faculty in the Anthropology Department at Portland State University where he was formerly an adjunct associate professor of anthropology

Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia
The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Disease and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774- 1874

BOOKS:

Boyd, Robert. People of The Dalles: The Indians of Wascopam Mission (University of Nebraska Press, 1996).

Boyd, Robert. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874 (UBC Press, 1999).

Boyd, Robert (editor). Indians, Fire, and the Land in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon State University Press, 1999).

Boyd, Robert, Kenneth Ames, and Tony Johnson (co-editors): Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia (U. of Washington 2013)

[BCBW 2017]