Wayne Prescott Suttles, 87; Authority on Pacific Northwest Indians

Wayne Prescott Suttles, 87, an authority on Pacific Northwest Indian culture, died May 9 of pancreatic cancer at his home on San Juan Island off the coast of Washington, relatives announced.

Suttles was known for research that resulted in the revival of traditions and languages previously thought to have been lost and for research that helped prove that tribes that had been deemed extinct still existed. His work also was cited in landmark U.S. and Canadian court rulings on Indian rights.

“To us, it’s no different than losing one of our elders,” said Ken Hansen, chairman of the Samish Indian Nation in Anacortes, Wash. “He truly was the dean of Northwest anthropology.”

Suttles grew up on a dairy farm in Bothell, Wash., and earned bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in anthropology from the University of Washington. During World War II, he served as a Navy language officer translating Japanese. He started teaching in 1952 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

His early studies of the Salish in Washington and British Columbia involved many of the last generations who spoke Salish dialects as their first language. Among his published works is “The Musqueam Reference Grammar” (2004), considered by some scholars the most complete work on any of the 23 known Salish languages.