Franc Johnson Newcomb (1887–1970)

[excerpted from Encyclopedia.com website]
After graduating from Tomah High School in Jacksonville, Wisconsin, in 1904, Newcomb taught locally for five years, studying summers to complete her education degree in 1913. Joining the Indian Service in 1911, Newcomb taught Menominees until her health demanded a transfer from Wisconsin. In 1912 Newcomb taught Navajos at the Fort Defiance, Arizona, boarding school, where she met her husband, a trader. They established a trading post in a remote Navajo community in northwestern New Mexico. After Newcomb moved to Albuquerque in 1935 to educate her two daughters, she wrote and worked to establish a visiting nurse service and day nursery there and the Museum of Navaho Ceremonial Art in Santa Fe. N. Scott Momaday applauded her realistic portrayals of Navajo life. To Newcomb, Navajos were people, not objects for study. This basic assumption permeates Newcomb's works, enhancing their value as a record of the personal dimension of intercultural communication.