Fern E. Swenson, of Bismarck, North Dakota, passed away on April 15, 2022, from cancer. A Celebration of Life was held in October 2022 at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum with colleagues, friends, and family in attendance.
Fern was born in Starbuck, Minnesota, on December 5, 1954. She graduated from Glenwood (MN) High School in 1972. Then, she attended St. Cloud State University (SCSU) (MN) graduating with a double major in Anthropology and American Studies in 1976. Fern’s undergraduate and early post-graduate years (1976–1979) were devoted to archaeological investigations, principally in Minnesota, while working at SCSU and the St. Cloud Museum of Man. She drew upon disciplinary tenets of both majors in the following decades. One of us (PRP) maintained a forty-five-year professional and personal friendship stemming from our mutual Minnesota interests and contacts.
In 1979, she enrolled in graduate studies in Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. At Oklahoma, Fern pursued her research on ceramics, settlement patterns, and exchange networks while mentored by Susan and Rain Vehik, Timothy Baugh, and Joseph Whitecotton. Colleagues during the intervening years (1980–1985) at the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey remained life-long friends. Fern received her MA in 1986 with a thesis centered on Washita River Phase and Edwards Complex cultural continuity.
Concurrently, Fern accepted a position at the University of North Dakota (UND) as Assistant Research Archaeologist in 1985. During 1985–1987 she participated in a multi-year research project along the James River valley in east-central North Dakota. Long-term professional associations with UND colleagues, Michael Gregg, Fred Schneider, and Stanley Ahler were established.
In 1987, Fern accepted a Research Archaeologist position at State Historical Society of North Dakota (SHSND), followed by Chief Archaeologist (1994–2001). For the next twenty-one years (2001–2022), Fern served as the Director of Archaeology & Historic Preservation Division (now Department) and the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer at SHSND. Her career led down many avenues, including, but not limited to, cultural resource management, consultation, research, publications, and mentorship. For example, the Archaeological Component of the North Dakota State Plan for Historic Preservation (1990, and subsequent updates) coincided with her initial efforts and vision regarding historic preservation goals and strategies.
Fern’s knowledge and understanding of federal and state laws relating to cultural resources was solid. She knew and understood the role of the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO): what we can and cannot do. This distinction is important—because citing the laws and regulations is not the same as understanding and implementing them correctly.
We coauthored, with Fern, a chapter in the 2016 publication of The National Historic Preservation Act: Past, Present, and Future. There is a lot to learn from revisiting all the work that has been accomplished by the North Dakota SHPO over the last 50-plus years. It demonstrates the need for continual adaptation and funding of the NHPA to be effective, for which Fern was an avid proponent. To that end, Fern led partnerships with federal and state agencies, tribal governments, local preservation groups, and landowners. She kept an even keel during adversity and strove for productive outcomes for all parties.
An example of a productive outcome is the stabilization project at Double Ditch State Historic Site (32BL8). The site, located along the Missouri River in central North Dakota, began eroding rapidly after the spring thaw of 2011. Fern was pivotal in coordinating the stabilization effort, working with officials in state government, state legislators, the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation (MHAN), engineers, grass root organizers, and fellow staff. The legislature appropriated one million dollars for the project. Numerous burials were uncovered during construction and Fern worked directly with MHAN to respectfully care for the remains until reinterment.
Beyond government agencies, Fern successfully partnered with PaleoCultural Research Group, the Archaeological Conservancy, local historic preservation commissions, and landowners, to name a few. She enjoyed her friendship and work, spanning decades, with Gail and Allan Lynch, culminating in the dedication of the Lynch Knife River Flint Quarries as a National Historic Landmark in 2012. Numerous projects with PCRG (and University of Missouri and University of Arkansas collaborators) at Plains Village sites have made huge strides in our collective understanding of village life over nearly 1,000 years. Remote-sensing investigations went hand-in-hand achieving monumental results. Much of this work is highlighted in a documentary, The People of the Upper Missouri: The Mandans, for which Fern was the primary writer and associate producer.
Fern was proud of the research, development, and production of exhibits in the Early Peoples Gallery at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum which opened in 2014. To complement the gallery, Fern and Barbara Handy-Marchello, authored Traces: Early Peoples of North Dakota thorough a broadly accessible overview of 12,000 years of people in North Dakota. Over several decades, Fern authored and co-authored numerous articles, book contributions, and conference papers and posters discussing Northern Plains ceramics, archaeology, and ethnography.
Fern was an active member of the Plains Anthropological Society (PAS), Archaeological Conservancy, North Dakota Archaeological Association, Cynthia Kordecki Scholarship Committee, and State Historical Society of North Dakota Foundation. She co-organized three Plains Anthropological Conferences in Bismarck and served on the PAS Board of Directors (2006–2008). Fern posthumously received the PAS Distinguished Service Award at the 79th Plains Conference in Oklahoma City.
Fern had many likes, including project planning, harnessing new technology, working with students of all ages, Microsoft clip art, friends’ company, television comedies, (most) music, and tequila. She enjoyed reading and researching archaeology and anthropology materials on weekends. Fern was a diehard Minnesota Vikings football fan and known to return to the office on Sunday afternoons if it appeared the “Vikes” were not going to win the contest.
Friends and coworkers were not expecting to lose Fern so soon. She was one of the go-to people at the SHSND because of the institutional knowledge she accumulated in 35 years with the agency. No one knows everything, but Fern taught us a lot. We all benefit from having known her.
Fern is survived by her family in Iowa – Irene (sister), Justin (nephew), Mindy (niece), and several great-nephews and great-nieces – and many friends and colleagues.
Selected bibliography of Fern Swenson
Drass, Richard, and Fern E. Swenson (1986) Variation in the Washita River Phase of Central and Western Oklahoma. Plains Anthropologist 31(111):35–49.
Green, William, William T. Billeck, Fern E. Swenson, and George R. Holley (2016) Glass Bead Inlaid Pottery from the Northern Plains. Plains Anthropologist 61(240):425–448.
Handy-Marchello, Barbara, and Fern E. Swenson (2018) Traces: Early Peoples of North Dakota. State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.
Michlovic, Michael G., and Fern E. Swenson (1998) Northeastern Plains Village Ceramics. North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains 65(2 & 3):11–25.
Murray, Wendi Field, and Fern E. Swenson (2016) Situational Sedentism: Post-Contact Arikara Settlement as Social Process in the Middle Missouri, North Dakota. Plains Anthropologist 61(240):336–360.
Picha, Paul R., and Fern E. Swenson (1997) Whorls and Valves: Marine Shell Artifacts from North Dakota. Central Plains Archaeology 5(1):77–97.
Picha, Paul R., and Fern E. Swenson (2000) Freshwater Shell Tool/Ornament Production and Resource Use in the Middle Missouri Subarea of North Dakota. Central Plains Archeology 8(1):103–120.
Swenson, Fern E. (editor) (1995) Two Extended Middle Missouri Village Sites in North Dakota. North Dakota Archaeology: Journal of the North Dakota Archaeological Association 6.
Swenson, Fern E. (2007) Settlement Plans for Traditional Mandan Villages at Heart River. In Plains Village Archaeology, edited by Stanley A. Ahler and Marvin Kay, pp. 239–258. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Swenson, Fern E., and Michael L. Gregg (1988) A Devils Lake-Sourisford Mortuary Vessel from Southeastern North Dakota. Journal of the North Dakota Archaeological Association 3:1–15.
Swenson, Fern E., Paul R. Picha, and Amy C. Bleier (2016) A Retrospective from the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office. In The National Historic Preservation Act: Past. Present, and Future, edited by Kimball M. Banks and Ann M. Scott, pp. 65–84. Routledge, New York.
Documentaries
(2012) The People of the Upper Missouri: The Mandans. Script by Fern E. Swenson and Wendi Field Murray. Associate Producer with Wendi Field Murray. State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.
(2014) Flintknapping Knife River Flint. Fern E. Swenson, producer, with Jessi Hellman. State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.