Reichard, Gladys Amanda (1893–1955)

US cultural anthropologist. She made a lifelong study of the language and culture of the Navajo, presenting the results of her fieldwork in a series of studies, including Social Life of the Navaho Indians 1928, Spider Woman 1934, and Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism 1950.

She was born in Bangor, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a physician of Quaker background. She taught in public schools for six years before enrolling at Swarthmore, from which she graduated in the classics in 1919. She went on to Columbia University, where Franz Boas became her mentor, and received a PhD in 1925. She taught at Barnard College from 1923 to the end of her life.