Dartmouth prof dies in apparent suicide

Dartmouth College anthropologist Michael Anthony Dorris, founder of the school's Native American Studies Program, was found dead Friday afternoon at the Brick Tower Hotel in Concord, N.H., after an apparent suicide. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death, but hotel employees said it appears he suffocated himself with a plastic bag. Dartmouth Faculty Dean Jim Wright called the circumstances surrounding the death of the popular professor "a tragic situation." Wright noted that Dorris was scheduled to serve as keynote speaker for the NAS program's 25th anniversary conference last Thursday until he pulled out earlier this month. And while Wright stressed that he did not know why Dorris might have chosen to take his own life, he speculated that the cancelling of his address to the conference may have been related to whatever caused him to make that decision. Dorris was a professor of Native American Studies and Anthropology at Dartmouth and also earned a great deal of national respect for his writing. He was the author of the bestselling book The Broken Cord, which told the story of his adopted Native American Sioux son's struggle with fetal alcohol syndrome. NAS Professor Colin Calloway described Dorris as "one of the foremost Native American writers of our time and a first-rate writer by any standards." In a written statement yesterday, Dartmouth President James Freedman said Dorris was "beloved by a generation of Dartmouth students, whose lives were touched by his humanity and idealism." Freedman added that the NAS program "will stand as an enduring contribution to Dartmouth and to American higher education." Dorris received his master's degree from Yale University in Anthropology and History of the Theater, and he devoted much of his life to involvement with Native American groups. He taught in Canada and Australia before joining the Dartmouth faculty in 1972 as NAS chairperson and an Anthropology professor. He was promoted to associate professor of Anthropology in 1979 and served as the NAS chairperson until 1984. At the time of his death, Dorris was on leave from Dartmouth and working as visiting professor of Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota.