Brugge, David M.

David L. Brugge was born in Jamestown, New York on September 3, 1927. He was drafted into the army in the fall of 1945 and served until the summer of 1947. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in 1950 he and a friend, Glen F. (Jim) Wilson, ran the Ayani Trading Company in Albuquerque Old Town. This business venture gave Brugge the opportunity to make contacts on buying trips to the reservations in the Southwest. In 1952 Brugge began his close association with the Navajo peoples when he started work in the Navajo Surplus Commodity Program based in Gallup for the New Mexico Department of Public Welfare. In 1953 he worked as a seasonal ranger at El Morro National Monument and from 1954-1957 he worked for the Unitarian Service Committee's Gallup Indian Community Center. For the next decade he conducted anthropological and ethnohistorical research for the Navajo Nation on various land disputes such as Healing vs. Jones, litigation resulting from the disagreement commonly known as the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute. He also worked on the Moenkopi Project, which concerned the creation of an exclusive Hopi use area near Tuba City, and the Navajo Land Claim case.

During Brugge's 20 years with the National Park Service he worked as Curator at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Ganado, Arizona, archaeologist at the Chaco Center in Albuquerque, and Regional Curator for the Southwest Regional Office of the National Park Service at Santa Fe. In 1986 he co-founded the Navajo Studies Conference with Charlotte J. Frisbie. Since his retirement from the Park Service in 1989 he has worked as a consultant in anthropology and has been active in research in Navajo cultural history. Brugge has produced more than 150 publications. His articles and books are about archaeology, ethnology, ethnohistory, history, linguistics, ethnobotany, architecture, rock art, material culture, land use and contemporary Navajo life. He is a member of numerous national, regional and local anthropological and archaeological societies including American Archaeological Association, Plateau Sciences Society, Archaeological Society of New Mexico, American Society for Ethnohistory and Society for American Archaeology. In the spring of 2005 Brugge received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New Mexico. He currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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