Muriel Thayer was born in Minneapolis in 1892. She attended University of Minnesota and graduated from Wellesley in 1916 with a degree in social work. During 1938-39, Bronislaw Malinowski was a guest lecturer at the University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology. Muriel Thayer Painter joined Malinowski in observing the Yaqui Easter ceremony in Spring, 1939.
From the beginning, Muriel Painter's commitment to study the Easter ceremony, and eventually the entire ceremonial cycle, grew. Each year from 1939 through 1954 she attended most of the Holy Week observances and the processions during Lent. Her extensive notes documenting these observations were supplemented by interviews with Yaquis over a period of years from 1948 to 1975. Mrs. Painter was appointed chairperson of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce "Yaqui Committee" in 1942. In 1950, the Tucson Chamber of Commerce published her pamphlet on the Yaqui Easter Ceremony at Pascua, which was later updated and reprinted by the University of Arizona Press.
Since 1944, Muriel Painter was a research associate at the Arizona State Museum. She was program chairperson for the Tucson Festival Society which began organizing the annual San Xavier Fiesta in 1952. During the 1960s, she was chairperson of the Pascua Yaqui Association which sought to improve housing in Pascua Pueblo. The work of this Association eventually gained recognition of the Yaquis as a tribe and funds for establishing New Pascua Pueblo.
When she died in 1975, Muriel Painter left her papers, including her unpublished manuscript, to the Arizona State Museum. Dr. Edward Spicer of the Department of Anthropology and Wilma Kaemlein, emeritus staff member of ASM, revised the manuscript and in 1986 it was published as With Good Heart by the University of Arizona Press.
From the guide to the Muriel Thayer Painter Collection, 1939-1975., (Arizona State Museum)
