Erna Gunther (1896–1982)[1] was an American anthropologist who taught for many years at the University of Washington in Seattle.
She helped create the core of the newly formed anthropology program at the University of Washington in the 1920s, along with Spier and Melville Jacobs.
As an American Indian specialist, her research focused on the Salish and Makah peoples of western Washington state, with publications on ethnobotany, ethnohistory, and general ethnology.
Her students included anthropologists Wayne Suttles, Dale Croes and Wilson Duff.
In 1949, she helped finance the archaeological investigation run by Charles E. Borden at Walen's farm (DfRs-3) on Boundary Bay.