Herbert Spinden

He later recalled that his early childhood was spent on the edge of civilization where his family lived in a sod hut with oiled paper covering the windows.

In the summer of 1905 he and a fellow student excavated a Mandan village in North Dakota and studied the language and culture of that tribe.

He received a doctorate degree in 1909 after submitting his thesis, A Study of Mayan Art, which has been called a "brilliant analysis of the evolution of styles".

[2] He then worked American Museum of Natural History where he undertook archaeological studies in Mexico and Central America.

While working as an archaeologist in Central America he and Sylvanus G. Morley were among the American scientists gathering intelligence for the US Army.