George Amos Dorsey (February 6, 1868 – March 29, 1931) was an American ethnographer of indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a special focus on the Caddoan and Siouan tribes of the Great Plains. He is credited with helping develop the anthropology of the Plains Indian tribes while serving as curator at the Field Museum in Chicago from 1898 until 1915. During this period, he also was Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago from 1907 to 1915. In 1897 Dorsey was one of the first anthropologists to appear as an expert forensic witness when examined what he proved were human remains and testified in the murder trial of Adolph Luetgert in Chicago. In 1925, his cultural study, Why We Behave Like Human Beings, became an unexpected bestseller. This inspired the reissue of his 1917 novel, and enabled him to publish several more books on anthropology and culture. One book in preparation at the time of his death in 1931 was published posthumously. Early life and education Dorsey was born in Hebron, Ohio, to Edwin Jackson and Mary Emma (nee Grove) Dorsey. He attended local schools before college. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Denison University in 1888, then a second bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1890 at Harvard University. He was awarded his PhD in 1894, based on his dissertation, An Archaeological Study Based on a Personal Exploration of Over One Hundred Graves at the Necropolis of Ancon, Peru. This was the first PhD in anthropology to be awarded by Harvard, and the second awarded in the United States. Career Based on his work in Peru in 1892, Dorsey became head of the archaeological branch of the department of anthropology at Harvard, serving until 1896. In 1897 he joined the staff of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. as assistant curator. He was promoted to curator in 1898 and served until 1915. From 1907 to 1915 he also was Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. In the 1890s Dorsey had travelled with Anglo-Canadian botanist and ethnographer Charles Frederick Newcombe and Scottish guide James Deans in Northwest Canada to gather Haida artefacts that might be of ethnographic interest. Their methods varied, but they frequently held little regard for the sensibilities of the First Nations, or native Canadians. The local missionary, John Henry Keen took them to task after learning that they had raided