Background
Wheat, Joe Ben was born on April 21, 1916 in Van Horn, Texas, United States. Son of Luther Peers and Elizabeth (Wellborn) Wheat.
Wheat, Joe Ben was born on April 21, 1916 in Van Horn, Texas, United States. Son of Luther Peers and Elizabeth (Wellborn) Wheat.
Wheat first studied at Sul Ross University before transferring to Texas Tech University. It was at Texas Tech that Anthropology professor William Curry Holden influenced him to pursue an education in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1937. Wheat attended the University of Arizona where he advanced his studies in Anthropology and earned his Master of Arts in 1949 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1953.
Wheat began his career in the field of archaeology at Texas Tech University as a field director for the Works Progress Administration in 1939. From the 1940's through the 1960's, Joe took part in and directed archeological excavations at sites inhabited by Indians in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. Much of his work involved prehistoric Indian settlements in southwest Colorado. In the 1970's, Dr. Wheat analyzed the materials, dyes and structure used by the Navajo and Pueblo Indians in making blankets in the 19th century. That information helped him determine about when the blankets had been woven.
He reported in scholarly articles that the crimson threads in many Navajo blankets, mostly dating from before 1870, had come from cloth that the Navajo had obtained by trading with the Spanish and then unraveled to use in their weaving. The reds and other colors in many late 19th century Navajo blankets came from chemical dyes. Dr. Wheat carried out similar analyses of blankets, sashes, kilts and other items woven by Pueblo Indians in what is now New Mexico and Arizona.
Speaking of his academic career, Dr. Wheat was president of the Society for American Archeology in 1966 and 1967. He retired in 1987 after 34 years with the University of Colorado, where he was a professor of natural history and curator of anthropology at the university museum, which is on the university's main campus in Boulder. He contributed numerous articles to journals and, in addition, contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
On April 6, 1947 Joe married Frances Irene Moore, but she deceased in November 1987. Then he married Barbara K. Zernickow on March 18, 1992.