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LLyn De Danaan (also known as Lynn Patterson) was a faculty member at The Evergreen State College from 1971 to 2000 with a focus in cultural anthropology. De Danaan received her BA cum laude in Cultural Anthropology from Ohio State University in 1966 where she was in the honors program and elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa academic honorary society. She received her M.A. and A.B.D. in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1970. She received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Union Graduate School in 1985. Her dissertation was based on fieldwork in Kelantan, Malaysia, and was a field study of trance, healing and performance.

While at Evergreen, De Danaan acted as an academic dean from 1973 to 1976 and helped establish the learning resource center, the Tacoma campus, and a prior learning program. She also sponsored and taught in the first program for returning women students. Her contributions included the recruitment and hiring of faculty, especially women and people of color faculty.

She taught for several quarters at Evergreen's Tacoma campus and in the Evergreen master's in teaching program. She taught as part of an exchange teaching program at the University of Western Mexico and Seattle Central College. Post-retirement she taught at Wuhan University of Science and Technology and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and do research at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

De Danaan's fieldwork experience includes ethnographic work with farm laborers in Yakima Valley as well as long-term projects in Sarawak and Kelantan, Malaysia, and short-term projects in Thailand and Rajasthan, India. With Subiyay (Bruce Miller) and Karen James, she produced a film depicting the work of Skokomish basket makers.

During a Fulbright Fellowship in Romania (2006-2007), De Danaan was a collaborating photographer on a project documenting Transylvanian winter ceremonies.

De Danaan was a member of the United States Peace Corps from 1962-64 and served in Sarawak, Malaysia. She published several articles about that experience. She published two monographs based upon her research during that period in which she also worked at the Sarawak Museum under the tutelage of Tom Harrisson, DSO, OBE.

In her professional life, De Danaan acted as a research consultant for various groups, institutions, and Washington tribes. In 1993, she acted as a consultant and expert witness for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians before the court in United States v. State of Wash., 873 F. Supp. 1422 (W.D. Wash. 1994), the proceedings are commonly known as the "shellfish case."

She subsequently completed several projects for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and was an expert witness for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in their effort to receive compensation for energy produced by the Wells Dam. She collaborated with anthropologists Karen James and Barbara Lane on a study for Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

De Danaan generated a report for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians on "Health Hazards Associated with Museum Collections" in 1998.

She also produced social studies curricula for Washington State schools in collaboration with Native educators and the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction's office.

In appreciation of her work in fostering an understanding of Washington's cultural diversity, she was honored with the Washington State Historical Society's Peace and Friendship Award.

She is probably most known for her 2013 University of Nebraska Press book, Katie Gale: A Coast Salish Woman's Life on Oyster Bay.

Her "Mountain of Shell: The Senryu Poets of Oyster Bay" project concerned the lives of the Japanese and Japanese-American community in Oyster Bay, Washington. An article on the project appeared in the Winter 2012 edition of Columbia Magazine.

She also researched, wrote, and published pieces about the life of the first Indigenous woman pilot, Mary Riddle.

De Danaan has produced many non-academic volumes of fiction and poetry. These include Conversations with the Inner Dog, Koans for the Inner Dog, and Soliloquy. Her work has been included in several anthologies.

De Danaan served as a Washington State Humanities speaker for four years.

She is a long-time reviewer for CHOICE, the magazine of the Association of College and Research Libraries.