Department of Teaching & Learning

Bill Pulte

Associate Professor



Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
3101 University Blvd, Ste.345
Dallas, 75205
Box 455
214-768-3572
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Dr. William Pulte was born in Gainesville, Texas, on January 13, 1941. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Spanish at North Texas State University and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971.

Dr. Pulte served as staff linguist for the Cherokee Bilingual Education Program at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, from 1971-73. Dr. Pulte joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at SMU in 1973.

In collaboration with Durbin Feeling, Dr. Pulte has done extensive research on the Cherokee language. He has also penned numerous publications in linguistics and bilingual education including "Are Bilingual-Bicultural Programs Socially Divisive?" He was the editor of the Cherokee-English Dictionary, compiled by Durbin Feeling, and the co-author of Outline of Cherokee Grammar. He is also the author of over twenty articles and papers on Cherokee and other American Indian languages. He has served as the director of programs serving both Spanish and Cherokee speaking students, including the Cherokee Bilingual Education Program, one of the first 75 Title VII projects in bilingual education. 

Dr. Pulte has served as the director of Bilingual Education Programs at SMU for over twenty-five years, including directorship of the Master of Bilingual Education program with more than 450 graduates. He has also coordinated the teacher certification program in bilingual education at SMU, and he has been the director of nine teacher training projects in bilingual education funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Pulte has directed school district and university programs in bilingual education, including 12 Title VII/Title III teacher training grants at SMU.

Major Publications:

Cherokee-English Dictionary (edited by William Pulte). Durbin Feeling in collaboration with Agnes Cowen Dictionary Project Coordinator and The Dictionary Committee, Charles Sanders, Chairman, Sam Hair, Annie Meigs, Anna Gritts Kilpatrick Smith. Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, 1975.

Outline of Cherokee Grammar William Pulte and Durbin Feeling, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, 1975.

Books and Monographs:

1998 Cherokee Texts. With Durbin Feeling. Completed except for final formatting, to be submitted to University of Nebraska press.

1975 Cherokee-English Dictionary (editor) Tahlequah: Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. 1975b (Senior Author with Durbin Feeling), An Outline of Cherokee Grammar . Tahlequah: Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Chapters in Books:

1987 with Durbin Feeling: "The Use of Cherokee in Religious Services." In Proceedings of the Seventh Annual International Institute on Native American Language Issues. Calgary, Canada.

1986 "Cherokee Syllabary Charts and Cherokee Literacy," in Proceedings of the Sixth Annual International Language Issues Institute, Suzanne Weryackwe, (ed.). 70-73. Norman, Oklahoma.

1979 "Cherokee: A Flourishing or Obsolescing Language?" in Language and Society, William C. McCormack and Sol Wurm, (eds.). 423-432. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.

1976 "The Obligatory-Optional Principle: A Counter-example from Cherokee," in The Third LACUS Forum 1976, Robert J. DiPietro and Edward L. Blansitt, Jr., (eds.). 77-79. Columbia, S.C.: Hornbeam Press, Inc.

1975a "The Position of Chickasaw in Western Muskogean," in Studies in Southeastern Indian Languages, James M. Crawford (ed.). 251-255. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.

1975b "Writing Systems and Underlying Phonological Representation: The Case of the Cherokee Syllabary," in 1975 Mid-America Linguistics Conference Papers, Frances Ingemann (ed.). 388-403. Lawrence: The University of Kansas Linguistics Department.

1972 "Some Claims Regarding Gapping: The Evidence from Cherokee," in Mid-America Linguistics Conference Papers, John Battle (ed.). 255-260. Stillwater: Oklahoma State University Press.

1971a "Gapping and Word Order in Quecha," in Papers from the Seventh Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistics Society, 193-197. Chicago: Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago.

1971b"German in Virginia and West Virginia," in The German Language in America, Glenn G. Gilbert (ed.) 58-69. Austin: The University of Texas Press.

1970"An Analysis of Selected German Dialects of North Texas and Oklahoma: in Texas Studies in Bilingualism, Glenn G. Gilbert (ed.). 105-115. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.

Articles in Journals:

"Sequoyah in Mexico," Cuarto Oscuro, February 1998.

"It's Time to Wake Up," Cuarto Oscuro, August, 1997.

"What is Bilingual Education?" Cuarto Oscuro, December, 1996.

"Excerpt from the Diary of a Cherokee Shaman," Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol. X. 1986

"The Origin of Evil Magic," Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol. X. 1986

"What is Bilingual Immersion?" The Intercultural Development Research Association Newsletter, Oct. 1986, pp. 1-5. 1986

"The Experienced and Non-experienced Past in Cherokee," International Journal of American Linguistics. 4:543-44. 1985

"The Cherokees and the Kickapoo of Coahuila, Mexico: a Previously Unreported Relationship," Journal of Cherokee Studies. 1:35-36. 1984

"Are Bilingual-Bicultural Programs Socially Divisive?" The Education Digest. May: 55-57. 1979

"Are Bilingual-Bicultural Programs Socially Divisive?" Integrate Education, XVI (September/ October): 31-33. 1978

"The Nineteenth Century Cherokee Grammars," Anthropological Linguistics. (Senior Author with Durbin Feeling) 19(6):274-279. 1977

"A Note on Gapping," Linguistic Inquiry, 4:100. 1973