Bernard G. Hoffman earned a B.A. in 1946 from The University of Montana-Missoula and a Ph.D. in 1955 from the University of California at Berkeley. While he was a graduate student, Hoffman returned to Montana to join the archeological survey of the Canyon Ferry dam site under the supervision of Professor Carling Malouf. In 1955-1956, Hoffman was a research analyst with the United States Department of Justice Indian Claims Section; 1957-1958, research associate of the American University Foreign Area Study Division; 1958-1964, research analyst for the National Science Foundation Foreign Service Information Program; and 1964-1965, head of the National Science Foundation's Course Content Improvement Program. In 1965, he joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland at College Park. His specialty was eastern American Indians from Appalachia to eastern Canada.
Hoffman published three books: Cabot to Cartier; sources for a Historical Ethnography of Northeastern North America, 1497-1955 in 1961, Observations on Certain Ancient Tribes of the Northern Appalachian Province in 1964, and The Structure of Traditional Moroccan Rural Society in 1967
In 1988 he retired to Chantilly, Virginia.
From the guide to the Bernard G. Hoffman papers, 1945-1950, (University of Montana-Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)
