English: Grave of James Mooney in section 53 at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., in the United States.

Mooney was born February 10, 1861, in Richmond, Indiana. He was educated in the city's public schools, where he became fascinated with Native American culture and history. He immediately headed for the American frontier, where he became a self-taught expert on First Peoples. Usually living with various tribes to learns their culture, he became a participant-observer ethnographer whose remarkably detailed and accurate studies, largely free of European influences, are still widely used today. Between 1885 and 1890, he began compiling a list of every tribe that ever existed in the United States. His list runs to 3,000 names.

Mooney's lengthiest and most famous studies were of Southeastern and Great Plains Indians, and he lived for years among the Cherokee. He wrote two major treatises: "The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees" (1891) and "Myths of the Cherokee" (1900). He also wrote a notable study of the Ghost Dance, a widespread religious movement among various Native American cultures after 1890.

Mooney died of heart disease in Washington, D.C. on December 22, 1921.