SOURCE: "Michael Dorris; Chronicler of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome," in Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1997, p. A18.

[The following obituary focuses on the legacy of Dorris's life and works.]

Writer Michael Dorris, whose book about raising a brain-damaged child, The Broken Cord, brought international attention to the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome, has been found dead in a motel room, an apparent suicide, police said Monday.

Concord police said Dorris, 52, an author, anthropologist and founder of Dartmouth College's Native American Studies Program, apparently suffocated himself Friday with a plastic bag. An autopsy report is pending.

Dorris, who was married to best-selling novelist Louise Erdrich, co-wrote The Crown of Columbus with her in 1991 after a publisher agreed to pay the couple $1.5 million on the basis of a five-page outline.

Of Irish, French and American Indian ancestry, Dorris was the author of two novels, including the recently published Cloud Chamber, but was...