Opler se doctoró en la Universidad de Chicago en 1933. Impartió la docencia en el Reed College de Portland, Oregón y posteriormente en la Universidad Cornell y la Universidad de Oklahoma.

Su gran contribución en el campo de la etnografía fue la relacionada con los pueblos atabascanos del sur, es decir, los navajos y apaches: chiricahua, mescalero, lipán y jicarilla.

Su obra clásica es An Apache Life-Way (1941).

Trabajó con Grenville Goodwin, quien también estudió la organización social de los apaches occidentales. Tras la muerte prematura de Goodwin, Opler editó un volumen con sus cartas y otros escritos, publicado en 1973.

• La Universidad de Oklahoma instituyó el Morris E. Opler Award para obras realizadas por estudiantes de antropología social.

• Basso, Keith H.; & Opler, Morris E. (Eds.). (1971). Apachean culture history and ethnology. Anthropological papers of the University of Arizona (No. 21). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Castetter, Edward F.; & Opler, Morris E. (1936). The Ethnobiology of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache: The Use of Plants for Foods, Beverages and Narcotics, Ethnobiological studies in the American Southwest, (Vol. 3); Biological series (Vol. 4, No. 5); Bulletin, University of New Mexico, whole, (No. 297). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
• Goodwin, Grenville; & Opler, Morris E. (1973). Grenville Goodwin among the Western Apache: Letters from the Field. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-0417-2.
• Hoijer, Harry; & Opler, Morris E. (1938). Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts. The University of Chicago Publications in Anthropology; Linguistic series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted 1964 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; in 1970 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & in 1980 under H. Hoijer by New York: AMS Press, ISBN 0-404-15783-1).
• Opler, Morris E. (1932). An Analysis of Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache Social Organization in the Light of Their Systems of Relationship. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago)
• Opler, Morris E. (1935). "The Concept of Supernatural Power among the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches", American Anthropologist, 37 (1), 65–70.
• Opler, Morris E. (1936). "The kinship systems of the Southern Athabaskan-speaking tribes", American Anthropologist, 38 (4), 620–633.
• Opler, Morris E. (1937). "An Outline of Chiricahua Apache Social Organization", In F. Egan (Ed.), Social Anthropology of North American Tribes (pp. 173–242). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Opler, Morris E. (1938). "A Chiricahua Apache Account of the Geronimo Campaign of 1886", New Mexico Historical Review, October, 13 (4).
• Opler, Morris E. (1938). "Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians", Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society (No. 31). New York.
• Opler, Morris E. (1938). "The Use of Peyote by the Carrizo and the Lipan Apache", American Anthropologist, 40 (2).
• Opler, Morris E. (1940). Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society (Vol. 36). New York: American Folk-Lore Society, J. J. Augustin.
• Opler, Morris E. (1941). An Apache Life-way: The Economic, Social, and Religious Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted 1962 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1965 by New York: Cooper Square Publishers; 1965 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & 1994 by Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0-8032-8610-4).
• Opler, Morris E. (1942). "The Identity of the Apache Mansos", American Anthropologist, 44 (1), 725.
• Opler, Morris E. (1942). Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society (No. 37). New York: American Folk-Lore Society.
• Opler, Morris E. (1944). "The Jicarilla Apache Ceremonial Relay Race", American Anthropologist, 46 (1), 75–97.
• Opler, Morris E. (1945). "The Lipan Apache Death Complex and Its Extensions", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1 (1), 122–141.
• Opler, Morris E. (1945). "Themes as Dynamic Forces in Culture", American Journal of Sociology, 51 (3), 198–206.
• Opler, Morris E. (1946). The Creative Role of Shamanism in Mescalero Apache Mythology.
• Opler, Morris E. (1946). Childhood and Youth in Jicarilla Apache Society. Los Angeles: The Southwest Museum.
• Opler, Morris E. (1947). Mythology and Folk Belief in the Maintenance of Jicarilla Apache Tribal Endogamy.
• Opler, Morris E. (1959). "Component, assemblage, and theme in cultural integration and differentiation", American Anthropologist, 61 (6), 955–964.
• Opler, Morris E. (1961). Cultural evolution, Southern Athapaskans, and chronology in theory. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 17 (1), 1–20.
• Opler, Morris E. (1962). "Two converging lines of influence in cultural evolutionary theory", American Anthropologist, 64 (3), 524–547.
• Opler, Morris E. (1964). "The human being in culture theory", American Anthropologist, 66 (3), 507–528.
• Opler, Morris E. (1968). "Remuneration to supernaturals and man in Apachean ceremonialism", Ethnology, 7 (4), 356–393.
• Opler, Morris E. (1969). Apache odyssey: A journey between two worlds. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Opler, Morris E. (1969). Western Apache and Kiowa Apache materials relating to ceremonial payment. Ethnology, 8 (1), 122–124.
• Opler, Morris E. (1971). "Pots, Apache, and the Dismal River culture aspect", In K. H. Basso & M. E. Opler (Eds.) (pp. 29–33).
• Opler, Morris E. (1975). "Problems in Apachean cultural history, with special reference to the Lipan Apache", Anthropological Quarterly, 48 (3), 182–192.
• Opler, Morris E. (1975). Applied anthropology and the Apache. Papers in Anthropology, 16 (4), 1–77.
• Opler, Morris E. (1983). The Apachean culture pattern and its origins. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 368–392). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E. (1983). Chiricahua Apache. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 401–418). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E. (1983). Mescalero Apache. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 419–439). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E. (2001). Lipan Apache. In R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, pp. 941–952). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E; & Bittle, William E. (1961). The death practices and eschatology of the Kiowa Apache. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 17 (4), 383–394.
• Opler, Morris E.; & French, David H. (1941). Myths and tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. Memoirs of the American folk-lore society, (Vol. 37). New York: American Folk-lore Society. (Reprinted in 1969 by New York: Kraus Reprint Co.; in 1970 by New York; in 1976 by Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint Co.; & in 1994 under M. E. Opler, Morris by Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8602-3).
• Opler, Morris E.; & Hoijer, Harry. (1940). The raid and war-path language of the Chiricahua Apache. American Anthropologist, 42 (4), 617–634.
• Webster, Anthony K. (2000). Morris Edward Opler (1907–1996). American Anthropologist, 102 (2), 328–329.

• Esta obra contiene una traducción derivada de «Morris E. Opler» de Wikipedia en inglés, publicada por sus editores bajo la Licencia de documentación libre de GNU y la Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.

• Morris Opler
• Guide to the Morris Edward Opler Papers, Cornell University
• A Chiricahua Apache's Account of the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, University of Virginia Library E-Text
• Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts
• "A description of a Tonkawa peyote meeting held in 1902", American Ethnography