What is Francis La Flesche?
{{citation style|date=December 2022}} [[File:Francis laflesche.jpg|thumb|Francis La Flesche]] Francis La Flesche (1857-1932) was one of the first early [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous]] [[Anthropology|anthropologists]] and the first professional [[Native American]] [[Ethnology|ethnologist.]] He was a member of the [[Omaha tribe|Omaha]] Tribe. He was an informant for the [[Ethnography|ethnographer]] and [[Linguistics|linguist]] James Owen Dorsey, who was getting information on the Omaha. He also worked closely with Alice Fletcher as her [[interpreter]] and fellow researcher of Omaha culture. After working with Fletcher, he published his works on the Omaha and [[Osage Nation|Osage]] Tribes with the [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]]. == Background == Francis was the child of the Chief Principle Joseph La Flesche and an Omaha woman named Tainne. His father was of Ponca Indian and French descent; his mother was full Omaha. His father pushed white [[culture]] onto him, but he was pulled towards the Omaha culture and knew how to read, write, and speak the [[language]]. == Education == La Flesche attended the Presbyterian Mission school on the reservation until it closed in 1869. After the school closed, he continued his [[English language]] education by reading the [[bible]] out loud to his father. Later in life, while working at the Smithsonian Institution, he got two degrees, a bachelor’s degree in law from National University in 1892 and a master’s degree in 1893. == Anthropological Career == La Flesche's first job in the field was as an interpreter and informant for James Owen Dorsey of the Bureau of American Ethnography. For that year, Dorsey was there in 1878; La Flesche helped Dorsey record Omaha's culture and caused him to become interested in recording Omaha's [[Song|songs]] and instruments. In 1879, Francis traveled east with his sister Susette, the Ponca chief Standing Bear, and the Omaha journalist Thomas H. Tibbles for Indian Land Reform. After this trip, he took a job as a clerk at the [[Bureau o