Francis La Flesche, "Zhogaxe" (Woodworker), the first American Indian to become a professional ethnologist, published few literary works in the course of his long and productive scholarly career; but his literary interests and talents ran deep and gave his ethnographic work on the Omaha and Osage tribes a verbal and imaginative dimension unique in his time, the "golden age" of American anthropology. His acute renderings of Plains-culture ceremonial songs have significantly influenced the understanding of traditional Native American poetry through most of the twentieth century. As interest in transcultural studies and ethnographic literary theory grows, La Flesche's remarkable sensitivity to his position between the Indian and Anglo worlds seems increasingly important and worthy of study.

La Flesche was born on 25 December 1857 on the Omaha Reservation in eastern Nebraska, the oldest son of the last principal chief of the Omahas, Joseph La Flesche, or Iron Eye, and his wife...