January 6, 1933-Ponca City, Jan.6 (UP)-Francis La Flesche, son of the late chief of the Omaha Indian tribe is dead. But before he died, he saw completed and published his last ethnological work, a dictionary of the Osage language. He was 75.
Weird Omaha tribal rites followed masonic burial services of the white man, as the colorful career of La Flesche closed. Born in an Indian tepee and serving as a buffalo scout in boyhood, he spent his life recording the history and legend of has people, the Omaha and Osages.
His dictionary was completed under the direction of he Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Donations of E. W. Marland, oil man and congressman elect from Oklahoma, aided in financing the work.
LaFlesche's career led him from the plains to spend years in Washington and back to the country of his fathers. An Indian mission school in eastern Nebraska educated him, made possible his employment as interpreter for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. A period of 30 years as ethnologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs followed.
Compilation of his last work took ten years of constant association with the Osage on their reservation east of Ponca City. His Indian blood and dark skin won him across the tribesmen's lodges and helped in his collections. The book contains not only dictionary references and definitions, but complete tribal prayers, history and legends.
Special distinction for work in lore of the Omaha and Osage tribes was accorded La Flesche at the height of his career, when the University of Nebraska awarded him an honorary doctorate. During the last few years of his life, he lived near Macy, Neb., where he died.
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