Ill 1871, at the age of 23, James Owen Dorsey, previously a student 

 of divinity with a predilection for science, was ordained a deacon of 

 the Protestant Episcopal church by the bishop of Virginia; and in May 

 of that year lie was sent to Dakota Territory as a missionary among 

 the Ponka Indians. Characterized by an amiability that quickly won 

 the confidence of the Indians, possessed of unbounded enthusiasm, 

 and gifted with remarkable aptitude in discriminating and imitating 

 vocal sounds, he at once took up the study of the native language, 

 and, during the ensuing two years, familiarized himself with the 

 Ponka and cognate dialects; at the same time he obtained a rich 

 fund of information concerning the arts, institutions, traditions, and 

 beliefs of the Indians with whom he was brought into daily contact. 

 In August, 1S7.S, his field work was interrupted by illness, and he 

 returned to his home in Maryland and assumed parish wcu'k, meantime 

 continuing his linguistic studies. In July, 1878, he was induced by 

 Maj ir Powell to resume field researches among the aborigines, and 

 repaired to the Omaha reservation, in Nebraska, under the auspices of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, where he greatly increased his stock of 

 linguistic and other material. When the Bureau of Ethnology was 

 instituted in 1870, his services were at once enlisted, and the remainder 

 of his life was devoted to the collection and publication of ethnologic 

 material, chiefly linguistic. Although most of his energies were devoted 

 to the Siouan stock, he studied also the Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman, 

 and Yakonan stocks ; and while bis researches were primarily linguistic, 

 his collections relating to other subjects, especially institutions and 

 beliefs, were remarkably rich. His publications were many, yet the 

 greater part of the material amassed during his years of labor remains 

 for elaboration by others. The memoir on " Siouau Sociology," which 

 was substantially ready for the press, is the only one of his many manu- 

 scripts left in condition for publication. He died in Washington, 

 February 4, 1895, of typhoid fever, at the early age of -17. 



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