22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



he has devoted to the Winnebago tribe, and in the prepara- 

 tion of a monograph on the Medicine ceremony of the 

 Winnebago and a memoir on the ethnology of the Winne- 

 bago tribe in general. In June, 1911, he again took the 

 field in Wisconsin for the purpose of obtaining the data 

 necessary to complete the tribal monograph. Both these 

 manuscripts, it is expected, will be finished by the close of 

 the present calendar year. 



By arrangement with the Commissioner of Indian 

 At^airs the bureau was fortunate in enlisting the services 

 of Mr. Francis La Fleschc, who has been frequently men- 

 tioned in the annual reports of the bureau in connection 

 with his studies, jointly with Miss Alice C. Fletcher, of the 

 ethnology of the Omaha tribe of the KSiouan family. Hav- 

 ing been assigned the task of making a comparative study 

 of the Osage tribe of the same family, Mr. La Flesche pro- 

 ceeded to their reservation in Oklahoma in September. 

 The older Osage men, like the older Indians generally, are 

 very conservative, and time and tact were necessary to 

 obtain such standing in the tribe as would enable him to 

 establish friendly relations with those to whom it was nec- 

 essary to look for trustworthy information. Although the 

 Osage language is similar to that of the Omaha, Mr. La 

 Flesche 's native tongue, there are many words and phrases 

 that sound alike but are used in different senses by the 

 two tribes. Having practically mastered the language, 

 Mr. La Flesche was prepared to devote several months to 

 what is known as the No""ho°zhi"ga le'ta, the general term 

 applied to a complex series of ceremonies which partake of 

 the nature of degrees, but are not, strictly speaking, suc- 

 cessive steps, although each one is linked to the other in a 

 general sequence. While at the present stage of the in- 

 vestigation it would be premature to make a definite state- 

 ment as to the full meaning and interrelation of these 

 Osage ceremonies, there appear to be seven divisions of 

 the No'"ho"zhi"ga le'ta, the names, functions, and sequence 

 of which have been learned, but whether the sequence thus 

 far noted is always maintained remains to be determined. 



