In 1871, at the age of 23, James Owen Dorsey, previously a studentof divinity with a predilection for science, was ordained a deacon ofthe Protestant Episcopal church by the bishop of Virginia; and in Mayof that year he was sent to Dakota Territory as a missionary amongthe Ponka Indians. Characterized by an amiability that quickly wonthe confidence of the Indians, possessed of unbounded enthusiasm,and gifted with remarkable aptitude in discriminating and imitatingvocal sounds, he at once took up the study of the native language,and, during the ensuing two years, familiarized himself with thePonka and cognate dialects; at the same time he obtained a richfund of information concerning the arts, institutions, traditions, andbeliefs of the Indians with whom he was brought into daily contact.In August, 1873, his field work was interrupted by illness, and hereturned to his home in Maryland and assumed parish work, meantimecontinuing his linguistic studies. In July, 1878, he was induced byMajor Powell to resume field researches among the aborigines, andrepaired to the Omaha reservation, in Nebraska, under the auspices ofthe Smithsonian Institution, where he greatly increased his stock oflinguistic and other material. When the Bureau of Ethnology wasinstituted in 1879, his services were at once enlisted, and the remainderof his life was devoted to the collection and publication of ethnologicmaterial, chiefly linguistic. Although most of his energies were devotedto the Siouan stock, he studied also the Athapascan, Kusan, Takilman,and Yakonan stocks; and while his researches were primarily linguistic,his collections relating to other subjects, especially institutions andbeliefs, were remarkably rich. His publications were many, yet thegreater part of the material amasse