Ke-Ma-Ha: The Omaha Stories of Francis LA Flesche - Hardcover

LA Flesche, Francis; Parins, James W.; Littlefield, Daniel F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803229100 ISBN 13: 9780803229105

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1995

Synopsis

Born on the Omaha Reservation in 1857, Francis La Flesche was raised in the years when federal policy encouraged Indians to assimilate. He learned English at a mission school, acquiring a fluency that prepared him for a career that moved between tribal and national concerns. Most of the stories in Ke-ma-ha have never before been published. Written to bring public attention to the Omahas, they tell us about that culture in ways that anthropological treatises cannot. Francis La Flesche collaborated with anthropologist Alice C. Fletcher on The Omaha Tribe and A Study of Omaha Indian Music. These titles, as well as La Flesche’s autobiographical The Middle Five: Indian Schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe, are available as Bison Books.

About this title

About the Author:

James W. Parins, a professor of English at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is the author of John Rollin Ridge (Nebraska 1991). Daniel F. Littlefield Jr., director of the American Native Press Archives, wrote Alex Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist (Nebraska 1992) and edited Posey’s Fus Fixico Letters (Nebraska 1993).

From Library Journal:

Born on the Omaha Reservation in 1857, La Flesche was well known in the late 19th century as an ethnologist and linguist. He began writing short stories in an attempt to widen knowledge of the Omaha (especially for the younger reader) and to play up the similarities rather than the differences between white people and Natives. Few of his stories were published during his lifetime, as publishers were looking for stories about the "wild" side of Native life. Although La Flesche's scholarly writing was well respected, the transition to fiction was difficult for him. As the editors state in the introduction, "he never arrived at a literary style that satisfied him," and his prose does not quite succeed at capturing the reader. Often stories make a strong start, but a successful finish is rare. Recommended as anthropology rather than fiction.?Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati State Technical & Community Coll.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0803229100
• ISBN 13: 9780803229105
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 134