<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=US-Ascii">
<TITLE>Message</TITLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1141" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN class=640095215-08042003><FONT
color=#0000ff> > </FONT></SPAN>I have a question for the
Dhegihanists out there. I recently received a request from a hospital
chaplain in Chicago for information on hymnals or Bibles
(and/or Bible portions) in the Kaw language. I told him
that to the best of my knowledge no such texts existed for Kaw. But later
it really got me to wondering about James Owen Dorsey. If Dorsey
acheived enough fluency in Ponca to conduct church services, isn't it at least
plausible that he devised some sort of hymn book and perhaps even translated
Bible portions? Unfortunately, I don't know nearly enough about the man or
his work outside of Kaw to answer this question. Did he ever do anything
like this? And even if he didn't, does anyone know if *any* documents
like this exist for OP, OS, or QU (and perhaps KS, in case I
overlooked something)?<SPAN class=640095215-08042003><FONT
color=#0000ff> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=640095215-08042003></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN class=640095215-08042003><FONT
color=#0000ff>JOD's work with all the Dhegiha-speaking groups except Omaha-Ponca
was exclusively linguistic as far as I know. He did his preaching during
the early part of his career in Nebraska. After he joined the Bureau, he
did data collection on all the other Dhegiha dialects, Biloxi and Tutelo
and edited Riggs's materials, but I don't think he actually spent a lot of time
in the Indian Territory during this period. He made a few trips and
interviewed tribal elders when they came to Washington, but unless he conducted
purely occasional services, he didn't produce religious materials in the
languages he studied after the early 1880's. Most of my knowledge of
Dorsey (apart from his field notes, etc.) come from his obituaries and the book
by Hinsley with the lurid (but I hope/think humorously intended) title
"Savages and Scientists", published by the Smithsonian Institution press.
It also contains a photo of Dorsey.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=640095215-08042003></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=640095215-08042003>Bob</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>