Dhegiha Hymnals and Bible Portions

[Rankin, Robert L]

 > 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)?

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.

Bob



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