Alice Cunningham Fletcher (March 15, 1838 – April 6, 1923) was an American

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

, and

social scientist Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

who studied and documented Native American culture.

Early life and education

Not much is known about Fletcher's parents; her father was a New York lawyer and her mother was from a prominent Boston family. Her parents moved to

Havana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. After her father died in 1839, the family moved to

Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south ...

, New York City. Fletcher was enrolled in the Brooklyn Female Academy, an exclusive school for the elite.

Career

Fletcher taught school and later became a public lecturer to support herself, arguing that anthropologists and archaeologists were best at uncovering ancient history of humans. She also advocated for the education of Native Americans "so that they could gain accoutrements of civilization." Fletcher credited

Frederic Ward Putnam Frederic Ward Putnam (April 16, 1839 – August 14, 1915) was an American anthropologist and biologist. Biography Putnam was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Ebenezer (1797–1876) and Elizabeth (Appleton) Putnam. After leaving ...

for stimulating her interest in American Indian culture and began working with him at the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropologica ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. She studied the remnants of the Indian civilization in the

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and Mississippi valleys, and became a member of the

Archaeological Institute of America The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America, North America's oldest learned society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and ...

in 1879. From 1881, Fletcher was involved with the

Carlisle Indian School The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Native American boarding schools, Indian boarding school in the United States from its founding in 1879 t ...

in Pennsylvania, where native children learned English, arithmetic, and skills designed to allow them to be integrated American citizens. In 1881, Fletcher made an unprecedented trip to live with and study the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

on their reservation as a representative of the Peabody Museum.Camping With the Sioux: Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher
, National Museum of Natural History, Archives of the Smithsonian Institution, accessed 26 August 2011 She was accompanied by Susette "Bright Eyes" La Flesche, an Omaha spokeswoman who had served as interpreter for

Standing Bear Standing Bear (–1908) (Omaha-Ponca language, Ponca official orthography: Maⁿchú-Naⁿzhíⁿ/Macunajin;U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885 Ponca Indians of Dakota other spellings: Ma-chú-nu-zhe, Ma-chú-na-zhe or Mantcunanjin pronounced ) was ...

in 1879 in his landmark civil rights trial. Also with them was

Thomas Tibbles Thomas Henry Tibbles (May 22, 1840 – May 14, 1928)Menyuk, Rachel, and Thomas Henry Tibbles. “Biographical Note.” Introduction. In ''Thomas Henry Tibbles Papers'', 5–6. Suitland, Maryland: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, ...

, a journalist who had helped publicize Standing Bear's cause and arranged a several-month lecture tour in the United States. These times also marked the beginning of Fletcher's 40-year association with

Francis La Flesche Francis La Flesche (Omaha, 1857–1932) was the first professional Native American ethnologist; he worked with the Smithsonian Institution. He specialized in Omaha and Osage cultures. Working closely as a translator and researcher with the anthr ...

, Susette's half brother. They collaborated professionally and had an informal mother-son relationship. They shared a house in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, beginning in 1890. In addition to her research and writing, Fletcher worked in several special appointed positions during the late nineteenth century. In 1883 she was appointed special agent by the US to allot lands to the

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native Americans in the United States, Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok lan ...

tribes, in 1884 she prepared and sent to the

World Cotton Centennial The World Cotton Centennial (also known as the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition) was a World's Fair held in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, in 1884. At a time when nearly one third of all cotton produced in the United St ...

an exhibit showing the progress of civilization among the Indians of North America in the quarter-century previous, and in 1886 visited the natives of Alaska and the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

on a mission from the commissioner of education. In 1887 she was appointed United States special agent in the allotment of lands among the Winnebago and the

Nez Perce The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region h ...

under the

Dawes Act The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the P ...

. She was made assistant in ethnology at the Peabody Museum in 1882, and in 1891 received the Thaw fellowship, which was created for her. Active in professional societies, she was elected president of the Anthropological Society of Washington and in 1905 as the first woman president of the

American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the United States (US)-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote t ...

. She also served as vice-president of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, and was a longtime member of the

Literary Society of Washington The Literary Society of Washington was formed in 1874 by a group of friends and associates who wished to meet regularly for "literary and artistic improvement and entertainment". - page 3 For more than 140 years, this literary society has convene ...

. Working through the

Women's National Indian Association The Women's National Indian Association (WNIA) was founded in 1879 by a group of American women, including educators and activists Mary Bonney and Amelia Stone Quinton. Bonney and Quinton united in the 1880s against the encroachment of white s ...

, Fletcher introduced a system of making small loans to Indians, wherewith they might buy land and houses. She also helped secure a loan for Susan LaFlesche, an Omaha woman, to enable her studies at medical school. Graduating at the top of her class, LaFlesche became the first Native American woman doctor in the United States. Later Fletcher helped write, lobbied for and helped administer the

of 1887, which broke up reservations and distributed communal land in allotments for individual household ownership of land parcels. Alice Fletcher2

In 1888, Fletcher published ''Indian Education and Civilization'', a special report of the

Bureau of Education The Office of Education, at times known as the Department of Education and the Bureau of Education, was a small unit in the Federal Government of the United States within the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1867 to 1972. It is now separa ...

. She was a pioneer in the study of American Indian music, a field of research inaugurated by a paper she gave in 1893 before the Chicago Anthropological Conference. In 1898 at the Congress of Musicians held in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

during the

Trans-Mississippi Exposition The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was a world's fair held in Omaha, Nebraska, from June 1 to November 1, 1898. Its goal was to showcase the development of the entire West from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast. The Ind ...

, she read several essays upon the songs of the North American Indians. A number of Omaha Indians sang their native melodies. Out of this grew her ''Indian Story and Song from North America'' (1900), exploring a stage of development antecedent to that in which culture music appeared. Fletcher worked with

in his research on Serpents Mound in Ohio and assisted in the efforts to raise funds to purchase the site in 1886. The site was donated to the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society in 1900 and is a National Historic Landmark. In 1930,

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker, who appeared frequently in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Col ...

started work with the Omaha, and decided to concentrate on the modern aspects of the tribe, because of the extensive work already done by Alice Fletcher. Over her lifetime Alice Fletcher worked with and for the Omaha,

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

, Sioux,

Arapaho The Arapaho ( ; , ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed t ...

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

, Chippewa, Oto, Nez Percé,

Ponca The Ponca people are a nation primarily located in the Great Plains of North America that share a common Ponca culture, history, and language, identified with two Indigenous nations: the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma or the Ponca Tribe of ...

and Winnebago tribes.

Dawes Act

Alice Fletcher helped write and pass the

of 1887. This act imposed a system of private land ownership on Indigenous tribes. This was a big difference because traditionally these tribes had communal land ownership. Individual Indigenous peoples would be allotted up to 160 acres of land. This land was tax-free and was to be held in trust by the government for a period of 25 years. At the time, she thought it would enable American Indians to assimilate to European-American ways, as their best means of survival. The government also wanted to gain "surplus" land for sale to other Americans. The Dawes Act was accountable for the inevitable breakup of all Indigenous reservations. By 1932 the amount of land acquired was approximately 92,000,000 of the 138,000,000 acres Indigenous groups had owned in 1887. Fletcher's land allotment work has been viewed as an error in the administration policies of Native American peoples and their land. Fletcher herself may have even realized this error because she abandoned her political policy work to focus strictly on more ethnographical work after the turn of the century.

Fieldwork among the Sioux

Fletcher wrote about the experiences of her 1881 field trip in two journals. These journals included drawings of the plains, reservations, and many of her different campsites throughout eastern

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

. Even though many of her writings regarding the

would seem rather insensible by contemporary anthropological standards, "Her writings reflect the attitudes regarding the movement of history and social evolution prevalent in her day".

Author

In 1911, with

, she published ''The Omaha Tribe''. It is still considered to be the definitive work on the subject. Altogether she wrote 46 monographs on ethnology. In 1908 she led in founding the School of American Archaeology in Santa Fe, New Mexico. From 1899 until 1916 Fletcher was on the editorial board of the American Anthropologist, and she also made major contributions to many issues. Fletcher was a pioneer in the study of Native American music. She became fascinated by their music and dancing so she transcribed hundreds of their songs. In 1898 she presented several essays on the subject of Native American songs at the Congress of Musicians in

. From these essays eventually came her books "Indian Story and Song from North America" and "The Hako: A Pawnee Ceremony".

Death and legacy

Fletcher became president of the Anthropological Society of Washington in 1903 and the first woman president of the

in 1905. One of her colleagues, Walter Hough, remembered Fletcher as one who, "Mildly, peaceably, yet with great fortitude...did what she could to advance the cause of science". Her ashes are interred in the patio wall of the

New Mexico Museum of Art The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico, United States. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located one bloc ...

behind a bronze plaque with a quote from her. Some of her recordings can be found in the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology.

Arthur Farwell Arthur Farwell (April 23, 1872 – January 20, 1952) was an American composer, conductor, educationalist, lithographer, esoteric savant, and music publisher. Interested in American Indian music, he became associated with the Indianist movement ...

's String Quartet in A major, Op. 65 ''The Hako'', composed in 1923, was inspired by Fletcher's work. Joan Mark's book about Fletcher, ''A Stranger in Her Native Land: Alice Fletcher and the American Indians'' (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988) received the 1989 Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize. Fletcher Nunatak in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after Alice Cunningham Fletcher.

Awards and honors

Alice Fletcher received numerous honors for the work she accomplished throughout her career. In 1890 she was awarded the Margaret Copley Thaw Fellowship at Harvard, which granted her funding for ethnographic and reform work.

Selected works

* Sun Dance of the Ogallala Sioux. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1883 * Observations on the Laws and Privileges of the Gens in Indian Society. (abstract) AAAS, 1884 * Symbolic Earth Formations of the Winnebagoes. (abstract) AAAS, 1884 * The White Buffalo Festival of the Uncpapas. 16th Annual Report Peabody Museum, 1884 * The Elk Mystery or Festival of the Ogallala Sioux. 16th Ann. Rep. Peabody Museum, 1884 * The Religious Ceremony of the Four Winds as Observed by a Santee Sioux. 16th Ann. Rep. Peabody Museum, 1884 * The Shadow or Ghost Lodge: A Ceremony of the Ogallala Sioux. 16th Ann. Rep. Peabody Museum, 1884 * The Wa-Wan, or Pipe Dance of the Omahas. 16th Ann. Rep. Peabody Museum, 1884 * Historical Sketch of the Omaha Tribe of Indians in Nebraska. Washington, 1885 * Observations upon the Usage, Symbolism and Influence of the Sacred Pipes * Of Friendship among the Omahas. AAAS, 1885 * Lands in Severalty to Indians; Illustrated by Experience with the Omaha Tribe. AAAS, 1885 * Indian Education and Civilization. Special Report, U.S. Bureau of Education. 1888 * On the Preservation of Archaeologic Monuments. AAAS, 1888 * Report of the Committee on the Preservation of Archaeologic Remains on Public Lands. AAAS, 1889 * Phonetic Alphabet of the Winnebago Indians. AAAS, 1890 * Indian Messiah. Journal. American Folk-Lore, 1892 * Nez Perce Country. (abstract) AAAS, 1892 * Hal-thu-ska Society of the Omaha Tribe. Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, 1892 * A Study of Omaha Indian Music. Arch. and Eth. Papers Peabody Museum, 1893 * Love Songs among the Omaha Indians. International Congress of Anthropologists, 1894 * Indian Songs: Personal Studies of Indian Life. Century Magazine, 1894 * Hunting Customs of the Omahas. Century Magazine, 1895 * Sacred Pole of the Omaha Tribe. AAAS, 1896 * Indian Songs and Music. AAAS, 1896 * Tribal Life among the Omahas. Century Magazine, 1896 * Emblematic Use of the Tree in the Dakotan Group. AAAS, 1897 * Indian Songs and Music. Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, 1898 * A Pawnee Ritual Used When Changing a Man's Name. American Anthropologist, 1899 * Indian Story and Song from North America. Boston, 1900 * Giving Thanks: A Pawnee Ceremony. Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, 1900 * The "Lazy Man" in Indian Lore. Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, 1901 * Star Cult among the Pawnee. Am. Anthrop., 1902 * Pawnee Star Lore. Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, 1903 * The Hako: A Pawnee Ceremony. 22nd Ann. Rep. Bu. Am. Eth., 1904 * Tribal Structure: A Study of the Omaha and Cognate Tribes. Putnam Anniversary Volume, 1909 * The Omaha Tribe. (With Francis La Flesche). 27th Ann. Rep. Bu. Am. Eth., 1911 * The Problems of the Unity or Plurality and the Probable Place of Origin of The American Aborigines. (A Symposium) Some Ethnological Aspects of the Problem. Am. Anthrop., 1912 * Wakondagi. Am. Anthrop., 1912 * Brief History of the International Congress of Americanists. Am. Anthrop., 1913 * Indian Games and Dances with Native Songs Arranged from American Indian Ceremonials and Sports. Boston, 1915 * The Study of Indian Music. National Academy of Science, 1915 * The Indian and Nature: The Basis of His Tribal Organization and Rites. The Red Man, 1916 * A Birthday Wish from Native America. Washington, 1916 * Nature and the Indian Tribe. Art and Archaeology, 1916 * Concepts of Nature among the American Natives. (abstract) 19th Internat. Cong. Amer., 1917 * Prayers Voiced in Ancient America. Art and Arch., 1920

References

External links

* *
Camping With the Sioux: Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher
National Museum of Natural History, Archives of the Smithsonian Institution * *

National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Alice Cunningham 1838 births 1923 deaths 19th-century American historians 19th-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers Harvard University staff American ethnologists American women anthropologists Women ethnologists Historians of Native Americans La Flesche family American women historians American audio engineers American women archaeologists Presidents of the American Folklore Society Women audio engineers