Contributions to North American Ethnology, Volume VI: The Cegiha Language

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Author: James Owen Dorsey (1848-1895) Year: 1890 Publisher: Government Printing Office Place: Washington, DC Description: xviii+794 pages with index. Quarto (11 3/4" x 9 1/2") bound in original publisher's maroon cloth with gilt lettering to spine and blind stamped edge rule to front cover. Contributions to North American Ethnology volume VI. (List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology pg 49) First edition. James Owen Dorsey was born October 31, 1848 in Baltimore, Maryland to Thomas Anderson Dorsey and Mary Sweetser Hance. He taught himself the Hebrew alphabet by the age of six and was able to read it fluently at the age of ten. In 1862, he entered Central High School in Baltimore, and later in 1867, attended the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. There he was ordained a deacon in 1871. Soon after he began working as a missionary in the Dakota Territory. He spent his time with the Ponca Indians, a Siouan tribe. He was able to learn their language in a short time, being able to speak well enough without an interpreter. In 1873, he came down with a serious illness while writing Ponca grammar and dictionaries, forcing him to return to Maryland. Upon his return, he contacted the Smithsonian Institution to have his writings published. Unfortunately, they were judged unprofessional. Dorsey spent the next five years at a parish in Maryland, at the end of this time he was sent to be an Ethnologist for a study with Major J.W. Powell. He we

• Binding: Hardcover

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