Name/Title
Letter from Francis LaFlesche to Harry GeorgeEntry/Object ID
Q1430.635.8ADescription
Vol II pg. 8A
Letter from Francis LaFlesche to Harry George providing information on George's Osage and Winnebago bundles and Osage and Winnebago Life Stick.
214 First Street S.E.
Washington, D.C.
January 14, 1916
Mr. Harry L. George.
St. Joseph, Mo.
Dear Sir:
I am in receipt of your letters, one dated January 29, and the other January 31. 1916. I shall not forget to write you concerning your Osage “life stick”. Before “See Haw” died I examined the “life stick” he had and wrote out the groups of markings on the stick and have them yet. About the same time Saucy Calf, who belonged to the same clan as “See Haw”, made for me a stick marked with lead pencil which agrees largely with the “See Haw” stick, but there are certain differences which I can not account for. Saucy Calf was a recognized authority on the Osage rites while “See Haw” was said to know but little of the rites. At any rate I will give you the reading of the parts where the two sticks agree. “See Haw” himself, acknowledged to me that he did not know as much as Saucy Calf about the rites. You will be surprised to learn that these sticks are not “life sticks” but are used as aids to the memmory, very much the same asn an uneducated person uses grains of corn and beans to keep his accounts. But they are interesting just the same, when you consider the things sought to be remembered by their aid.
I know of no effective way of keeping moths out of woolly stuffs. The museums poison their specimens with arsenic but if too much is put on it is worse than the moths. If you can find a taxidermist in your town he can tell you how it is done. If done properly that is the est way. You have, perhaps, noticed that I packed up the Osagw “bundle” separately from the other because I observed that it was free from moths. It is the Winnebago one that is infested. The sooner you have the specimens attended to the better it will be for them. I think that the reason the moths do not attack the osage ‘bundles” is on account of their being thoroughly smoked from the open fire of the wigwams. The “bundles are always hung up against the walls of the wigwam and in that way get pretty well smoked.
You will pardon me, but you are mistaken about the Osage and Winnebago “life sticks” for I have the Winnebago one at this very moment, with Roddy's label and all, and the one I returned to you is the Osage stick. I had a photograph taken of it and when it was done I put it right in the “bundle” where you found it.
It did not occur to me to suggest that you get into correspondence with Mr. Oliver LaMere, concerning your Winnebago specimens until I noticed in a local paper that he had read a paper before the Nebraska State Historical Society, at Lincoln, Nebraska, on the “Winnebago War Bundles.” A letter will reach him at Winnebago, Nebraska. He was the one who assisted Mr. Paul Radin in his study of the ethnology of the Winnebago tribe. I think that I had better keep your Winnebago “life stick” here until you hear from Mr. LaMere and when you do I can send it either to you or to him as you wish. In the mean time if a Winnebago delegation happens to come on here this winter I may get a chance to learn something of it from them for you. I will leave this matter to you, or if you want the stick right away I will return it to you.
Very truly yours,
Francis LaFlescheSubject
LaFlesche, Francis
Washington, D.C.
Life Stick -- Osage
Life Stick -- Winnebago
Saucy Calf
See Haw
Bundle -- Osage
Bundle -- WInnebago
LaMere, Oliver
Radin, Dr. Paul
Osage
WinnebagoSubject Person/Organization
Harry L. George Collection
