Francis La Flesche followed another path.

He worked with the Bureau of American Ethnology and became a pioneering Native ethnologist.

His research preserved extensive information about Omaha and Osage culture.

Rosalie La Flesche Farley became involved in complex tribal economic affairs.

Taken together, the siblings demonstrate how Joseph La Flesche’s educational strategy produced unexpected results.

White reformers often promoted education because they expected Native people to assimilate quietly.

The La Flesche children used education to speak, write, litigate, research, heal, and advocate.

They entered American institutions without simply surrendering political concern for Native communities.

Susan’s medicine was one branch of a larger family project.

The family understood that the United States increasingly operated through documents, courts, schools, credentials, and bureaucracies.