Characterized by an amiability that quickly won the confidence of
the Indians, possessed of unbounded enthusiasm, and gifted with remarkable
aptitude in discriminating and imitating vocal sounds, he at once took up
the study of the native language, and, during the ensuing two years,
familiarized himself with the Ponka and cognate dialects; at the same time
he obtained a rich fund of information concerning the arts, institutions,
traditions, and beliefs of the Indians with whom he was brought into daily
contact. In August, 1873, his field work was interrupted by illness, and
he returned to his home in Maryland and assumed parish work, meantime
continuing his linguistic studies. In July, 1878, he was induced by Major
Powell to resume field researches among the aborigines, and repaired to
the Omaha reservation, in Nebraska, under the auspices of the Smithsonian
Institution, where he greatly increased his stock of linguistic and other
material. When the Bureau of Ethnology was instituted in 1879, his
services were at once enlisted, and the remainder of his life was devoted
to the collection and publication of ethnologic material, chiefly
linguistic.
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