Near the turn of the century, the federal government sought to "civilize"
native Americans by absorbing them into white culture.  The government
also wanted to divide and open up Native American land so that it could be
sold to white settlers.  In order t o accomplish these two goals and
ensure the success of the Dawes Act (1887), anthropologists were needed as
mediators.  Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838-1923), connected with
Harvard's Peabody Museum of American Archaeology, and a pioneer in the
study of N ative American music, was just such a scientist.  She served as
a representative of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the Nez Perce tribe in
Idaho from 1890-1893.  The most comprehensive written account of her work
is entitle The Omaha Tribe, co-written wit h her adopted son, Francis La
Flesche.  This photograph shows her making a recording of Indian Music.