Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Fletcher, Alice Cunningham

FLETCHER, Alice Cunningham, ethnologist, b. in Boston, Mass., about 1845. She was carefully educated, and, after study among the archæological remains of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, went to reside among the Omaha Indians, investigating their customs and traditions under the auspices of the Peabody museum of American archæology and ethnology of Harvard. In 1883 she was appointed by the secretary of the interior to allot the Omahas their lands in severalty, and brought to the Indian schools at Carlisle and Hampton a large party of their children and two married couples. Under the care of the Woman's national Indian association Miss Fletcher established a system by which small sums of money were lent to such Indians as wished to buy tracts of land and build houses. At the request of the Indian bureau she prepared an exhibit for the New Orleans exposition showing the progress of Indian civilization for the last twenty-five years. In 1886 she was sent by the commissioner of education to visit Alaskan and Aleutian Indians; in 1887 was appointed special agent, and assigned to the Winnebago tribe. She has published numerous papers, and in 1888 completed a report on “Indian Education and Civilization,” in which is a synopsis of all Indian treaties, their laws and regulations, and statistics concerning population, schools, etc. (Washington, 1888).