The Middle Five: Indian Boys at School by Francis LaFlesche

Angel De Cora (c. 1869-1919)
Binding Design, 1900
For The Middle Five: Indian Boys at School by Francis LaFlesche (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1900)
Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum

Francis LaFlesche (1857–1932), born on the Omaha Reservation and the son of Omaha chief Joseph LaFlesche, became the first professional Native American ethnologist and a vital recorder of Omaha and Osage culture. The Middle Five recounts his experience as one of five Omaha boys attending a Presbyterian mission school in Nebraska who felt suspended between two worlds—reluctant to abandon the ways of their fathers and puzzled and uncomfortable in their new roles of "make-believe white men." 

De Cora’s cover design for The Middle Five incorporates Indigenous motifs rendered in an Arts and Crafts style. The tepee at left is decorated with a blue thunderbird — a powerful emblem that recurs throughout her work and may reflect her own connection to the Thunderbird clan. Angel wrote to LaFlesche about the cover design, stating, "All my artist friends like the cover of the book & I myself am not ashamed of it."

Angel De Cora (c. 1869-1919)
Frontispiece, 1900
For The Middle Five: Indian Boys at School by Francis LaFlesche (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1900)
Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum

De Cora was less satisfied with her frontispiece painting. Without a model, she struggled to portray the Omaha boy accurately and wrote to LaFlesche for advice on traditional clothing and hairstyle. Pressed for time, she instead based the figure on Sioux dress, later admitting, “The time the publishers allowed me for making the picture was not enough, so I was obliged to start right in with what I could scrape up in the line of Indian dress. I know it is not like your tribe's dress, but there was no time for any communication on the subject."