Raymond DeMallie, anthropologist and co-director of the American Indian Studies Research Institute, passed away on April 25, 2021 at the age of 74.

He was an anthropologist whose field study was primarily language-centered, as he recorded texts of historical traditions, myths, and tales. DeMallie also investigated materials for legal cases in support of treaty rights alongside Vine Deloria Jr.

His successful establishment of the American Indian Studies Research Institute can be attributed to his abilities as an administrator along with his extraordinary reputation as a scholar and outstanding record in teaching and mentoring. These qualities underpinned his being named a Chancellor’s Professor in 2004, being recognized by the Plains Anthropological Society with its 2019 Distinguished Service Award, and being honored with a book published in his honor, Transforming Ethnohistories: Narrative, Meaning, and Community edited by Sebastian Felix Braun.

Among Raymond DeMallie’s writing credits are A Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri (Nebraska, 2017) and The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk’s Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt (Bison, 1985). As an editor, he also founded and co-edited the book series Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians, Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas, and Sources of American Indian Oral Literature, all published by the University of Nebraska Press.