Louis F. Burns

Through his mother, Burns was descended from the Little Bear/Strike Axe band of Little Osages, and was a member of the tribe's Mottled Eagle Clan.

[2] During World War II, Burns served in the United States Marine Corps in the Central and South Pacific Campaigns.

[1] He served as an instructor and lecturer at his alma mater, Emporia State University, and Santiago Community College in Orange County, California.

[2] His best-known work, A History of the Osage People (1989), included material from much of his earlier research and publications.

He presented scholarly papers for the Plains Indian Seminars at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Wyoming in 1989, 1992 (his paper "Missionaries, Fur Traders, and Osage Ribbon Work" was published in The Artist and the Missionary: Proceedings of the 1992 Plains Indian Seminar), 1997, and 1999.

His donations to the Historical Society are housed in a new, purpose-built wing at the White Hair Memorial in Ralston, Oklahoma.

[2] He was buried at Pawhuska City Cemetery with both U.S. military honors and traditional Osage customs and rites.

The University of Arkansas's Louis F. Burns Collection has papers related to his scholarly research, which spanned more than fifty years.