Funeral services were held on Monday for Robert Whitebird, the last full-blooded male member of the Quapaw Tribe.

Whitebird died at a nursing home in Oklahoma. He was 92.

Whitebird served as spiritual leader of the tribe for many years. "I prefer the Indian way," he once said in an interview, according to The Miami News-Record.

Whitebird was also a founding member of the Oklahoma Indian Rights Association, a charter member of the National Congress of American Indians, the first president of the Inter-Tribal Council and the first chairman of the Quapaw business committee. "He was an advocate for Indians before such a term existed," his grandson, Robert Whitebird III, told the paper.

Get the Story:
Last Of The Full Blooded Quapaws Dies At Ottawa County Nursing Home (AP 5/11)
Quapaw Tribe's last full-blood Indian dies (The Miami News-Record 5/9)
Obituary: Robert Whitebird (The Miami News-Record 5/9)