The La Flesche family had an impact on the history of the Omaha in the late 19th and early 20th century. Joseph La Flesche (Inshtamaza) was the head of the tribe’s Progressive Party and principal chief as of 1853. Believing that his people should learn the ways of the Euroamerican culture, he encouraged the building of roads on the reservation and the division of lands into lots for individual farming. But he also advocated the preservation of traditional customs and pride in “Indian-ness.” He had his children educated in white-run schools. Three of his 10 children became famous. Susette La Flesche, also known as Bright Eyes, became a well-known reformer, lecturer, and writer on Indian issues. She married non-Indian journalist and lecturer Thomas Henry Tibbles, who also worked on behalf of Indian peoples. Susette’s sister Susan La Flesche became the first female Native American physician. Their brother Francis La Flesche became renowned as an anthropologist and writer on the Omaha and Osage.
In the late 19th century, Francis La Flesche gave Harvard University’s Peabody Museum the tribe’s Sacred Pole, known as Umon’hon’ti, the “Real Omaha” or “Venerable Man,” believing the museum was best equipped to preserve it. A personification of a human being, it consists of a cottonwood pole, resting on a wooden “leg,” with a scalp on its “head.” In 1989, the Omaha, who have helped draft legislation for the return of sacred objects and human remains to Indian nations from museums, negotiated the return of the Sacred Pole, one of their revered objects.
World History
