Joseph LaFlesche
Encyclopedia
Joseph LaFlesche, also known as E-sta-mah-za or Iron Eye (1822–1888), was the last recognized head chief of the Omaha tribe
of Native Americans
who was selected according to the traditional tribal rituals. The head chief Big Elk
had adopted LaFlesche into the Omaha and designated him as his successor. LaFlesche became a chief in 1853, after Big Elk's death. An 1889 account contends that he had been the only chief of any European ancestry among the Omaha.
In 1854 LaFlesche was among the seven Omaha chiefs in the delegation who went to Washington, DC for the final negotiations and signed the treaty with the United States by which they ceded most of the Omaha territory. About 1856, the people moved to the Omaha reservation
in what is now northeastern Nebraska. LaFlesche served as principal chief until 1888. He led during the Omaha transition to the reservation and other major social changes.
wife. (An 1889 account said she was related to Big Elk
, chief of the Omaha.)
The younger LaFlesche accompanied his father from the age of 10 on trading trips. His father worked for the American Fur Company
(AFC) with the many tribes: Ponca, Omaha, Iowa, Otoe, and Pawnee, living between the Platte
and Nebraska rivers. They spoke closely related Siouan languages. The father and son learned the Omaha-Ponca language
from Waoowinnchtcha, and the Omaha people.
, the principal chief, after years of interaction with the people. In 1843 Big Elk had designated La Flesche as his successor, and the younger man began to study tribal ways and customs, becoming prepared to be chief. He joined the tribal council about 1849.
, and his Iowa wife Ni-co-ma. Gale was reassigned when the Army left the fort in 1827, and he left Ni-co-ma and Mary behind with her family.
Joseph and Mary LaFlesche had five children together: Louis, Susette, Rosalie, Marguerite and Susan. Iron Eye and Mary believed that the future of American Indians lay in education and assimilation
, including adoption of European-style agricultural methods and acceptance of Christianity. They encouraged their children to get educations and work for their people; in some cases, LaFlesche sent them to schools in the East.
After Mary died (about 1855-1856), the widower Joseph LaFlesche married Ta-in-ne, an Omaha woman also known as Elizabeth Erasmus. They had a son Francis, born in 1857, followed by other children.
Mary's grown children included the activists Susette LaFlesche Tibbles
; and Rosalie LaFlesche Farley, financial manager of the Omaha tribe; Marguerite La Flesche Picotte, who became a teacher on the Yankton Sioux Reservation; and the physician Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte
, the first Native American woman in the United States to be certified as a doctor. Susan worked with the Omaha and eventually established the first privately funded hospital on an Indian reservation
for them. Rosalie Farley helped negotiate grazing treaties on unallocated land to generate revenue and helped tribal members with their finances, including managing donations sent from Americans across the country. She also worked with an ethnologist from the University of Pennsylvania
to collect traditions and stories from the tribes.
Their half-brother Francis La Flesche
, son of Ta-in-nne, became an ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institution
, studying the Omaha and the Osage
. Although the siblings came to hold differing opinions on the issues related to land allotment and assimilation, they each worked to improve the quality of life for Native Americans, particularly the Omaha in Nebraska
.
of the Weszhinste, one of the ten gentes
of the Omaha. The Omaha were organized into two half-tribes or moitie, which represented the Earth and the Sky. Each had five gentes
or clans, which had specific responsibilities related to maintaining the tribe and cosmos. Each gens had hereditary chiefs, through the father's line, for a total of ten. One of the gens chiefs of each moitie was designated as its head; the two collaborated to maintain the balance between the two parts. Unless a man born of a white father were adopted into the tribe, he could not advance to be chief, according to the traditional practices in effect at that time. There were some allowances for mne to be recognized for charitable acts or gifts.
When adopted and designated Big Elk's successor, LaFlesche (Iron Eye) seriously studied the tribal ways and customs to prepare for becoming a chief. Big Elk served as chief until his death in 1853, and LaFlesche succeeded him. An 1889 sketch of La Flesche, first published in the Bancroft, Nebraska Journal, said he was the only person having any white blood who had been a chief of the Omaha.
In January 1854, after negotiations in full council with 60 Omaha men, the tribe reached some agreements on land cession with the US Indian agent James M. Gatewood. They had not delegated this important issue to their chiefs, but after reaching their conclusions, chose seven to go to Washington, DC for concluding meetings on the land sale. The seven chiefs were LaFlesche, Two Grizzly Bears, Standing Hawk, Little Chief, Village Maker, Noise, and Yellow Smoke. Logan Fontenelle
accompanied them as an interpreter, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs had another interpreter of their own. For some reason, Fontenelle's name appeared first on the treaty, although it was supposed to be include only the seven chiefs. Two Grizzly Bears' name did not appear. Perhaps because Fontenelle had been introduced as Two Grizzly Bears' interpreter, his name was substituted. The treaty was signed in March 1854 and quickly ratified by the Senate.
The Indian Commissioner Manypenny and his staff forced many changes to the treaty terms, including a major reduction in the amount of money the Omaha would receive for their land, and a change from cash annuities to annuities that are a combination of cash and goods. Under the treaty terms, the Omaha tribe received "$40,000 per annum for three years from January 1, 1855; $30,000 per annum for the next succeeding ten years; $20,000 per annum for the next succeeding fifteen years; and $10,000 per annum for the next succeeding twelve years," to 1895. The President of the United States, based on recommendations by the US Indian Office
(or the local US Indian agent) would determine annually the proportions of the annuity to be distributed in money and in goods.
Unhappy with Gatewood's draft treaty, the US Indian Office replaced the agent with George Hepner in the summer of 1854. In 1855, Fontenelle and four of his party were killed and scalped by an enemy band of Sioux while on the summer buffalo hunt on the plains. The historians B. Tong and D. Hastings contend that LaFlesche did not become principal chief until after his death, but accounts have varied as to the role of Fontenelle in the tribe. Boughter writes that Hepner and LaFlesche both referred to Fontenelle as a chief after his death, but other contemporaries among the Omaha did not agree and referred to him as the interpreter.
As chief, LaFlesche led the tribe through a period of major transition and social disruption after their move to the reservation in what is now northeast Nebraska
in the Blackbird Hills. About 800 Omaha removed to the reservation. At the beginning, they built their traditional sod lodges, with the clans arrayed in customary positions around a circle. By 1881, the tribe had increased to about 1100. Many had built western-style houses. LaFlesche worked to gain the rights of citizens of the United States for the Omaha. In the late nineteenth century, the US government required American Indians to agree to give up their communal land, tribal government and membership in order to gain voting rights. They had to adopt certain aspects of assimilation and learn United States practices.
LaFlesche had supported the changes in land policy in a move toward severalty, believing that the tribe's members would benefit by adopting the ownership of land individually by patent
rather than to continue to hold it in common as a tribe. Many in the tribe were of different opinions and the policy proved to be detrimental to tribal continuity and land use. He encouraged his people to become educated in both Omaha and American ways, supporting the mission schools. Seeing how detrimental alcohol was, he prohibited it on the reservation. He and Henry Fontenelle were appointed official traders to the Omaha under the US Indian agent.
La Flesche was chief at a time when many of the Omaha resisted the changes that had disrupted their lives. For some time, many of the men lived on their portion of the annuities and hunting, and the women continued to cultivate varieties of corn in a communal way. The Omaha stayed in their villages rather than going out to farm the land.
But by 1880, the Omaha produced 20,000 bushels of wheat
, including a surplus for sale. The following year was a poor season, and they had less than needed of all their crops. The government's estimate of sufficient land allotments for the Native Americans restricted them to dividing their lands among heirs, in portions that in future years were too small to be farmed effectively or to be developed for other purposes. In addition, when government annuities and supplies were delayed or arrived in poor condition, as was often the case, or the Indian agents made decisions about restricting annuities, as did Jacob Vore in 1876, the Omaha faced worse conditions on their reservation than in their former nomadic life.
Omaha (tribe)
The Omaha are a federally recognized Native American nation which lives on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and western Iowa, United States...
of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
who was selected according to the traditional tribal rituals. The head chief Big Elk
Big Elk
Big Elk, also known as Ontopanga , was a principal chief of the Omaha tribe for many years on the upper Missouri River. He is notable for his oration delivered at the funeral of Black Buffalo in 1813....
had adopted LaFlesche into the Omaha and designated him as his successor. LaFlesche became a chief in 1853, after Big Elk's death. An 1889 account contends that he had been the only chief of any European ancestry among the Omaha.
In 1854 LaFlesche was among the seven Omaha chiefs in the delegation who went to Washington, DC for the final negotiations and signed the treaty with the United States by which they ceded most of the Omaha territory. About 1856, the people moved to the Omaha reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
in what is now northeastern Nebraska. LaFlesche served as principal chief until 1888. He led during the Omaha transition to the reservation and other major social changes.
Early life and education
Joseph LaFlesche, also called E-sta-mah-za (Iron Eye), was the son of Joseph LaFlesche, a French-Canadian fur trader, and Waoowinchtcha, his PoncaPonca
The Ponca are a Native American people of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan-language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma...
wife. (An 1889 account said she was related to Big Elk
Big Elk
Big Elk, also known as Ontopanga , was a principal chief of the Omaha tribe for many years on the upper Missouri River. He is notable for his oration delivered at the funeral of Black Buffalo in 1813....
, chief of the Omaha.)
The younger LaFlesche accompanied his father from the age of 10 on trading trips. His father worked for the American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
(AFC) with the many tribes: Ponca, Omaha, Iowa, Otoe, and Pawnee, living between the Platte
Platte River
The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which in turn is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to...
and Nebraska rivers. They spoke closely related Siouan languages. The father and son learned the Omaha-Ponca language
Omaha-Ponca language
Omaha–Ponca is a Siouan language spoken by the Omaha people of Nebraska and the Ponca people of Oklahoma and Nebraska. There are today only 60 speakers of Omaha, and 25 fluent speakers, all over 60; and a handful of semi-fluent speakers of Ponca...
from Waoowinnchtcha, and the Omaha people.
Career
The younger Joseph La Flesche also started working for the American Fur Company at about the age of 16 and worked for them until 1848. By then he had settled with his family and the Omaha at the Bellevue Agency. He had been adopted into the Omaha tribe as the son of Big ElkBig Elk
Big Elk, also known as Ontopanga , was a principal chief of the Omaha tribe for many years on the upper Missouri River. He is notable for his oration delivered at the funeral of Black Buffalo in 1813....
, the principal chief, after years of interaction with the people. In 1843 Big Elk had designated La Flesche as his successor, and the younger man began to study tribal ways and customs, becoming prepared to be chief. He joined the tribal council about 1849.
Marriage and family
LaFlesche married Mary Gale (b. c. 1825-1826 - d. c. 1855), daughter of Dr. John Gale, a surgeon at Fort AtkinsonFort Atkinson (Nebraska)
Fort Atkinson was the first United States Army post to be established west of the Missouri River in the unorganized region of the Louisiana Purchase of the United States. Located just east of present-day Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, the fort was erected in 1819 and abandoned in 1827...
, and his Iowa wife Ni-co-ma. Gale was reassigned when the Army left the fort in 1827, and he left Ni-co-ma and Mary behind with her family.
Joseph and Mary LaFlesche had five children together: Louis, Susette, Rosalie, Marguerite and Susan. Iron Eye and Mary believed that the future of American Indians lay in education and assimilation
Americanization (of Native Americans)
The Americanization of Native Americans was an assimilation effort by the United States to transform Native American culture to European-American culture between the years of 1790–1920. George Washington and Henry Knox were first to propose, in an American context, the cultural transformation of...
, including adoption of European-style agricultural methods and acceptance of Christianity. They encouraged their children to get educations and work for their people; in some cases, LaFlesche sent them to schools in the East.
After Mary died (about 1855-1856), the widower Joseph LaFlesche married Ta-in-ne, an Omaha woman also known as Elizabeth Erasmus. They had a son Francis, born in 1857, followed by other children.
Mary's grown children included the activists Susette LaFlesche Tibbles
Susette LaFlesche Tibbles
Susette LaFlesche Tibbles, also called Insta Theamba , was a well-known Native American writer, lecturer, interpreter and artist of the Omaha tribe in Nebraska. Susette LaFlesche was a progressive who was a spokesperson for Native American rights. She was of Ponca, Iowa, French and Anglo-American...
; and Rosalie LaFlesche Farley, financial manager of the Omaha tribe; Marguerite La Flesche Picotte, who became a teacher on the Yankton Sioux Reservation; and the physician Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte
Susan La Flesche Picotte
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first American Indian woman to become a physician in the United States. She grew up with her parents on the Omaha Reservation. She went to college at the Hampton Institute and got her medical degree at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia...
, the first Native American woman in the United States to be certified as a doctor. Susan worked with the Omaha and eventually established the first privately funded hospital on an Indian reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
for them. Rosalie Farley helped negotiate grazing treaties on unallocated land to generate revenue and helped tribal members with their finances, including managing donations sent from Americans across the country. She also worked with an ethnologist from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
to collect traditions and stories from the tribes.
Their half-brother Francis La Flesche
Francis La Flesche
Francis La Flesche was the first professional Native American ethnologist; he worked with the Smithsonian Institution, specializing first in his own Omaha culture, followed by that of the Osage. Working closely as a translator and researcher with the anthropologist Alice C...
, son of Ta-in-nne, became an ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, studying the Omaha and the Osage
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
. Although the siblings came to hold differing opinions on the issues related to land allotment and assimilation, they each worked to improve the quality of life for Native Americans, particularly the Omaha in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
.
Chief
In 1843, Big Elk designated LaFlesche as his successor as a hereditary chiefTribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
of the Weszhinste, one of the ten gentes
Gentes
Gentes may refer to:* Gens , in Ancient Rome, a family of those sharing the same nomen and a common ancestor* Gens , in animal behavior, a host-specific lineage of a brood parasite species...
of the Omaha. The Omaha were organized into two half-tribes or moitie, which represented the Earth and the Sky. Each had five gentes
Gentes
Gentes may refer to:* Gens , in Ancient Rome, a family of those sharing the same nomen and a common ancestor* Gens , in animal behavior, a host-specific lineage of a brood parasite species...
or clans, which had specific responsibilities related to maintaining the tribe and cosmos. Each gens had hereditary chiefs, through the father's line, for a total of ten. One of the gens chiefs of each moitie was designated as its head; the two collaborated to maintain the balance between the two parts. Unless a man born of a white father were adopted into the tribe, he could not advance to be chief, according to the traditional practices in effect at that time. There were some allowances for mne to be recognized for charitable acts or gifts.
When adopted and designated Big Elk's successor, LaFlesche (Iron Eye) seriously studied the tribal ways and customs to prepare for becoming a chief. Big Elk served as chief until his death in 1853, and LaFlesche succeeded him. An 1889 sketch of La Flesche, first published in the Bancroft, Nebraska Journal, said he was the only person having any white blood who had been a chief of the Omaha.
In January 1854, after negotiations in full council with 60 Omaha men, the tribe reached some agreements on land cession with the US Indian agent James M. Gatewood. They had not delegated this important issue to their chiefs, but after reaching their conclusions, chose seven to go to Washington, DC for concluding meetings on the land sale. The seven chiefs were LaFlesche, Two Grizzly Bears, Standing Hawk, Little Chief, Village Maker, Noise, and Yellow Smoke. Logan Fontenelle
Logan Fontenelle
Logan Fontenelle , also known as Shon-ga-ska , was a trader of French and Omaha ancestry, who served for years as an interpreter to the US Indian agent at the Bellevue Agency in Nebraska...
accompanied them as an interpreter, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs had another interpreter of their own. For some reason, Fontenelle's name appeared first on the treaty, although it was supposed to be include only the seven chiefs. Two Grizzly Bears' name did not appear. Perhaps because Fontenelle had been introduced as Two Grizzly Bears' interpreter, his name was substituted. The treaty was signed in March 1854 and quickly ratified by the Senate.
The Indian Commissioner Manypenny and his staff forced many changes to the treaty terms, including a major reduction in the amount of money the Omaha would receive for their land, and a change from cash annuities to annuities that are a combination of cash and goods. Under the treaty terms, the Omaha tribe received "$40,000 per annum for three years from January 1, 1855; $30,000 per annum for the next succeeding ten years; $20,000 per annum for the next succeeding fifteen years; and $10,000 per annum for the next succeeding twelve years," to 1895. The President of the United States, based on recommendations by the US Indian Office
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
(or the local US Indian agent) would determine annually the proportions of the annuity to be distributed in money and in goods.
Unhappy with Gatewood's draft treaty, the US Indian Office replaced the agent with George Hepner in the summer of 1854. In 1855, Fontenelle and four of his party were killed and scalped by an enemy band of Sioux while on the summer buffalo hunt on the plains. The historians B. Tong and D. Hastings contend that LaFlesche did not become principal chief until after his death, but accounts have varied as to the role of Fontenelle in the tribe. Boughter writes that Hepner and LaFlesche both referred to Fontenelle as a chief after his death, but other contemporaries among the Omaha did not agree and referred to him as the interpreter.
As chief, LaFlesche led the tribe through a period of major transition and social disruption after their move to the reservation in what is now northeast Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
in the Blackbird Hills. About 800 Omaha removed to the reservation. At the beginning, they built their traditional sod lodges, with the clans arrayed in customary positions around a circle. By 1881, the tribe had increased to about 1100. Many had built western-style houses. LaFlesche worked to gain the rights of citizens of the United States for the Omaha. In the late nineteenth century, the US government required American Indians to agree to give up their communal land, tribal government and membership in order to gain voting rights. They had to adopt certain aspects of assimilation and learn United States practices.
LaFlesche had supported the changes in land policy in a move toward severalty, believing that the tribe's members would benefit by adopting the ownership of land individually by patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
rather than to continue to hold it in common as a tribe. Many in the tribe were of different opinions and the policy proved to be detrimental to tribal continuity and land use. He encouraged his people to become educated in both Omaha and American ways, supporting the mission schools. Seeing how detrimental alcohol was, he prohibited it on the reservation. He and Henry Fontenelle were appointed official traders to the Omaha under the US Indian agent.
La Flesche was chief at a time when many of the Omaha resisted the changes that had disrupted their lives. For some time, many of the men lived on their portion of the annuities and hunting, and the women continued to cultivate varieties of corn in a communal way. The Omaha stayed in their villages rather than going out to farm the land.
But by 1880, the Omaha produced 20,000 bushels of wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, including a surplus for sale. The following year was a poor season, and they had less than needed of all their crops. The government's estimate of sufficient land allotments for the Native Americans restricted them to dividing their lands among heirs, in portions that in future years were too small to be farmed effectively or to be developed for other purposes. In addition, when government annuities and supplies were delayed or arrived in poor condition, as was often the case, or the Indian agents made decisions about restricting annuities, as did Jacob Vore in 1876, the Omaha faced worse conditions on their reservation than in their former nomadic life.
Further reading
- Green, Norma Kidd, Iron Eye's Family: The Children of Joseph LaFlesche, Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1969.
External links
- "Treaty with the Omaha, 1854", in Indian Affairs: Treaties By United States, US Dept. of the Interior, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904, p. 611
- "LaFlesche Family", Biographical Note, Archives, Nebraska State Historical Society