Susette La Flesche

Susette LaFlesche Tibbles

Susette LaFlesche Tibbles (1854-1903) was a well-known Native American writer, lecturer, translator and artist of the Omaha tribe in Nebraska. Susette LaFlesche was a progressive who helped the Native Americans. She was of Ponca, Iowa, French and Anglo-American ancestry. In 1983 she was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Susette was one of seven children born to Joseph LaFlesche, who was son of fur trapper Joseph LaFlesche and his Ponca wife, Waoowinchtcha. Her mother was Mary Gale, also called Hinnuaganun (One Woman), daughter of Dr. John Gale, a surgeon at Fort Atkinson (Nebraska) and Ni-co-ma, his wife from the Iowa (tribe). The younger Joseph LaFlesche was adopted by Big Elk and named as his successor as chief of the Omaha. Joseph, called Iron Eye, was the last recognized chief of the Omaha. Both Iron Eye and Mary LaFlesche stressed the importance of education.

Susette LaFlesche attended school in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and started writing early. Her siblings also became educated and leaders in their professions: one of her sisters was physician Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte, Rosalie became a financial manager for the Omaha nation, and brother Francis LaFlesche became a writer and respected ethnologist for the Smithsonian.

Career and marriage

Also known by her Indian name Inshata-Theumba, or Bright Eyes, in 1879 LaFlesche acted as the interpreter for Standing Bear during his trial at Fort Omaha, Nebraska. It was there that Standing Bear successfully argued before the United States District Court that Indians were persons under the law, and had all the rights of U.S. citizens. Thomas Tibbles was a journalist with the Omaha World Herald who was instrumental in bringing the case before the court.

Following the trial, Bright Eyes accompanied Standing Bear, Thomas Tibbles, and others on a speaking tour of the eastern United States. They also went on a 10-month speaking tour of England and Scotland. When poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow entertained them at his home at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he said of Bright Eyes, "This could be Minnehaha", referring to the legendary Indian heroine in his poem "The Song of Hiawatha".

Bright Eyes and Thomas Tibbles were married in 1881. For the next fourteen years, the couple moved back and forth between Washington D.C. and the Midwest. While in Washington, Bright Eyes wrote and lectured on Native American issues; in the Midwest, she spent time farming on her allotment of land on the Omaha Reservation. In 1890, she and Tibbles were present at the Pine Ridge Agency and witnessed the tragedy of Wounded Knee.

LaFlesche Tibbles also appeared before a Congressional committee, where she spoke for the rights of Native Americans. After her death at age 49, she was eulogized in the U.S. Senate.

Literary works

• La Flesche's short story "Nedawi: An Indian Story from Real Life" was published in the children's magazine St. Nicholas in 1881. "Nedawi" is thought to be the first nonlegend short story written by an Indian.
• With Fannie Reed Griffin, Bright Eyes co-authored a book, Oo-mah-ha Ta-wa-tha in 1898,and illustrated it.
• Her art work appeared in several books, among them Ploughed-Under: The Story of an Indian Chief, which she also edited.

Legacy and honors

In recognition of her role as a spokesperson and writer about her people, Susette ("Bright Eyes") LaFlesche Tibbles was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame in 1983.

References

Peyer, Bernd. (1991). The Singing spirit. Univ of Arizona Pr.

Additional reading

• Green, Norma Kidd, Iron Eye's Family: The Children of Joseph LaFlesche. Lincoln, Neb. 1969.

• Wilson, Dorothy Clarke, Bright Eyes: The Story of Susette LaFlesche. New York, 1974.

External links

• "Susette LaFlesche Tibbles", UXL Newsmakers, (2005)
• "LaFlesche Family papers", Nebraska State Historical Society