Chief Big Elk at Bellevue Cemetery

 I visited the Bellevue Cemetery an the grave of Big Elk.  The grave is at the top of the hill.  

Big Elk
Indian Name (Ong-Pa-Ton-Ga)
1770-1846
Last Full Blooded Chief of Omaha Tribe
Friend of the Pioneers and Grandfather of Logan Fontanelle

On September 19, 1954 with 1000 spectators, Big Elk and 14 Omahas were reburied here, their remains were brought from Elk Hill north of Mission Avenue where Big Elk had large funerals in 1846 and 1883.  Buffalo Chief translated White Bird's speech about Big Elk's leadership.  A chaplain from Offutt Air Force Base spoke.  Taps sounded.  Fitting tribal rituals were held.  The Omahas "Began their long rest in peace at their final resting place."  This famous orator and man of peace supported the U.S. in the War of 1812.  He visited two presidents.  His "coming flood" speech on western expansion gave good advice for all youth.  "I can no longer think for you and lead you as in my younger days.  You must think for yourselves ...that you may be prepared for the coming change.  Speak kindly to one another; do what you can to help each other, even in the troubles with the coming tide.

Bellevue Cemetery
In 1856 Bellevue set aside four city blocks as a cemetery.  However it was thought to have been used earlier as unofficial burial plots.  One of the earliest markers is of Jean Allen dated 1856 and located 70 feet northwest of marker.  Jean Allen and Ester Peters were buried within ne month of eachothr.  Other notable markers are: Big Elk and fourteen of his braves.  Big Elk was the last full-blooded chief of the Omaha Tribe.  Fenner Ferguson, first chief justice of the Nebraska Territory, Dr. Frank Gilder, noted archaeologist, and a grave of a pioneer child who was burird before 1856.  A slab of rock waqs placed over the top of the grave to discourage predators.

Looking east towards Iowa

College World Series at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha

 While visiting the zoo we parked by the Memorial to Rosenblatt Stadium.   The original stadium was built as a replacement for Vinton Street Park which was a mile up the road, 13th to the north.  Vinton Park stadium had burnt down in 1936.  It was built in 1947-1948 with the first game October 17, 1948.  In 1950 Rosenblatt became the site for the Collage World Series every year.  It hosted this even until 2010 when the location was moved to its current site, Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.  Rosenblatt Stadium also was the home field for four minor league teams.  It was the largest minor league stadium in the U.S. before its closure.  It was next to the Doorley Zoo and the zoo purchased the stadium to expand their parking lot.  Demolishing took place in 2012.  The new Memorial to Rosenblatt Stadium had a grand opening in June 2013.

Mormon Hollow, Fontanelle Forest, Bellevue

 Mormon Hollow is in Bellevue, in the Fontanelle Forest.  In 1846,  after the Mormons were chased out of Nauvoo, they took most of the summer to cross Iowa.  There was a lot of mud.  They finally made it to the Missouri River.  A group of Saints employed the Sarpy ferry initially; but eventually made their own.  They consulted with Chief Big Elk about where to stay.  They let him know they were only traveling through.  Eventually is was determined a hollow close to the Fontanelle Trading Post.  This later became known as Mormon Hollow.  The lower end of the hollow reached where the Missouri River flowed at the time.  It now flows further to the east.  They stayed there about six weeks before the Saints living there were asked to move north by Brigham Young.  They then established Cutler'ser's Park and Winter Quarters about ten miles north.  

The valley would have provided protection against the wind.

Native American Biography: Kyrie Irving, Basketball

 Kyrie Irving is known for his prowess on the basketball court as a high scoring point guard.  He was picked with the first overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011 and won the rookie of the year that year.  In 2016 the Cavaliers won the NBA championship.  LeBron James also played for the Cavaliers. 

 More recently he is known for having refused the Covid shot.  It limited his ability to play is some jurisdictions.  At the time he played in New Jersey and this stance resulted in his being traded.  He now plays for Dallas but has not played this year due to recovering from ACL surgery.

Kyrie's mother was Lakota Sioux of the Standing Rock reservation.  She also had African AMerican ancestry.  However she was adopted away from the reservation as a baby.  This was before the Indian Child Welfare Act prevented the adopting out of native children.  His mother passed away when he was four and he was raised by his father and aunts.  He was actually born in Australia and has duel citizenship.  His father was in Australia playing basketball.  

As an adult Irving has reconnected with his native roots.  He attended a "welcome home" ceremony on the Standing Rock reservation.  He received a new name, Little Mountain.  His family name is Mountain.  

Native American Biography: Jamie Okuma, Artist, Beadworker, Fashion Designer: Luiseño, Shoshone-Bannock

 Jamie Okuna is big in the fashion world.  She has her own website where she sells her fashion.  She is an enrolled member to the La Jolla Luiseño band of Indians.  From a young age she would do beadwork making small items for her dolls.  She has been an active artist since she was 18.  She displays art at the Heard Indian Art Market in Phoenix and Santa Fe Indian Art Market in Santa Fe.  She has won seven best of show award, four in Phoenix and three in Santa Fe.  She specializes in beaded foot wear.  She has moved from beadwork to fashion design.  She makes intricate clothing.  She calls is contemporary native fashion.  

Native American Biography: Frank Waln: Musician, Rapper, Advocate: Sicangu Lakota Sioux

 Frank Waln is most known as a rapper who puts Native American themes in his songs.  He plays the Native American flute.  He first released two albums in 2017, and then in 2020 one of flute music.  He has won many Native American awards for his music.  He is also a writer and does the college lecture circuit.  He teaches native American music and history as well as music production at Western Michigan University.  

Native American Author: Louise Erdrich

 Louise Erdrich is a writer of novels, non fiction, children's books, poetry and short stories.  On many works she collaborated with her husband, Michael Dorris.  Dorris had three adopted children that Erdrich helped raise.  They also had three children together.  They all had fetal alcohol syndrome.  The oldest as a young man was hit by a car and killed.  They were later divorced. After the divorce, the other two adopted children accused their adoptive father of abusing them, including sexually.  He committed suicide.   Erdrich had another daughter after the divorce.  

Her writing career got a big start when she won a short story contest sponsored by the Chicago Tribune.  Both she and Dorris were writers.  They would individually write the first draft and then share them with eachother and work on them together.  Erdrich has written over 30 novels and other works.  

She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota.  She is of mixed blood with her mother being Chippewa.  Her father was German American.  From both sides of the family she heard many stories.  These stories find their place in her works.  She writes about the area where she grew up, native American stories as well as French and German.

She also runs a book store in Minneapolis called Birchbark Books which also sells native American art and

medicines.  She promotes native authors and has a publishing company.  

Book Review: Red Cloud: Sioux Warrior

 Red Cloud: Sioux Warrior: Native American Leaders of the Wild West, by William R. Sanford, Enslow Publishers, Hillside, N.J., 1994.

This is a very good study of Red Cloud as a warrior.  The book says Red Cloud defeated the Whites twice.  First in forcing the American troops from the forts along the Bozeman Trail.  The second was in negotiation where he asserted the tribes insistence on not going to a reservation along the Missouri River but staying closer to the Black Hills.  Thus they are on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a more desert location.  Red Cloud was not pleased with this location.  This is where he died.

Native American Biography: Esther Martinez, Tewa Pueblo

 As a child Esther was sent to boarding school, where she was punished if she spoke her native language.   However Esther did not forget her language.  She graduated in 1930.  She raised ten children and worked as a school cook or janitor in various jobs.  She was working at John F. Kennedy Middle School in San Juan Pueblo when she was asked to for her help in documenting the Tewa language.  She worked at creating the first Tewa dictionary.  It has been revised to reflect different dialects but is still used.  She also translated the New Testament into Tewa.

She worked to establish Tewa durriculum into the school system, and through her efforts many children have been taught their native language in schools.  She is also a story teller.  Traditionally storytelling took place in the winter.  This was because of the longer nights.  Stories were told to teach survival tips and socialization skills.  Storytelling would start with children's stories.  She has published several children stories based on her culture.  She also traveled with Storytelling International and told many stories.  This would be in English.  She published a memoir, "My Life in San Juan Pueblo: Stories of Esther Martinez" in 2004.  

She died at age 94.  She was honored with by the Endowment for the Arts for folk and traditional artists.  A law she had proposed for language immersion schools was also passed, expanding funding for schools.

Native American Biography: Michael Naranjo, Blind Sculptor, Tewa Pueblo

Michael Naranjo was born in Santa Clara Pueblo and is of the Tewa Tribe.  He served in the army in Vietnam where a grenade was thrown toward him and in his attempt to throw it back it blew up in his hand.  It left his hand badly injured and shrapnel in his face let him blind.  He was 23 when this happened.  

While he was recovering he asked the nurse for some soft clay.  Using his left hand he was able to make an animal.  Growing up his mother made pottery.  He would use clay to make animals, and she would often fire them.  This sparked in him a desire to be an artist.  Despite his blindness he persisted.  From thos little clay sculptures he has continued and is now a well known artist with many works.  He makes many sculptures of Native American dancers, including hoop dances.  This he sculpts from his memories growing up.  He lived this life until he was nine years ole, and then his father moved him to town where he became a minister.

Native American Biography: Brown Woman of the Blackfeet aka Running Eagle,

 Running Eagle (Pitamaka) was oldest among her siblings.  Her father taught her how to hunt against the wishes of her mother.  She was born in southern Alberta Canada to the Piikáni Piegan Tribe of the Blackfeet.  She preferred boy's games to girl's.  At age twelve she began wearing boys clothes.  She started going on buffalo hunts with her father.  On a hunting expedition with her father they were attacked by Assiniboine. Her father's horse was shot from under him and Running Eagle rode back and  was able to save him.  She was celebrated with a dance.

Her mother and father both passed away shorty after, leaving Running Eagle as the head of the family.  She went with the warriors on a raid of a Crow camp.  She was told to go back by the leader of the read, but she refused.  She was able to steal eleven horses on the raid.  She then kept watch and was able to take care of two Crow who tried to steal back the things they had taken.  She was again celebrated by the tribe.  

She still met with significant push back and it was suggested she do a vision quest.  She was promised success in battle as long as she never slept with a man.  After this she was accepted as a warrior and even lead battles.  She did however eventually meet her end on the battle field.  

Pitamakan lake in Montana was named for her.  She is a woman who followed what she wanted to do instead of society's norms.  It was rumored she slept with a man which resulted in her death.  However the Flatheads targeted her knowing she was leading the battle.  

Omaha Burlington Station

 Burlington Station opened July 4, 1898 to welcome people to the Omaha world's fair, the Trans-Mississippi Exposition.  It had columns made from Indiana granite.  It was reodeled in the 1930s and the columns were removed.  That remodel was for a more modern look.  In 1974 the station closed.  In 2015 it reopened as a television station for channel 7.

I took pictures from the Union Pacific Durham Museum.

Magazine Article Review: Fonda Family and the Omaha Community Players

 Fonda Family and the Omaha Community Players, by Leo Adam Biga, Nebraska History Magazine, volume 105 number 2 Summer 2024.

2024 marked the 100th year of the Omaha Community Players.  The Fonda family, as well as the Brando family were with them from their earliest days.  Henry Fonda first did plays as a young man.  In their turn his children also performer, Peter Fonda and Jane Fonda.  Henry Fonda came back to the community players from time to tim, to perform or to reminisce.  He and his children went on to have successful theater and movie careers.  Henry Fonda's last movie was with his daughter Jane, "On Golden Pond."  

This article lists many actors from Nebraska.  In addition to the Fondas there are Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Dorothy McGuire, Nick Nolte and many more.

Omaha Indian Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte from Durham History Museum

 Omaha Indian Dr Susan Laflesche Picotte was the first Native American woman to graduate from medical school.  She was the daughter of Omaha chief Joseph LaFlesche, "Iron Eye."  She graduated first in her class from the Women's Medical College in Pennsylvania.  She moved back to the Omaha Resefrvation where she became the reservation doctor.

Florence Mill/Winter Quarters Mill

 The Florence Mill was first built while members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints occupied Winter Quarters in 1846 as they waited to continue their journey to the West.  Brigham Young ordered it be built.  Other people ran the mill after the Mormons abandoned the area.

Native American Biography: James Luna, Artist, performance artist, Luiseño

 James Luna challenges Native American stereotypes.  He does this through museum displays, where he often inserts himself into the display.  "Take a picture with a real Indian."  He had been part of over 100 museum exhibitions, group and individual.  He lived at the La Jolla reservation of the Luiseño people.  He is part Mexican.  His displays can be jarring such as a Native American medicine man giving away sacred relics such as a wet dream catcher.  He taught art at three California Universities including San Diego, Davis and Irvine.  He was also a counsellor at a community college.  His art and exhibits have ben displayed in Los Angeles, New York, Canada, Santa Fe etc.  He received an honorary doctorate from the Institute of American Arts, Santa Fe.  

Half Mexican, Half Indian

Native American Biography: Po'pay, Tewa Religious Leader, Pueblo Revolt

 The DSpanish began to rule over th Pueblo people in 1598.  Despite there being as many as 80,000 Publo Indians, their independent rule, each town had its own rule, they could not counter the Spanish weapons and coordination.  The Spanish rule was tyrannical, and they insisted that the Pueblo not practice their traditional ways.  In 1675 Po'pay was one of 47 Pueblo people who were arrested for witchcraft for practicing their traditional ways.  Three were executed, one committed suicide.  He had the others beaten and they were set to be sold as slaves.  70 Pueblo warriors showed up at the governor's house and demanded their release.  The governor complied fearing a revolt.  He already was having problems with Apache and Navajo.  

Po'pay had a dynamic personality and commanded respect.  He retired to Taos where he began planning a revolt.  In the past coordination was an issue.  They decided on a particular day and had runners visit each community.  They were not allowed horses.  They used a rope with knots to count the days to th revolt.  When the Spanish discovered their plans, they again sent runners to move the timing forward two days.  In that way they maintained the element of surprise.  With all the communities rising up together they were able to defeat the Spanish.  This is the first time and indigenous people was able to throw off the yolk of a foreign overlord.  

The revolt cost many livees on both sides.  Many Catholic priests were killed.  The Spanish were forced to go south.  The Pueble were able to practice the traditions.  The Pueblo and Spanish then became allies against the Navajo, Apache, Ute and Comanche.  The priests allowed the practice of Pueblo ways as long as they showed the outward signs of practicing Catholicism.  

There is a statue of Po'pay in the capitol rotunda in Washington.  The statue shows Po'pay with a scarred back back from the beating and holding a knotted rope.

Native American Artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

 Visual artist who recently passed away.  Enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe but also with Shoshone and Métis heritage.  Five decades long career in which she had 50 solo exhibits as well as sponsoring many more.  Her art has a Native American slant focusing on oppression.  She hosted an exhibit of Native American Artists at the National Museum of Art in Washington.

 Jaune means yellow in French.  Quick-to-See was given to her by her Shoshone grandfather.  She passed away in January of this year from Pancreatic cancer at age 85. 

Book Review: The Omaha Tribe, Volume I

 The Omaha Tribe, Volume I by Alice C. Fisher and Francis La Flesche, Bison Book University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 1992.

This is an ethnological study of the Omaha Tribe.  There is more information in this book than you could ever digest unless you might be an anthropologist.

The Omaha Tribe is closely related to the Pawnee and the Ponca tribes.  At some point these groups broke off from the Omaha.  

This book includes many descriptions of rituals.  There were ten different gens or peoples.  Each gen had their own responsibilities.  The children had different hair styles based on the gen they were a member of.  There were rituals around becoming an adut.  There were rituals around the hunt.  At one time someone wanted to hurry the rituals, thinking the buffalo would get away, so he took a group and the attacked the buffalo before the ritual songs had been sung.  It went badly for him, his horse fell injuring him badly.

The Omaha had many sacred items.  This included a pole, two pipes and a white buffalo hide.  This items were used in conjunction with the hunt.  Since the buffalo were all killed, they were no longer being used and are now in a museum at Harvard University, except the hyde which was stolen and showed up in a Chicago museum.

The book explores many, many different song.  Some were sung three or four times as part of a ceremony.  

This is a very detailed book, with pictures of tribal members and leaders and explanation of leadership roles.

Native American Biography: Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Jewelry Maker, Congressman, Senator

 Ben Nighthorse Campbell was born in 1933.  He was of Cheyenne heritage through his father, and European heritage through his mother.  His grandfather fought in the Battle of Little Big Horn.  He was born in California, in the Sacramento area.  Both of Ben's parents had issues, his father with alcohol and his mother with tuberculosis.  He and his sister spent considerable time in Catholic orphanages.  He left high school before graduating to join the Air Force.  He served in the Korean War.  Aftr his service he used his G.I. bill to attend San Jose State.  While there he was a member of the Judo team.  While training for the Olympics he attended Meiji University in Japan.  They had a very disciplined Judo program and this helped him take the U.S. championship in 1961, 62 and 63.  He participated in the 1964 Olympics.  However he broke his ankle and did not win a medal.

His given name was Ben Campbell at birth.  He acquired his Nighthorse name at his Cheyenne naming ceremony.  His father was of the Blackhorse family.

He began a successful career as a jeweler and jewelry maker.  He used techniques from Japanese sword making.  They bought a ranch on the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado.  He had an art booth in Santa Fe.

He started in politics sort of as an accident.  He would run for state legislature as noone else wanted to.  However he put his all into it and won.  He eventually became a congressman and then a senator from Colorado.  He switched from the Democrat to the Republican party and still won as a Senator.  He retired from politics in 2005.  He continued as a lobbyist.  He has also continued his jewelry business.

With his daughter in Santa Fe 2015 at the jewelry market.