1. Big Elk, known as Ontopanga, was a principal chief of the Omaha tribe for many years on the upper Missouri River.
21 Facts About Big Elk
1. 2.
Big Elk is notable for his oration delivered at the funeral of Black Buffalo, the maternal grandfather of Crazy Horse, in 1813.
3.
Big Elk led his people during a time of increasing changes, with threats from Sioux warfare, disease, and European-American encroachment.
4.
Big Elk created alliances to protect his people and prepare for a future that he thought depended on a closer relationship with the United States.
5.
Big Elk was willing to exchange land for the promise of protection for his people but was often disappointed by the failures of the US government.
6.
Big Elk struggled to protect his people from encroachment by European Americans, but more importantly, from warfare by the Sioux.
7.
Big Elk was among the Native American allies of the United States during the War of 1812, through his relations with the French Creole trader Lucien Fontenelle from New Orleans, who served as an interpreter.
8.
Big Elk admired some aspects of European-American culture and made strategic alliances through the marriages of his daughters: two married prominent European-American fur traders.
9.
In 1843 Chief Big Elk had designated his adopted son Joseph LaFlesche as his successor; LaFlesche was a Metis fur trader of Ponca and French-Canadian descent, who lived for many years with the Omaha.
10.
Big Elk was one of the six chiefs who signed the 1854 treaty with the US that ceded the last major portions of Omaha land.
11.
Big Elk encouraged the Omaha to become educated and to adopt some European-American ways.
12.
Big Elk was one of the seven signatories to the 1854 treaty, perhaps because he was the only Omaha speaker who was fluent in English.
13.
Similarly, Big Elk arranged or permitted two of his daughters to marry prominent European-American fur traders, with whom he wanted to make alliances to strengthen his family's connections.
14.
Big Elk admired some aspects of American culture and believed he could help his people by these alliances.
15.
Big Elk had been a prominent fur trader in the Omaha territory for years, setting up Fort Lisa in what is North Omaha, Nebraska.
16.
Big Elk set up a trading post on the Missouri River near what is Bellevue, Nebraska and lived full-time in the territory.
17.
Big Elk became an interpreter for the Omaha, beginning to work for the US Indian agent after his father's death in 1840.
18.
Big Elk was one of two interpreters and the only one of the Omaha speakers to be literate in English.
19.
Big Elk formally adopted the trader Joseph LaFlesche as his son, thus incorporating him into the Omaha.
20.
In 1843 Big Elk designated LaFlesche as his successor, and LaFlesche seriously studied the tribal ways and customs to prepare for chieftainship.
21.
Big Elk worked as an ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institution in a close partnership with the anthropologist Alice Fletcher; he wrote books and research about the Omaha and the Osage, and helped preserve their traditions.