18 Facts About Thomas Tibbles

Thomas Henry Tibbles was an American abolitionist, writer, journalist, Native American rights activist, and politician who was born in Ohio and lived in various other places in the United States, especially Nebraska.

Thomas Tibbles was born on May 22,1840, near Athens, Ohio to William and Martha Thomas Tibbles.

Thomas Tibbles was one of the best shots with a revolver in the west.

In 1874, Thomas Tibbles discovered that many Nebraskans were on the brink of starvation due a draught and subsequent crop failure.

Frost, Thomas Tibbles succeeded in raising over $80,000 in relief for those affected.

Thomas Tibbles continued working for various newspapers throughout Omaha, Nebraska while preaching.

Thomas Tibbles would retire from the ministry in 1877 to pursue social justice through journalism full-time.

Thomas Tibbles met the acquaintance of Chief Standing Bear on March 30,1879, after the Chief and some 30 Ponca Indians were placed under arrest and were being held by order of the US Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz, for fleeing the Indian territory in Oklahoma to their original lands.

Thomas Tibbles declared that Indians do have the right to sue the government, that the US Army had no right to take them from their land, and he ordered the immediate release of the 30 incarcerated Ponca being held at Fort Omaha.

Once the trial of Chief Standing Bear was over, Thomas Tibbles would continue to campaign for equal treatment for Native Americans.

Thomas Tibbles would set off on another tour with Chief Standing Bear, his son, Woodworker, and his daughter Bright Eyes, who had served as Standing Bear's interpreter at the trial and was known as Susette LaFlesche.

In 1880, Thomas Tibbles published his first book under the pseudonym "Zylyff," The Ponca Chiefs: An Account of the Trial of Standing Bear.

In 1888, Thomas Tibbles returned as a reporter to the Omaha World Herald, where, on a visit to Pine Ridge Agency in 1890, he would be an eye witness to and at the forefront of the massacre at Wounded Knee, where he reported the tragedy to the world.

Thomas Tibbles would become increasingly active in the populist movement until, in 1904, he was nominated to be the Vice-President on the Populist ticket, though his ticket did not win.

In 1905, Thomas Tibbles would write his third and final book, Buckskin and Blanket Days, which was his autobiography.

Thomas Tibbles married his third and final wife, Ida Belle Riddle, in 1907 after the death of Susette LaFlesche.

Thomas Tibbles would continue his active involvement in the Populist movement, including editing other newspapers for the party, from 1905 to 1910; after which he returned to the Omaha World Herald until his retirement in 1928.

Thomas Tibbles died on May 14,1928, and was buried in Bellevue Cemetery, Bellevue, Nebraska, and Ida was later buried alongside him.