Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes

ONEIDA 207
The Omaha had a complex social structure with many
rules governing behavior. They also had many societies,
some of them secret with exclusive membership, and others
open to everyone. The Thunder Society served as custodians
of the tribe’s most sacred relics, two pipes that had
mallard duck heads attached to the stems. Another society,
the Buffalo Dreamers, cared for the sick. Still another, the
Bear Dreamers, used sleight-of-hand tricks in their rituals.
One trick was swallowing long sticks.
History
The Omaha fought often with the SIOUX (DAKOTA,
LAKOTA, NAKOTA) living to their north and west. Yet a
smallpox epidemic in 1802, brought to the Omaha by
non-Indian traders, had a greater impact on them than
intertribal warfare, greatly reducing their population.
In 1854, at the time the original Indian Territory was
reorganized, the Omaha ceded all their lands east of the
Missouri River to the United States and were granted a
reservation in present-day northeastern Nebraska. In
1865, the Omaha sold the northern part of the reservation
to the federal government for the use of the WIN-
NEBAGO (HO-CHUNK).
The La Flesche Family
The La Flesche family had an impact on the history of
the Omaha in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Joseph La Flesche (Inshtamaza) was the head of the
tribe’s Progressive Party and principal chief as of 1853.
Believing that his people should learn the ways of the
Euroamerican culture, he encouraged the building of
roads on the reservation and the division of lands into
lots for individual farming. But he also advocated the
preservation of traditional customs and pride in “Indianness.”
He had his children educated in white-run
schools. Three of his 10 children became famous. Susette
La Flesche, also known as Bright Eyes, became a wellknown
reformer, lecturer, and writer on Indian issues.
She married non-Indian journalist and lecturer Thomas
Henry Tibbles, who also worked on behalf of Indian
peoples. Susette’s sister Susan La Flesche became the first
female Native American physician. Their brother Francis
La Flesche became renowned as an anthropologist and
writer on the Omaha and Osage.
In the late 19th century, Francis La Flesche gave Harvard
University’s Peabody Museum the tribe’s Sacred Pole,
known as Umon’hon’ti, the “Real Omaha” or “Venerable
Man,” believing the museum was best equipped to preserve
it. A personification of a human being, it consists of
a cottonwood pole, resting on a wooden “leg,” with a scalp
on its “head.” In 1989, the Omaha, who have helped draft
legislation for the return of sacred objects and human
remains to Indian nations from museums, negotiated the
return of the Sacred Pole, one of their revered objects.
Ongoing Traditions
Omaha tribal life is centered around the Omaha Reservation,
located in Thurston County, Nebraska, and a
small portion of Monona County, Iowa. Many Omaha
still speak their Native language, which is taught in their
schools on the reservation, and participate in traditional
events, such as the He’dewachi, an annual tribal powwow,
where the Hedushka is performed. The Hedushka,
originally a war dance, probably evolved out of the
Pawnee Irushka. Formerly called the Omaha Dance by a
number of other Plains tribes after the people who
taught it to them, the dance became more widely known
as the Grass Dance because of the Omaha custom of
tucking prairie grass in belts to symbolize scalps taken in
warfare. Other powwows are held for individual accomplishments,
such as graduations.
ONEIDA
The Oneida were one of the five original tribes of the
Iroquois League (or Iroquois Confederacy). They controlled
the wedge of territory in what is now central New
York State between the MOHAWK to the east and the
ONONDAGA to the west, especially between Oneida Lake
and the upper Mohawk River. Their culture and history
are summarized along with the other NORTHEAST INDI-
ANS of the Iroquois Confederacy under IROQUOIS (HAU-
DENOSAUNEE). Yet as is the case with all six nations, the
Oneida have a distinct tribal identity.
Their name, pronounced oh-NIE-duh, is derived
from the Iroquoian word Onayotekaona, or the “people
of the upright stone,” referring to a large rock within
their territory. At the confederacy’s annual Great Council
in neighboring Onondaga territory, to which they
sent nine sachems, or chiefs, as representatives of their