Bright Eyes (Instha Theamba), Mrs. T. H. Tibbles
Bright Eyes was an Omaha Indian girl, who became widely known
through her efforts to help her people. She was born at Bellevue in
1854, the
daughter of Joseph and Mary LaFlesche, and united in her person
the blood of the Indian, the French and the American settlers of
Nebraska. Her
father was a chief of the Omaha tribe, the son of a Frenchman
and a Ponca Indian woman. Her mother was daughter of Nicomi, an Indian
woman
of the Ioway tribe, and Dr. John Gale, a surgeon of the United
States army.
When Bright Eyes was born she was named Yosette or Susette by
her parents. It was not until years later she received her second name.
Her
father's Indian name was Esta-maza or "Iron Eyes." Some one who
knew this looked at the daughter and said, "Her name should be Bright
Eyes,
or in Omaha language, Instha Theamba." So she came to be known
by the name "Bright Eyes" and to sign it to her writings.
Bright Eyes grew up on the Omaha Indian reservation with the
other Indian children. She spoke nothing but the Omaha language until
she was
eight years old. Then she went to the mission school on the
reservation. She learned English faster than any other child in the
school and was soon
able to read and write. Every one loved her because she was so
bright and cheerful and winning in her ways. When she was fifteen she
was asked
what she most wished for a Christmas present and replied, a good
education. This was told to the president of a woman's seminary at
Elizabeth,
New Jersey. Very soon Bright Eyes was invited to attend school
there, and became at once one of the best students, beloved by her
teachers and
by the young white women who were her schoolmates. At the end of
four years she graduated and came back to the Omaha reservation.
The Omaha Indians were very poor. Grasshoppers came and ate
their crops. Part of the tribe lived in the old Indian way and kept up
the old
Indian customs. There were no pleasant rooms and beautiful books
and pictures and educated girl companions as there were at the school at
Elizabeth, New Jersey. The wild game was fast going. The Indians
had not yet learned how to farm as the white men did. Idleness and its
bad
results were seen in the tnbe. There was little to make life
happy for a bright girl fresh from study in an eastern school.
One day Bright Eyes found out that there was a law which said
that any Indian qualified to teach school should have the preference in
schools on
the reservation. She at once set out to get leave to teach
school near her home. After great obstacles had been overcome, she
began teaching in a
little cabin at twenty dollars a month. This gave her a chance
to help the people of her tribe in many ways toward a better way of
living. She was
very busy in this work when Standing Bear and the Ponca Indians
who had escaped from Oklahoma came to the Omaha tribe for help in 1879.
Bright Eyes at once became the champion of the poor Poncas. She
wrote to the newspapers the story of their wrongs. She visited Omaha in
their
behalf. While thus engaged she became acquainted with Mr. T. H.
Tibbles, an editorial writer on the Omaha Herald, and later, in 1882,
became
his wife. The next year she was asked by people interested in
the Indians to go east and tell the story of Nebraska Indians and their
needs. For the
next five years, accompanied by her husband and Chief Standing
Bear, she spoke to great audiences in the eastern states and in Europe.
Everywhere the people were charmed with her presence and
interested in her story. The poet Longfellow asked to meet her and when
he saw her
said, "This is Minnehaha." Leading men took up the cause of the
Indian and their rights were better protected.
At the end of her years of lecturing Bright Eyes returned to
Nebraska. Her summers usually were spent on the Omaha reservation among
her own
people. During the remainder of the year she lived in Omaha or
Lincoln, where Mr. Tibbles was engaged in editorial work. She wrote
much herself
and had the most constant interest in the progress of the Omahas
and other tribes of Indians. During the last Sioux war in 1890 she was
at Pine
Ridge. She died May 26, 1903, at her own home on the Omaha
reservation in sight of the beautiful Logan River and the hills where
her people
had hunted in the early days, leaving the memory of a good and
true life spent in making all life which she touched brighter and
better.
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