Susette la flesche biography of michael

Susette La Flesche

reformer, writer, and lecturer
Born: 1854
Birthplace: near Bellevue, Nebr.

Also known as Inshta Theumba, or “Bright Eyes,” La Flesche was born on the Omaha Reservation just south of present-day Omaha, Nebr.

Both of her parents were of mixed blood: her father, Joseph La Flesche, was the son of a French trader and an Omaha woman, and her mother, Mary Gale, was the daughter of an army contract surgeon and an Omaha-Iowa woman.

Although Joseph La Flesche was a chief of the Omahas and lived as an Indian, he believed that the Omahas should adapt to the dominant white culture. His children, therefore, were raised at home according to Omaha tradition, but they received a formal education at the reservation's Presbyterian missionary school, where they learned to speak English and to read and write.

Susette and two of her sisters were later also sent to a private finishing school in Elizabeth, N.J. After graduation, Susette ret