Viewing page 33 of 100

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-30-

BIG ELK

After Black Bird, (by reputation a cruel & very unjust ruler of his people) who was given a national reputation, and very unfairly so, by Washington Irving, the next most noted chief in the history of the Omahas was Big Elk...

Big Elk was noted for the kindness of heart and general good judgement.

Some twenty years ago, an old Omaha Indian told a white friend that the memory of Big Elk in his family would never die.  He said that all the members of his father's family were poor, that they had never owned a horse, and when they were out on long buffalo hunts, they had to travel on foot and carry their baggage on their backs, and when returning, whatever robes, furs, or meat they procured, had to be carried in the same way.

One day his father, almost worn out from carrying a heavy pack, sat down by the way to rest, when Big Elk came by, and seeing the old man was nearly exhausted, he took pity on him and gave him his own horse.  "That," said the old Omaha, "was the only horse my father ever owned.  And he was no relation Big Elk."

He succeeded Black Bird as head chief of the tribe, but he only lived a little past middle age, and died of an epidemic fever...He was buried on one of the hills south of where the Omaha agency building now stands...