Closed Captions

Paul Brill, a genealogist who worked with the Omaha tribe for over 40 years, discusses Omaha history, migration patterns, and the clan system. He traces French and European fur trapper connections, explains the Omaha Crow kinship system, and shares stories of prominent families including the Lafleches and Fontanelles. Brill also addresses naming practices and their cultural significance.

Transcript

0:01 The people who went with them on this journey, it's the land that they crossed, the people they met, and the people that they didn't meet, but the people who have come since then. And to tell all of those stories, we bring people from different backgrounds and different perspectives to come here and talk about their side of the Lewis and Clark story and today we're very very.
0:23 Fortunate to have with us Paul Brill. Paul has worked with the Native Americans for most of his life. He is a genealogist and a consultant and a great friend to the Omaha people. So we're very glad to have him here today, and he's going to be talking about some of the Omaha, uh, genealogy. So Paul, you're on.
0:51 I think they didn't pay the electric bill. There we go.
0:55 I thought a genealogist was someone who was a, a lover of the show I Dream of Jeannie.
1:03 But I never classified myself as that, but about 43 years ago,
1:12 I was selected by the Secretary of the Interior. To come to Nebraska and also the South Dakota because things were being done both places, to be involved in something that involved the Omaha tribe who had just received an award in the In Claims Commission. Uh, a year or so before and they were able to
1:35 secure the legislation which was dated September 14, 1961. Little did I know what I was getting into.
1:45 I came here with a wife and 3 small children. Actually, one was born in South Dakota, the 4th 1, and uh people back in Indiana, actually, they don't think North and South Dakota actually are part of the United States because they don't have much population. And if you've lived there and gone through winters, you might think the same thing.
2:11 Anyway, I came here with the purpose of finding out which individuals would qualify under the legislation. That was enacted by the Congress of the United States.
2:28 And I might tell you that the uh elements of that legislation came about as a result of lobbying about three individuals who represented the Omaha Tribal Council. They're all deceased now. They're Alfred Gilton. They are Minerva Morris and Pauline Tyndall.
2:51 And these 3 individuals had come many times to Washington, and I have just barely met them because they were around in different sections, and they were able to secure the elements that went into that legislation. My job, my task was to carry out those provisions and to find out if there were really any Omaha Indians here.
3:16 And if there were to make a roll of them. And to determine exactly how much Omaha Indian blood they had. I didn't know whether they'd be aqua low or an ounce or too low, but I was going to find out.
3:33 I came at a time when The council and such persons as Valentine Parker Senior, whose son, Valentine Junior on the council just died a couple of months ago. It is the tribal chairman was Louis A Sa Soci, a most generous, gentleman, and Buddy Gilpin and Minerva Morris and Pauline Tyndall
3:57 and Craig Woodhall. These are such, for such outstanding people and for me to meet them was indeed a pleasure and a, and an honor. Uh, it started out to do that. And it ended for me about 2 years later. There were other things that were happening,
4:20 but my essential tasks were finished. Except I had been vaccinated with an Omaha needle. And that may be trite, but I have been so well treated. By so many people that enabled me to continue an association to and including today. And I suspect
4:45 That when I lived to be 150, well, I'll still be doing that. Uh, I don't think I owe anybody any money. But the point is I do owe a lot of thanks, my profound thanks to members of this tribe. You understand the state of Nebraska gets its name from the Omaha
5:10 word Nebraskay.
5:14 And it means what the Omaha said was the land of the flat water, which they gave that name to the Platte River, not the Missouri, but the Platt. Those were the hunting grounds for buffalo.
5:31 And I remember reading also where the settlers always call this Nebrasky. Which is that corruption and of course it's been corrupted, at least it's stable now after a couple of 100 years. It's simply Nebraska, but the word is ibaraskay. And The people here, the Maha people have been here. Well,
5:56 I wasn't here when they first came, I came a little later, but probably as long as 400 years. Their movement started as a break off of the parent language family called the Suyin. There with other elements of it. They traversed from Minnesota down to Illinois, Wisconsin, perhaps even in Indiana
6:20 to the Ohio River. I found a name of a member in the what would now be the Parker family.
6:30 Who had to have been born in the 1700s, but his name was Oao or a variation of that name. I've heard others talk about it, but it meant that river. Now, whether they got it from when they lived there and it stayed or whether there
6:50 were other tribes that called that because tribes were very adept at Borrowing things from other tribes, names and locations. In any event, they got down to the Ohio and they were part of a group of 5 called the Aguiha branch of the Siouan language, and that includes
7:16 the Omahas, the Ponca, the Osage, the cowpaws, and the cow. But the other name is Conze,
7:25 which is where the word Kansas comes from, and the Omaha have a clan, which is the Kona clan. They separated uh somewhat uh when they hit the Ohio hit the Mississippi. Now remember they didn't take an interstate back in those days and travel was probably over a period of years. Some got across the Ohio when it was frozen.
7:50 And that probably is the name for the oppo, whose real name is Ugape, which means downstream. Umaha means upstream because they and the Poncas separated the Osages also went in the middle, and the Omahas and Ponca and the Iowa tribe, which is not linguistically that close,
8:13 went up the Mississippi till they hit the Des Moines River, following it west and north. And into Minnesota and over to what is now South Dakota. And hit the Big Sioux River, came south to the Missouri River, which is not too far from here, and at that time,
8:34 which could have been as late or as recent as 1650. A lot of experts, and you know what, none of them were there, but they seem to think they know. Whether that's totally accurate or approximate, I can't say. Whether it was a parting of the ways because of uh some internal strife, they can't say,
8:58 but the Paa language is virtually identical with Omaha. You get into the other like, Osage is similar. The word for gahia, chief in Omaha. In Osage, it's Kajica. And in other, the wappo and call, it is even further away. But they are in the same family,
9:21 much as we have the Romance languages of Latin, being French and Spanish and Portuguese, Romanian, and some English. Anyway, they came down here and settled in this area, although much of their hunting grounds were also in Iowa. And there they stayed, they were ultimately attacked by various bands of the Sioux,
9:46 particularly the Brule Sioux. They not only were friendly with the Yankton Sioux, they intermarried with the Yankton Sioux. There are descendants today. And people that have been here this morning. of
10:05 Yan and Indies and their French. Fur trapping people, the Dorians, uh, there also are cases where Omahas stayed with them, and in among the Yanktons, there was a family called like John Omaha. um, I don't know what name and they probably ended up with the Yankton name. So there was a little diversity at that age.
10:31 When they First you had the Europeans were the Spanish.
10:37 And they was mention the Manu Lisa. Manu Lisa has descendants in this tribe.
10:46 One time I met with an elderly lady in early 1962. And she told me about a place that would have been something similar to this, but it was closer to Macy where they were there watching and I don't know whether it was not a hand game. It might have been a shell society game, uh, the Omahas know what I'm talking about, but
11:09 And this lady who was about 90 years old in 1962. And she was with her mother and a couple of sisters and a couple not yet born, and they were watching this, and this crowd of people next to them were making a lot of noise.
11:29 And she said, I remember asking my mother, what are they talking? They're loud. And my mother said, oh, they're just bragging. About what? that they are descended from Manuel Lisa.
11:44 It took me about 38 years to actually make that contact, but I now know who the descendants of Manuisa are. Then we came with the French fur trappers, and that was the little flashes and the fontanels and the salso sees. Of course, I've already mentioned the Dorians, but that came indirectly through the,
12:09 through the uh yank and soup.
12:12 The Lafleches were an interesting group, and I haven't found all I know about them, but they came, the original one, Joge was came from Louisiana. And married a whole bunch of women. We used to say, well, how did that happen? Well, he had a fast horse.
12:34 And among those was one woman and the child of that one was the very famous chief, Joseph LaFlesche. Who had the good fortune to have been raised because he was orphaned very early. The Brule Sio killed his mother, his stepfather, and several other aunts and uncles down by Fremont,
12:59 south of here.
13:01 They, he was raised by Big Elk, who had become chief after the death of Clack, I mean um. Blackbird. And when he did, he gained great status and Uh, Joseph LaFlache had a whole bunch of wives. And two of them were Omaha.
13:25 One of them was Otto, and one of them, believe it or not, was a Mormon woman. That he met when the Mormon train came from Nauru, Illinois. Now that train is not the Santa Fe, that's the wagon train. And they were there at Bellevue. He married this woman and had 3 daughters. About 20 years ago,
13:50 I got a phone call from a lady from Portland, Oregon. And she said, I, I said, well, wait, how did you get my number? She said, Well, I wrote to the Secretary of the Interior. They referred me to the Bureau of Inan Affairs who referred me to the Aberdeen Are Office, who referred me to the Winnebago Agency, who referred me to the Omaha tribe who said call Paul Brill.
14:16 This lady said my grandmother was the last surviving child of Louis San Soci. She died in about 1927. I said, how many of them are there out there? She said, well, maybe not, but we think there's 10,000. I think I'm losing my voice here. There are about 10,000.
14:40 Now that may be a little excess, but I told Lizbeth songs and she is on the council, and I said, well, the word I get is that what they're going to do is they're gonna get special legislation.
14:55 Special legislation and they're going to enroll 5000 cents and they're gonna come over and give ask Oliver if he'll prove them.
15:06 And they're gonna get special legislation to become Obahaws, and that will be called the Western Obaha tribe, the Salsa Sea branch.
15:17 This was the salsa seed came in the family. Now, salsay is a French word.
15:23 Souls is without sin means care.
15:29 And so it now has been shortened to where it's one word. So we now have the sausa seas, the Lafleches, the durians, and then perhaps for Nebraska. Not so much the Omaha tribe, the most famous were the Fontanels who came in an American fur trade company. And uh Lucian Fontanelle had come up from New Orleans
15:54 and met and married a woman who was a close relative of Big E. And had a whole bunch of kids and they all did very well. Some married out of the tribe, one having married a pawny woman. But most of the descendants came here
16:15 and those descendants have gone to a lot of other places and they intermarried with various bands of Sioux and all over the United States. They've started their own tribe. Another one became what was known as Logan Fontanelle. And he became a war chief, and he was given the name Shongasa, which is Whitehorse, and in fact went to Washington DC.
16:40 And was party to a treaty there. He sadly was killed by the Sioux within a matter of a year or so thereafter, uh, south of here. Uh. We have a Logan Fontanel in this audience. That was his great,
16:59 great uncle. I'm getting close.
17:04 Why is it Great
17:07 grand uncle. OK.
17:10 And he died about 1855. So we've only had about 150 years. Since then. But anyway, they had women in the family who married back into the tribe. And have become very prominent into the McAulay family, into other families. And because the name has been absorbed,
17:36 a lot of younger people that are here don't realize they may be a Fontenelle. There may be a fontanelle in your present and past. Be careful if you want to marry a fontanelle. You might be a cousin.
17:51 Anyway, this is what happened and I found out and it's been a glorious experience to be able to find those kinds of things. Now, the names of those were French. That was easy. Where did these other names come from? Well, the Presbyterian Church was the most prominent religious group
18:15 in this area. I've been told, and there's some uh legitimacy to that, that the government actually, the Congress actually said, you folks take the Catholics, you take this batch of company, uh you Presbyterians, you have here, you evangelicals are over here. Now, there was some overlapping,
18:40 but that's not far from the truth because a Presbyterian missionary came here. Way back.
18:49 His name was Father William Hamilton.
18:54 And one of the Omaha headmen whose name was Cinte Hora
18:59 took that name and became William Hamilton and all of his descendants, they're not descended from the missionary, they're descended from the individual who took that name. Uh, the Presbyterians had a school when the Omahas were in Bellevue and there were two preachers down there, two missionaries.
19:22 One was Reverend Clay McCauley. And if any of you are relatives of McCauley, that's where it came from. Another one was Reverend Black.
19:33 And there, that name is not too prevalent today, but there are some of those. And another one was Reverend Henderson. The interesting thing is Upton Henderson and James Black were full brothers, but they took their Anglo name from different missionaries. There are Fremonts here. Fremont was taken, the name was a very,
19:58 a famous mountain man, trapper, uh, early on. We had George Washington's, Abraham Lincoln's. General Sherman's boats. We had uh People named Bert. Bert County is named after the Burt, but the Omaha Indians took the name Burt.
20:23 And so many of those individuals took or were given that name, but you see, they really still use the Indian name. That was the thing that was important. And even in my time, a lot of them They didn't even know when I was given the name Ishtamose, they even forgot I was Paul Brill. That was what, and I thought, well,
20:45 how come you don't know because that name was not significant. The Indian name and clans were the important thing, and it still is. Sadly, it's not as important today as it has been because I find out when I ask someone who mys at that, what is your Omaha name? And I think I've got one, but I don't know what it is, or I know what it is,
21:09 but I don't know what it means. And that's an erosion of the culture that is, is difficult to To understand, uh, and it's hard to realize that it is happening. Omaha tribe was divided in a system which is now known by anthropologists as the Omaha Crow system of kinship. And marriage.
21:33 It's the most perfect system among all of anthropological groups that they've studied whether it's been in Asia, in Samoa, whether it's been in China or in Europe. It is, it's simplicity is so marvelous. You had the earth people and you have the sky people, and each of them had
21:57 groups within there. And it was called exogamous, which is a big word which means you married out of your clan. You married out. And this, of course, with a small group of people of a few 100 or even if they ever got to be a few 1000. Minimize the chances of marriage. Now, I doubt seriously whether they were aware
22:20 of DNA and genetics. But I'm confident that they were aware of the situation which would result in marriage that occurred too close. That's why the European monarchy has been a disaster for generations. In any event, this plan system has served the Omahas well. Served it so well.
22:45 Um, And there were subclans. One of the sad things is that these names when they're translated, have lost their real Uh, meaning. There is a name in the Asians, the elk clan called Jean Lewali, which refers, they called her packing wood. She carries the wood,
23:08 but what they've lost is that lady. had the honor to carry wood to the fires of the 7 chiefs, the 7 who had pipes. So it was not just an honor of, you know, she would just thought, hey, you go get some wood. No, it was an honor to be able to bring the wood there. Uh, among the Sioux,
23:32 there's a name called Afraid of his Horses. Well, that's a pretty terrible name. But when you hear what is really sad is, he is so fierce as a warrior, the enemy is afraid even of his horses. Puts a new light on it, doesn't it?
23:51 One of the names I like to use is Hence seeinga
23:57 Him is hair. I may be corrupting the, the accent, but that's it. C is yellow, Jenga is little. So I like to, when I speak before students, I said, well, what does that mean? And they said, well, he had yellow hair. No, he painted his hair yellow, no, and a 100 other wrong answers. And what we find
24:22 is this, when a deer is born, it has spots, doesn't it? The spots go away and they mellow into the tan and the brown. When a buffalo cat is born, it has tufts of yellow hair behind the ears. What I'm telling you is the nuances of some of these names, eludes the white population who thought they knew everything.
24:46 They think everybody is a big bear or short bear or long bear or buffalo this or that. And indeed, that exists, but more than likely, it had to do with some very minor thing that was not noticeable to the outside world and it got corrupted. Where I'm from in Tarrot, Indiana, we had a federal we have a federal penitentiary.
25:11 And I did work there in the past because one of my childhood friends became the uh warden of that. And I started doing this and there was a fellow there from out the Sioux country whose name was Johnny Never misses a shot. And of course he got the nickname of Bullseye.
25:30 But these are the kinds of things, and I will tell you, I'm not sure that I ever met an Indian man that didn't have a nickname. Now, some of them are easy and some of them are not so easy to talk about. But people that I've raised with had some nicknames, but not everybody did, but that's a common I won't use the word affliction because it's not.
25:55 Uh, some of the most honorable people I've ever known have nicknames and why would I want to be called that? But you see, you don't even know the background.
26:05 Anyway, I don't want to pass my time, but um there, this is a subject you could talk about for 60 days and you never even begin to tell about it. Would you have some questions that you might be interested in? Yes, ma'am.
26:22 They come over when you like so everyone can hear.
26:27 Just in the short time that Logan has been up here, he's talked to several people, and it seems like he's related to everybody. Now, when somebody in Omaha wants to marry another Omaha, if, how did they know they're not related or are they so distantly related now? Is it OK? Yes and no.
26:49 Uh, I'm gonna relate a story that happened. I won't tell you the names because that would give it away. A lady about 15 years ago when I was here, she saw me and she said, This is in the tribal building and she said, uh, When I was about 16 or 17, I came home and told my mother
27:13 I was really sweet on such and such an individual. Boy, he could dance both Indian and white way and he was this and that, and my mother didn't like him for some other reasons. She said she pulled her shawl over her head and began to cry and yell. She was mad. You can't even touch him. He's your relative.
27:37 About a year later, I came and told her, I said, you know, I'm really, I think I'm gonna marry this guy. My mother put this shawl back. We've never talked about it in that ensuing time, and she began to cry silently. And she said, you know, I never married that guy, but I always wondered. Was I related to him or just so distant? And I said, well,
28:02 This is his name.
28:06 Oh Haina. Yeah, well, do you know what his grandfather's name was? No, his grandfather used his Indian name, Mohajina.
28:20 But he took the name of Charles Woodhull. And didn't like it, so we reverted to Oainga.
28:29 Yes, he's about a 3rd cousin. You mean he was a relative? I said yes. Oh. My mother knew it all along. In many cases, it is very, it has to be very distant. As some of you known from the charts, you can go back to the same individual, in fact, more than even twice. You may have to go back 6 or 7 generations.
28:53 I know of only one instance, and that doesn't mean I've known at all. Where a woman whose reputation was suspect. Let's say that.
29:06 And married her first cousin.
29:12 Had she not come from a family that was extremely powerful, I'm not sure what would have happened to her because there was an uprising here and we're talking about 130 years ago. She married her first cousin and she knew it was her first cousin. The tribe was in an absolute uproar
29:33 and only because certain elders were able to make it quiet. They perhaps even went away for a while because in some cases, people who had committed murder, if they weren't treated harshly to begin with, were actually uh. Kind of they were sent out on the prairie. They could not come within a certain distance of, of the villages. So I don't know, I wasn't there.
29:58 I came a couple of years later than that. But this was a serious, but this Omaha crow kinship system is so marvelous, it absolutely minimizes that sort of thing.
30:12 I made the comment when they said, well, what, why did those two marry? If they knew that they would be causing so much trouble. I said, well, I'm not an anthropologist. I've studied it. I've talked to a lot of them who are a lot smarter than I am, but let me use a good phrase in Indiana. They just had the hots for each other. Now,
30:36 that's very unscientific, but you know what, it tells me that Omahas were a lot like the rest of the world in many of the day to day activities, a lot like the rest of the world. Their rules and they kept these people going and in good shape for centuries. But occasionally there was a little,
30:58 as they say in New Mexico and one of Pueblo's, which, well, he fell off the wagon when they were coming through. Whether that's the case, I don't know, but they were human and these little exceptions to the rules, which are magnificent. I've talked to one of my bosses, John Barney Old Coyota Crow, and We,
31:20 he was my boss out in California and we talked about this and he said, you know, we never thought of it, but we have that same system like similar. We have it rigid here and rigid here and this way we have, while they're much larger than the Omahas, but at the same time, uh, they realized that it worked for them. Any other questions? Yes, sir.
31:47 Uh, my name is, uh, Dwight Robinson. I,
31:53 oh my name is Dave. I didn't hear that. What, what is the name? Oh, they knew, they knew.
31:58 Uh, that in the city will more language. Uh, I'm uh I'm a clan
32:05 because I hurt me, right? Um,
32:08 My question was that uh. I've been asking around among our elders and stuff, and I've been trying to locate the uh final resting places that last clan chieftains. And I'm wondering if you know where they're located. That wouldn't be uh Robert Morris, would it? um, Yellow Smoke, or was there someone since him? I'm not sure about that.
32:32 That's what I'm trying to find out. I personally don't know. Um, I went with a member to a cemetery that's falling into disuse, and the, uh, stones were still there. And this was a Phillips, that's a name for you not familiar. It was a Phillips cemetery. It should be restored. It just breaks my heart to see it, but here was the name of a lady that didn't fit in,
32:57 and it took me two years to find out. She was a Dale and had, she married a Phillips. And that's why she was in that. But there are all these cemeteries around here and I would, you know, beg the tribe to really identify them and to restore them. Trees have fallen over, Vandalism has done all of this, and I, I'm sorry,
33:20 I can't answer your question. That's. Thank you.
33:26 One more.
33:29 Oh, I just want to thank you for mentioning three of my ancestors, namely Chief Big L, Chief Logan Farnell, and Lucien Farnell. I'm very proud of my heritage. As a matter of fact, when I visited the tent to store. There's a picture of big out there. are better known as Kumpatanga. Help me with that pronunciation.
33:51 But I just wanted to uh let you know how much I enjoyed your presentation. Thank you. His full name was Oatanga Ishiage because there were ones that followed, and that's like the white man says, senior and junior. And names quite often were passed down from uncle to nephew and from father to son or skipping a generation. And um
34:15 Big Elk was an absolutely beloved chief, and he was the one that met Lewis and Clark. Whether he was over on the river, saying land here or whatever he was doing, his good uh vibes and that made it easier for this, uh. The group that came up, Lewis and Clark,
34:38 to be well received because the Omahas control this part of the Missouri River and when Blackbird was the chief as well, nothing would have gone up if they didn't want it to. Nothing would have gone up. I don't care when you get up in the Sioux Count, it wouldn't have gotten past here, but they were well received and I think that's indicative of the very nature of these people. Thank you so very much.
35:08 I got that.

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Paul Brill on Omaha genealogy and kinship systems

Paul Brill

Omaha

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Paul Brill on Omaha genealogy and kinship systems

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