BRIGHT EYES (Susette La Flesche), Omaha Indian writer and lecturer : b. Nebraska, 1850; d. Lincoln, Neb., 1902. She was the eldest child of Eshtamaza or Joseph La Flesche, a former head-chief of the Omaha Indians. She attended the Presbyterian mission school on the Omaha reservation, and through the interest of a teacher was sent to a private school in Elizabeth, N. J., where she made rapid progress in her studies. She afterward taught with great success among the young members of the tribe in a government day school on the Omaha reservation. In 1877-78 the Ponca were forcibly removed from their home on Niobrara River, South Dakota, to Indian Territory, where Susette soon afterward accompanied her father when he went to help his sick and dying rela tives among the Ponca. The heroic return of Standing Bear, the Ponca chief, and his band, 600 miles to their northern home amid incred ible sufferings, the imprisonment and release of Standing Bear, led to public investigations of Indian removals. Accompanied by Susette La
Flesche and her brother, Standing Bear visited the principal cities of the United States under the direction of Mr. T. H. Tibbles, to tell the story of the Ponca removal.. Under the name of °Bright Eyes" Susette commenced her pub lic work. Her clear description of the injustice of the case, her eloquent appeals for humanity toward her race, her grace, well-bred diction and dignity of bearing aroused the interest of the thousands who listened to her, with the result that the government was petitioned to make no more removals of tribes, and wherever practicable this request was respected. In 1881 Bright Eyes became the wife of Mr. T. H. Tibbles, and later with her husband visited England and Scotland on a lecturing tour. She lived in Lincoln, Neb., an active publicist in the interests of her race until her death.