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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

2009

Cultural Survival and the Omaha Way Eunice Woodhull Stabler's Legacy of Preservation On The Twentieth,Century Plains

Elaine M. Nelson University of New Mexico

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Nelson, Elaine M., "Cultural Survival and the Omaha Way Eunice Woodhull Stabler's Legacy of Preservation On The Twentieth,Century Plains" (2009). Great Plains Quarterly. 1231. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1231

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY EUNICE WOODHULL STABLER'S LEGACY OF PRESERVATION ON THE TWENTIETH,CENTURY PLAINS

ELAINE M. NELSON

In the summer of 2004 I pulled into the rock up and met the laughing brown eyes of Hollis and gravel driveway of a small blue home in Dorion Stabler-an eighty-five-year-old World Walthill, Nebraska, a community in the north­ War II veteran and well-known grandfather in ern part of the Omaha . the Um6n hon Nation of Nebraska and . Feeling nervous about the large and unavoid­ "Come in, come in!" Hollis said, chuckling able sign reading "BEWARE OF DOG," I at my obvious nervousness. "Sit down"-he knocked on the screen door. I was welcomed motioned to a chair in the front room-"and with wild barking from inside before I heard a let me tell you all about my mother."! man's voice yell, "Rambo! Hush up! Rambo, get Hollis Stabler is the sole surviving child down!" Startled, I nearly dropped my books and of Eunice Woodhull Stabler. Eunice Stabler, tape recorder. The door swung open. I expected or Tharaweson , meaning "Pale Woman of the to be faced with a Doberman/German shep­ Bird ," was born in 1885 on the Omaha herd/pit bull mix; instead, I looked down and Reservation in northeastern Nebraska.2 During was greeted by the large brown eyes of Rambo, a period of continued transitions and federal a miniature dachshund pup. Then I looked assimilation efforts directed at the Omaha peo­ ple-and Indigenous people throughout the -Stabler remained inherently rooted in her Omaha heritage and lifeways.3 Key Words: American Indian women, boarding A product of the U.S. Indian boarding schools, Nebraska, Omaha Indians, oral history school experience, Stabler was propelled into a world and way of living that was drastically Elaine M. Nelson is a PhD Candidate in History at the different from that which surrounded her on University of New Mexico. She is currently completing the the first twelve years of a dissertation on the Black Hills of . This her life. Thousands of Indian children during project looks primarily at the intersections of race, gender, tourism, and labor in the twentieth century. the late 1800s and into the 1900s endured the United States' assimilation policies in attend­ [GPQ 29 (Summer 2009): 219-36] ing federal boarding schools. Such institutions

219 220 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009 forced these children into traumatic experi­ exclusion and frustrations Gertrude felt ences that included rules against speaking were part of the price she paid for her early their tribal languages, cutting of hair, removal removal from tribal society. . . . She had of Indian clothing and cultural practices, and sacrificed her tribal, communal self to the even sexual and physical abuse.4 Many departed larger purposes of Indians in American from these institutions only to struggle with society . . . her tribal self-her identity as identifying their roles within American society a Yankton -became subsumed by a and their tribal societies. Some pupils returned broader identity as Indian.8 to their homes, abandoned the instruction they were forced to learn, and reoriented themselves Boarding school students such as Martinez with their ancestral ways. However, other and Bonnin often found themselves expe­ youths found it difficult to return home at all, riencing constant tension between dispa­ for in many instances they had lost a connec­ rate worlds that defined their identities as tion with their tribal traditions, languages, and Indigenous American women. Yet other identities.5 students under the same circumstances drew Viola Martinez, a California Paiute, was aspects of the knowledge they attained from conflicted in this manner. After she attended American mainstream and grounded their Sherman Institute Federal Indian Boarding lives in ways they defined as the best recon­ School in Riverside, California, Martinez ciliation of both worlds. More recent scholars continued to pursue an education away from of the boarding school phenomenon suggest her home and her people. "However," she said, that although these institutions served the "when I did go back, I found I was unable to purpose to relinquish ties between younger speak my native language . . . unfamiliar with Indian generations and their tribal identities, the customs and traditions of IJlY people and the schools only convinced students to remain unacceptable because of my Anglo-oriented deeply connected to their heritage. Tsianina education and training." For Martinez, this dif­ Lomawaima, historian and author of They ficult transition lasted most of her adult life.6 Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chi/occo On the other hand, while similar struggles Indian School, argues, "Schools often strength­ with identity may have only temporarily dis­ ened rather than dissolved tribal identity."9 In couraged some boarding school pupils, others many cases, boarding school policies resulted partially severed their ties with their tribes­ in "Indian students' stubborn refusal to jet­ out of both necessity and choice. Earlier his­ tison their Indian identity."10 torians of the boarding school phenomenon Eunice Woodhull Stabler's life is reflec­ suggest that Native students straddled the tive of this argument. Her tribal identity only fence between their Indigenous heritage and strengthened following the years she spent the fundamentals they were exposed to during in a boarding school. The forced American their years of American education. For exam­ education she experienced did not dissolve ple, scholar Hazel Hertzberg observed that her connection to her heritage. Instead, she Indian students were "cut off from tribal life strategically incorporated aspects of it into her or their relationship to it had changed. Many Um6n hon lifeways, and thereby resisted assimi­ of them felt the need for a more generalized lation policies that forced her to dissolve into Indian identity.... They lived in two or three America's mainstream society. Her devotion to worlds, and most of them were not quite com­ her Omaha heritage-despite being a long dis­ fortable in any."7 A Yankton woman, Gertrude tance from home-remained engrained within Simmons Bonnin (also known as Zitkala Sa), her thoughts and actions during her time in the experienced this after her boarding school federal boarding school. years. In her studies of Bonnin, Native literary Omaha tribal historian Dennis Hastings scholar P. Jane Hafen observed that the once said, "We have to take the good from CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY 221 our own Omaha ways and the good from Today I finally started to gather stories, non-Indian ways and try to go forward now."ll pictures and anything about my mother Eunice Stabler always moved forward with her Eunice. . . . My mother was different . . . life. By using certain tools she learned at the because of her family background and her boarding school, such as reading and writing parents. [My grandfather] was a man of a English, Stabler became empowered to pre­ good Omaha family .... [My grandmother] serve her culture by any means necessary. This was full blood Omaha ... raised in the old culminated in the publication of her book, How traditional way. So Eunice had the advan­ Beautiful the Land of My Forefathers. This work tage of all this.l5 continues to teach future Omaha generations about their lands, ceremonies, and lifeways. The Omaha tribe arrived in Nebraska near Eunice Stabler was a woman ahead of her time, the in the mid-1700s. Omaha and her early efforts for cultural preservation oral tradition holds they originated "near a remain one of her greatest legacies. great body of water" in a wooded area, most likely somewhere within the Great Lakes SOURCE MATERIALS: INCORPORATING region.16 At first the Omaha had several ORAL HISTORY encounters with European trading parties, but they did not become accustomed to the While the Eunice Stabler manuscript constant existence of Europeans and Euro­ collection at the Nebraska State Historical Americans until the late eighteenth century. Society is unarguably rich with information Having settled along the western bank of the about her actions, interests, and whereabouts, Missouri River in present-day Nebraska, the some of the years of her life are still left with­ became very involved with the out much detailed information. However, French and their system. While such interviews with her son Hollis reinforced the contact pulled the Omaha "conclusively into power of utilizing oral history. As anthro­ the orbit of external economic and political pologist and Omaha language specialist Mark systems," it also exposed them to life-threat­ Awakuni-Swetland states, "Oral histories are ening circumstancesP Foreign diseases, espe­ as much about remembering 'facts' and 'dates' cially smallpox, devastated the Omaha tribe, as they are about providing a personal con­ and as a result of the most drastic epidemic nection to, and explanation of, the past."12 scourge in the late eighteenth century, their Furthermore, anthropologist Julie Cruikshank tribal population fell from more than 2,000 to emphasizes that oral versions of stories merge about 900 in 1801. The disease not only killed with written accounts in Indigenous studies: many Um6n hon people, it ultimately attacked "Combining the two kinds of accounts does their ways of living and resulted in a partial not really give us a synthesis, the 'real story.' loss of their traditional tribal culture. These Instead, both of them have to be understood deaths, particularly among Omaha leadership, as windows on the way the past is constructed caused losses of cultural memory: "Visions were and discussed in different contexts."13 Hollis no longer explicated, ceremonies no longer Stabler's recollections opened doors to his practiced, knowledge lost."18 mother's life experiences. His memories While diseases threatened the Omaha, their enrich the facts that are found on the pages of involvement in the fur trade system resulted her past.l4 in additional social changes. Eventually, the Omaha economic system shifted from subsis­ tence to a more intense level of production. This change caused the Omaha to become On December 23, 2002, at the age of eighty­ dependent on the new American market as four, Hollis Stabler wrote in his journal, opposed to their own survival tactics. In gaining 222 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009

IIiIITOWillllellqclI86S III To WiIIIIeIIqcIl814 EIl Sold by Act af 188Z • Modem omaba R__ 1an Ifnft

Q11ft omn landa(;eded .1lftomn.-..,_ 10 If:'ft 1001

FIG.l. Map of Omaha villages. No.1 is Win-dja-ge (Village of the Make-Believe WhiteMan); No.2 is Bi-ku-de; No. 3 is lan-( th)ca-te (Wood Eaters Village). Courtesy of Mark Awakuni-Swetland, Dance Lodges of the Omaha People: Building from Memory (New York: Routledge, 2001; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008, p. 6). weapons and horses, the Omaha shifted from an the United States, and also due to his attitude agriculturally based economy to a hunting-based and beliefs that ifhis people looked ahead, they economy.I9 would "see nothing but the white man."21 La Um6nhon involvement with the trade sys­ Flesche was instrumental in building what is tem and consistent presence at the trading known as the "Village of Make-Believe White posts has been termed a "cultural conver­ Men," an Omaha village comprised of modern gence," a place where the Indians were exposed log homes and agriculture that replicated to the new ways that were "seeping into their small farming communities found throughout lives." Trading posts also became places where America. traders and the Omaha interacted within While some Omaha families moved into each other's communities.20 This involvement this village, most continued to live in tradi­ not only encouraged an exchange of cultural tional communities of earth lodges and practices, but it also resulted in many unions settlements (Fig. 1). The heaviest concentra­ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous indi­ tion of earth lodge dwellings was built in the viduals. These marriages created a generation village Bi-ku-de, also known as Ishkadabi, or of offspring that greatly influenced future tribal those "who dwell in earth lodges" and "consid­ attitudes, divisions, and politics. ered the most conservative" of the Um6nhon One child of such a union who became sig­ tribe.22 This physical split within the Omaha nificant within the Omaha Nation was Joseph community reflects the opposing views that La Flesche Jr. (Inshtamonze, meaning "Iron perplexed tribal leaders about their people's Eyes"). He held a significant role in "shaping future. Should they attempt to adapt to the the future" of the Um6nhon through his par­ "white man" or "American" ways, or should ticipation in the tribe's treaty negotiations with they hold tightly to their traditional practices? CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY 223

Eunice Stabler's mother, New Moon (or wrote. However, his "childhood Omaha name" Lucy Harlan), was born to an Umonhon family was Long Wing, which refers specifically to that lived in the village of Bi-ku-de. Stabler's the wings of an eagle.29 Born in 1851, Long father, Long Wing (or Spafford Woodhull), on Wing descended from a hereditary chieftain the other hand, was born and grew up in the line within the Thatada clan. Most of Long Omaha village of the Make-Believe White Men Wing's relatives-his grandfather and father with La Flesche and other Omaha families who included-served terms on the Council of were deemed "modern" by the standards of mis­ Seven Chiefs, the Umonhon tribe's governing sionaries and government agents.23 Although council. Long Wing's mother, Rosalie Dorion, their match seemed unlikely, Stabler's mother was the daughter of a French-Omaha union and father engaged in a union that followed from the early nineteenth century.30 According traditional Umonhon practices. Once married, to Stabler, her father was "reared in the strictest her parents cultivated a family that was rooted Omaha Indian culture of a hereditary chief­ in a deep understanding of Omaha identity. tain's son and heir by his mother.,,31 They also taught their children skills for main­ However, Long Wing's childhood deviated taining their ancestral heritage in light of the from such strict Omaha traditions, for he surrounding American mainstream society. attended the Omaha Indian Mission School. Eunice Stabler adopted these concepts of sur­ He also grew up in the Village of the Make­ vival at a very early age. Believe White Men and eventually adopted Stabler's mother, New Moon, was born some of the earlier views of Joseph La Flesche into the Inshtasunda clan, or the Lightning that the Omaha would be forced to adapt to and Thunder Clan, of the Omaha tribe and the ways of encroaching Americans. While was the daughter of two Omaha Indians.24 La Flesche believed that to avoid conflict the "So you see," Stabler later wrote, "my mother's Omaha tribe would need to appear "civilized," every ounce of blood was that of an Omaha he never encouraged the notion of assimila­ Indian."25 Although New Moon's parents tion. Rather, he believed this process should taught her to practice the traditional ways, she occur "through accommodation to Omaha also received an American education, which traditions, not through assimilation to white is most likely the time when she obtained her ways."32 Thus, Long Wing was susceptible to English name, Lucy Harlan.26 But New Moon's the beliefs that he and his family would have education did not last long. "She had very to adapt in order to survive the ensuing ways of limited schooling, two years at the Omaha modern America. Mission School and two years at a country day On November 18, 1885, in Thurston County, school," Eunice Stabler remembers. Although Nebraska, Thataweson was born to New Moon New Moon had been exposed to a non-Indian and Long Wing. Throughout her childhood education, Stabler remembers her mother as a and ~dolescence, Eunice was reared toward woman who had grown up under her parents' understanding the "Omaha way"-the shared much-disciplined teachings of the Umonhon responsibilities, customs, and practices stem­ way and had learned what it meant to become ming from Omaha knowledge-an education an Omaha woman.27 in which she was deeply rooted throughout her life. Her mother and father passed this STABLER'S CHILDHOOD knowledge to all of their seven children. As the family's chief caretaker, New Moon taught New Moon was fourteen when she mar­ her children to treat "elders with respect, to be ried Spafford Woodhull and entered into the particular in the use of the proper terms of rela­ Wazhf"ga itazhi clan, or Bird Clan, a subclan tionship, to be peaceable with one another, and of the Thatada clan.28 "My father's English to obey their parents."33 For young Eunice in name was Spafford Woodhull," Eunice Stabler particular, she was rooted in understanding the 224 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009 ways of Omaha womanhood from her mother's Christian beliefs and values, and therefore the teachings: "The girl was taught to ... assume Woodhull family became involved in activities the role of caretaker of the younger children," surrounding the church community.37 for "[u]pon her depended much of the liveli­ Sundays at the mission were not restricted hood of the people-the preparation of food, to church worship. They were a time for the of shelter, of clothing. . . . In return, she was gathering of relatives and friends-a time­ regarded with esteem, her wishes respected."34 honored tradition that parallels the Omaha Stabler's two most prevalent memories of ways of community. For the Woodhull family, her childhood involved a tipi and a church, whose relatives were dispersed throughout the two places she understood as part of her home Omaha lands in both Bi-ku-de and the Village and Umonhon community. To Stabler, the tipi of the Make-Believe White Men, the trip to the that her mother took everywhere with the mission was also a sacred event of gathering for family was one manner in which she taught the Omaha people: Omaha way to her children. Stabler wrote, Mother always carried plenty of food for the There were many delights of Indian camp day. Nearby the church stood a large wooden life, the Tipi, the home, its ready access to or round frame lodge where the Omaha the open air, no stairways, halls, no opening families gathered to make coffee and to eat of reluctant doors, but only the parting of their dinners .... In the morning were the the canvas and the world is before us as wide Sunday school and the church services and as the horizon and high as the heavens.35 in the afternoon was the song service. . . . How well the Omahas sang these hymns. I She remembered spending much of her child­ have never forgotten.38 hood in , whether it was at powwows and ceremonies or in the family tifJi. Stabler later These times of gathering, sharing, food, and wrote, song are significant to the Umonhon tribe. Such practices and times of learning continued to Often at night we children would lay awake hold a strong importance throughout Eunice and watch the stars as they moved slowly Woodhull Stabler's life, particularly when she across the central opening of the tipi. We taught them to her children. would count them ... watch the soft, fleecy clouds go by ... the moon rise gently over EDUCATION AND PERSISTENCE the horizon around the clear and silent camp, lighting the wide rolling prairie .... Eunice Stabler's experiences with education How the scenes of my childhood beckon to began at birth, when she learned and lived me.36 the Omaha way, taught to her by her parents and Omaha relatives. However, her childhood To Stabler the tip i-the home-was central was abruptly transformed after she attended to her livelihood. However, her autobiographi­ the United States Indian Industrial School in cal notes reveal scenes from her childhood that Genoa, Nebraska, throughout her adolescence. represent a different side of her youth-years After leaving school, her new American edu­ spent in the nearby church. Stabler's father, cation did not overwhelm the young woman; Long Wing, had been long involved in the Stabler strategically incorporated it into her Omaha Presbyterian Mission Church, first as Omaha knowledge. Stabler empowered herself a student at the mission school and later as an with the tools of these teachings to build a interpreter, translator, and leader in the church. legacy for future Omaha generations. As a result of his involvement, Stabler's father The Genoa Indian Industrial School opened frequently exposed his children to the ideas of in 1884 as the fourth nonreservation boarding CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY 225 school in the United States. The creation of off-reservation boarding schools were initi­ ated by the efforts of Capt. Richard Henry Pratt. As the founder of Carlisle Indian School in 1879-the first nonreservation boarding school, Pratt's ultimate goal was to educate and "civilize" Native Americans. These schools, as opposed to reservation boarding schools, forced children to be physically separated from their families and homes.39 It originally opened with students from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota but eventually included children from the , Winnebago, , Omaha, , and other Northern Plains tribes. The school, like most of the other boarding schools, exhibited poor living conditions. It was later revealed that "physical conditions in boarding schools were notoriously inadequate. Overcrowding, insufficient food, and improper treatment of sick children led to frequent epidemics."4o Diseases such as , FIG. 2. Eunice Woodhull Stabler (lower right) with trachoma, and epidemics of chicken pox and other classmates at Genoa Indian Industrial School, Genoa, Nebraska, ca. 1902. Courtesy of the Hollis measles occurred in Genoa's facilities toward Stabler Family Collection, Pawhuska, Oklahoma. the end of the nineteenth century.41 Once at the industrial school in 1897, Stabler's path toward becoming an Omaha woman took a drastically different course. of the boarding school experiences. One indi­ She was exposed to the regimented life and vidual in particular, poor conditions of the Indian boarding school. (the first Indigenous woman to become an Eunice was expected to cook, clean, sew, and American trained medical doctor), became perform other duties in strictly confined spaces Stabler's role model. She admired Picotte and times. Stabler later recalled that at school because she was devoted to her people through­ she felt like a soldier: "The military influ­ out the Omaha Reservation in numerous ways. ence was pronounced," she wrote. "We were Picotte used her involvement in the Office of awakened at dawn ... dressed in uniform ... Indian Affairs, the Women's National Indian marched in companies to and from .... Was I Association, and the Board of Home Missions a prisoner of war?" For the young adolescent, of the United States Presbyterian Church to these boarding school experiences were harsh. assume the roles of ambassador and interme­ Her writings reveal that the years she endured diary for her people during an era when they as "a military recruit in the Indian school" were faced forceful U.S. assimilation and accul­ part of an ongoing war against her heritage and turation policies. Although Picotte's affiliation culture. In her own words, Eunice was "a pris­ with social reform appeared as though she oner" to the domestic and military constructs represented "civilization" efforts, she never sev­ of the boarding school experience (Figs. 2 ered her Um6n hon ties nor discouraged those of and 3).42 her people who continued to live the Omaha After graduation, Eunice Stabler returned way.43 Stabler recognized Picotte's actions and home to the Omaha Reservation and became realized that her heartbreaking experiences friends with other young Um6n hon survivors and painful years away from home could be 226 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009

FIG. 4. Eunice Woodhull Stabler graduating from William Woods College, Fulton, Missouri, ca. 1911. Courtesy of the Hollis Stabler Family Collection, Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

In 1908 Eunice Stabler graduated from Boyles Business College in Omaha, Nebraska, and three years later was recruited to attend teacher education courses at William Woods College in Fulton, Missouri (Fig. 4). Shortly thereafter, in 1912, at the age of twenty-six, Stabler received another academic degree, this time from Bellevue College in Omaha, Nebraska.45 Back with her Omaha people, Eunice Stabler was immediately employed as a stenog­ rapher in Walthill, Nebraska. In this same year she married former boarding school classmate George Stabler, a young Omaha man of the Inkhesabe clan, or Black Shoulder Buffalo Clan FIG. 3. Eunice Woodhull Stabler graduating from (Fig. 5).46 Genoa Indian Industrial School in 1906. Courtesy of the Hollis Stabler Family Collection, Pawhuska, SEARCHING FOR STABILITY Oklahoma. Although they desired to stay in Nebraska, Eunice· and George Stabler's honeymoon idea reshaped into opportunities to be an advocate abruptly came to an end. It was not long before for preserving Omaha knowledge.44 they recognized that the harsh conditions and CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY 227

role of an Omaha woman, just as her mother had taught her. As an Omaha wife, mother, and worker, she continued to preserve her heritage while also persisting in her role as a modern Indigenous woman. After their marriage, the Stablers followed job opportunities around the country-to Oregon, Colorado, and -forcing them to be migratory for the first six years of their marriage.47 However, this pattern abruptly changed in 1918 when Eunice Stabler gave birth to her first child, Hollis Dorion Stabler. Becoming a mother forever changed Stabler's world. She assumed the role as her son's primary caretaker and set aside her career ambitions. Following Hollis's birth, the Stablers moved back to Nebraska so their new baby could be surrounded by his family and be deeply rooted and reared in his heritage.48 The Stablers settled on the land owned by Long Wing (Spafford Woodhull) located just outside Rosalie and Walthill, and both of them found jobs. Eunice Stabler capitalized on her writing skills and became a reporter for the FIG. 5. Eunice and George Stabler's wedding Rosalie Ripsaw newspaper in the small commu­ photograph in Walthill, Nebraska, 1912 . Courtesy of the Hollis Stabler Family Collection, Pawhuska, nity of Rosalie, Nebraska, while George Stabler Oklahoma. was a mail carrier for nearby communities. Only one year after returning to the reserva­ tion they welcomed their second son, Robert limited opportunities on the reservation were "Bobby" Dawes Stabler, into the world. This bleak. They decided to find a place that would birth resulted in both excitement and fear offer them-and their future children-better for the young couple. Although they both opportunities for employment, education, secured a steady income, it did not fully support and economic hope. These aspirations took their growing family. Eunice Stabler was less the young couple beyond the borders of their inclined to work outside her home, especially Omaha lands. Even though leaving the Omaha with two young children to care for. Again, her Reservation meant they would no longer be world changed as she watched her family creep surrounded by their homelands and relatives, closer to impoverished conditions.49 As Hollis Stabler believed that they needed to adapt in remembers from his mother's stories, "She was ways that her father had done, with the ulti­ always telling us that they almost went hungry. mate goal of survival. At one point, my mother told my father, 'I don't Eunice and George Stabler learned several know where we're going to be tomorrow; we skills and trades in boarding schools that would only have one chicken left! "'50 aid them to labor in different America societ­ Problems of poverty, desperation, and insta­ ies. With their schooling experiences behind bility erupted throughout the Omaha Reserva­ them, the Stablers knew how to maintain their tion, especially in the thirty to forty years Omaha identity within mainstream America. following the introduction of land allotment in Eunice Stabler especially devoted herself to the the 1800s. The advent of land-leasing resulted 228 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009 in destructive consequences for Omaha indi­ Although they were removed from their net­ viduals and families. Taking advantage of the work of family and kinship ties, Stabler viewed vulnerability of the Omaha, white bootleggers the civic culture as an opportunity for her chil­ trafficked liquor illegally in and around the dren to attend a public school and become part borders of the reservation. These bootleggers of a diverse community. Since Sioux City was used the lure of alcohol to coerce Omaha land­ in close proximity to the Omaha Reservation owners to make impaired decisions about their and only a train ride away, their location land sales. Then they "relieved the Omaha allowed the Stablers to frequent their ancestral of their lands by committing fraud, by using homelands for family birthdays, weddings, and whiskey, and by encouraging Indians to go funerals, as well as handgames and powwows. into debt."sl By the 1950s the land allotment In Sioux City, the Stablers lived in a neigh­ policies and ensuing scandals left the Um6n hon borhood filled with families who represented Nation with only a strip of land (located along a mixture of ethnic backgrounds. German, the Missouri River) that remained from their Italian, Winnebago, and Jewish families filled originally allotted lands. The loss of one's land the block of houses on the southwest side of sharply affected Omaha morale, and in many town. Hollis Stabler remembers how close they instances, individuals looked to alcohol for became with their neighbors, who invited them an escape. "Since land represented existence, for cookouts and gatherings. These events were identity, and a place of belonging ... Omahas fun for his mother, as Hollis recalls, because found that their whole way of life was now "she liked to feed people."s3 Oftentimes, Eunice under full assault."S2 This connection between Stabler prepared these meals outside in their land and identity would emerge as a constant backyard over an open fire, cooking the way underlying theme in Eunice Stabler's writing. that her mother and grandmother had taught This gloominess on the Omaha Reservation her as a young girl. Stabler conveyed these heavily influenced Eunice and George Stabler's important traditions of gathering to her chil­ ultimate decision to physically escape the dren by spending several hours everyday on desolate atmosphere of the reservation. Within their porch or in their yard. a year after Bobby's birth, the Stablers again When she was not feasting with her neigh­ relocated, this time settling in Sioux City, bors, Stabler and her husband soon discovered Iowa, a smaller Plains community thirty that their family, an old Italian man, and a miles from their home in Walthill, Nebraska. family of Winnebago from down the street There, George Stabler became a cream and had something else in common: They enjoyed butter tester at the Hanford Hazelwood Cream making music. In the Um6n hon Nation, "Song Company, and for additional income he [is] an integral part of the life." Through songs, continued to labor in various carpentry jobs. Omaha voice "emotions; both individual and Eunice Stabler was relieved to settle in a social [and] embod[y] feelings and aspirations growing urban community where she could that [elude] expression in words."s4 not only rear her children in an economically Hollis Stabler remembers sitting many sound home but also pass her knowledge of the nights on the family porch while he listened Omaha way to another generation. to an unlikely chorus line: his mother singing in sharp falsetto, accompanied by his father's CIVIC CULTURE: BECOMING "OMAHA­ handmade flute, the deep, opera-style voice AMERICAN" of their Italian neighbor, and the beat of the Winnebago family's drum. These gatherings By the time Stabler had her third child were important to Hollis's understanding of in 1922 (a daughter named Marcella Mary the Omaha way because he was exposed to Stabler), her family was settled in Sioux City, a the significant meanings behind food, music, growing urban community in northwest Iowa. and community within his heritage. It is clear CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY 229

FIG. 6. Annual Um6 nhon Indian Powwow in Macy, Nebraska, 1917. Courtesy of the Hollis Stabler Family Collection, Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

that Eunice Stabler did not employ America's Powwow," Hollis remembers. The powwow domestic expectations of women that had been kept the Stablers in Walthill or Macy for a drilled into her actions at the Genoa boarding couple of weeks. Hollis recalls, "Powwow time school. Within and around her home, Eunice was our time to learn," he said.58 Stabler practiced the Omaha way, and in doing Once in Nebraska, the Stabler children so, passed these important lessons and tradi­ became part of their larger community-a tions to her children.55 community in which they learned more about Eunice Stabler made sure that these neigh­ their heritage and traditions. Eunice Stabler's borhood gatherings were not the only times children embraced their Um6n hon ways by that her children were exposed to their ances­ observing and interacting with their people tral heritage. The Stabler family made frequent through song, dances, ceremonies, and by visits back to their home: "To the Omahas, learning from the stories and experiences of home mean[sl t(gthe. In any language, no place their elders. This provided them with a founda­ is more sacred, no memory so cherished, as tion of Omaha ways that continued to ground home."56 Eunice Stabler emphasized this con­ and center them throughout their childhood cept to her children during their trips back to and adult years.59 Nebraska to attend birthday feasts, marriage Throughout her life, Eunice Stabler never celebrations, funerals, ceremonies, handgame allowed physical distance to interfere with her events, and spiritual gatherings. Also, abso­ determination to educate her children about lutely nothing kept Eunice Stabler and her Omaha practices, responsibilities, and knowl­ family from attending the Omaha Powwow edge. She insisted that Hollis, Bobby, and (Fig. 6).57 The annual Omaha Powwow in Marcella be connected with their heritage. As Macy, Nebraska, became an event central to an Omaha mother she coordinated the oppor­ the Stabler family, and an event that always tunities for her children to live their traditions, pulled them back to their Omaha home. relate to their Omaha identities, and impart "We always lived away, except for the Omaha these teachings to future Omaha generations. l30 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009

PRESERVATION THROUGH WRITING In her book, Stabler reconstructs the deep­ rooted landmarks that play a role in the folk­ Throughout her adult years and especially lore, history, and customs of her people-the during moments of struggle and turmoil, Omaha Nation. The western bluffs that over­ Eunice Stabler relied on her writing as a tool look the Missouri River, or Nishudeke, meaning to share her philosophy through poetry and "turbid" or "Smokey Water" to the Omaha, is a essays. A majority of Stabler's subject matter stretch of land which she writes is "rich in lore focused on her Um6n hon heritage and lands. of the early life of the Omaha Indian.... On Stabler's written works reveal her constant these bluffs were the ancient Omaha's camp­ longing to communicate her Omaha identity ing grounds, where traditional life was lived and the cultural landscape of her people. by him before the white man came" {Fig. 7).62 Stabler utilized what Hollis refers to as "the Stabler documents several landmarks within most important part of her education"-her this area-such as the ancient connections to writing-as a tool to reconcile this longing by Hill and the sacredness of the Holy preserving the stories, traditions, knowledge, Fireplace-which according to her, lost their and sacred spaces of the Omaha Nation. meaning and almost escaped Omaha memory. In 1943 Eunice Stabler published the first One of the landmarks Stabler wrote about collection of her writings in a book titled How at length is Council Point. Council Point was Beautiful the Land of My Forefathers. In this the place where the Omaha Council of Seven book, Stabler creates a ritualistic journey that Chiefs-the hereditary chief leaders of the leads to the interconnectedness of place, par­ nation-held ceremonies and made decisions ticularly through the land, history, and culture that represented the interest of the entire of the Omaha people. As Gretchen Bataille Um6nhon Nation. However, the Council of and Kathleen Sands discuss in American Indian Seven Chiefs underwent significant changes, Women: Telling Their Lives, these themes are which Stabler wrote "were brought by the characteristic of those included in American influences of traders or government offi­ Indian women's autobiographies, such as cials."63 Here Stabler references the passage "emphasis on event, attention to the sacredness of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934 and of language, concern with landscape, affirma­ the subsequent development of a new Omaha tion of cultural values and tribal solidarity."6o tribal constitution. In particular, the key theme of Stabler's The Indian Reorganization Act, or IRA book-her people's sacred landscapes-reveals (also known as the Howard-Wheeler Act), her as a woman ahead of her time, empowered was a measure introduced by John Collier's through her writing to reclaim her native lands Indian New Deal reform. Collier, commis­ and their sacred sites. In Where the Lighting sioner of Indian Affairs from 1933-1945, pushed Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred for new policies that would conserve rather Places, Peter Nabakov describes the signifi­ than eradicate Native American cultures and cance of sites and landscapes in Indigenous tra­ resources and provide a foundation for reli­ ditions and practices: gious tolerance and freedom.64 In doing so, the IRA also attempted to decrease the amount of Through place-names ... they cherished the federal control over Native American affairs places where they gathered ritual materials, and increase tribal self-government. Upon its the meadows where they collected plants, official passage, Indian tribes were expected the rapids and riverbanks where they fished to establish new tribal governments, which and the woods, seas and plains where they included drafting a tribal constitution. hunted.... All over North America the An anthropologist who had limited knowl­ landscape is saturated with Indian memories edge of the former makeup of Omaha political and stories that describe such beliefs.61 traditions drafted the Nation's constitution CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY 231

FIG. 7. Missouri River and the bluffs, looking east from the Omaha Reservation, July 2004. Photo by Elaine M. Nelson. under the IRA. He drastically botched the life of the Omaha Indian . . . a stone marker, new Um6n hon constitution when he wrote the encircled with a fence" is its only recognition.66 section that established the Omaha tribe's new Writing about her tribal landscapes allowed system of government. This official, "basing Stabler to protect their stories and importance representation on the seven traditionally in her memory. Stabler's written journey involved in tribal decision making, forgot that through time, space, and the lands of her fore­ the clans were not equal in electoral strength, fathers reveals how Omaha folklore, traditional and because the majority rule, one or two [clans] ceremonies, spiritual beliefs, and cultural usually dominated the council elections."65 practices are connected to the land. Through When the tradition of the Um6n hon Nation's her memory and her writing, she preserves this Council of Seven Chiefs (which for centuries journey and these traditions for her children allowed for equal representation) suffered and future Omaha generations. under this new political system, the location of Council Point suffered as well. It was never PAINFUL TRANSITIONS AND PERSEVERANCE again used for chieftain ceremonies and rituals. This event makes Stabler's written reflection In the midst of revising and editing the draft even more significant, for she "realizes the of her book, Eunice Stabler's life was struck by clanship and the chieftain circle were the basic a series of personal tragedies. On January 15, foundations of past traditional life and govern­ 1942, her daughter, Marcella, died at the age ment of our forefathers," but that these systems of nineteen due to complications of juvenile­ would not be reinstated for the Omaha. Stabler onset diabetes.67 The pain of losing her only wrote, "Council Point stands a mute witness to daughter at such a young age never passed from all these changes that have taken place in the Stabler's world, even with time. 2~2 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009

Two years later, in 1944, Stabler wrote in US."72 Eunice Stabler used her writing as a tool her journal, "Today we were informed by the not only to celebrate her identity and safeguard United States War Department that our son the stories of her heritage but to openly resist Bob was killed in action in Italy." Losing yet the political and social treatments of Indigenous another child traumatized and shocked Stabler peoples throughout the United States. when she wrote, "It seems all the sorrow in the world has piled into our lives."68 Easing STABLER'S LEGACY Stabler's torment, a wounded Hollis, also fight­ ing in Italy, returned to America less than a In her book Eunice Stabler wrote, "Customs, year after Bob's death. traditions, and religious beliefs may have Eunice Stabler attempted to reconcile her pain altered ... but today the modern Omaha still through writing. She began to write profusely cherishes these sacred heritages.'>73 Until her about topics concerning not only the Um6n hon death in 1963, Eunice Stabler continued to Nation but Native Americans throughout the teach the Omaha way, just as her parents had country. She openly and aggressively objected to taught and emphasized to her as a child and the era of United States policies of what became into adulthood. Today, Stabler's child Hollis, known as "termination and relocation." From her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren 1947 to 1967 laws were introduced to end all honor this legacy (Fig. 8). legal relationships between the federal govern­ In 1977 Hollis and his wife, LaVeeda, per­ ment and American Indians. "Native Americans manently returned to the Omaha Reservation, were to be fully assimilated into American life where Hollis taught art at the Um6n hon Nation . . . the trust was over. Federal services were to Public Schools in Macy, Nebraska. He was be stopped. Reservations were to be abolished. known among his students and the community Tribal assets no longer existed."6~ Beginning in for assigning art projects related to the Omaha 1951 the began to enroll way.74 "'surplus' reservation residents" to cities through­ Hollis Stabler was eighty-nine when he out the United States. This portion of the "ter­ passed away on November 12, 2007. I last saw mination and relocation" policies was a measure him-and little Rambo too, of course-in July taken to physically isolate Native people from 2007. He was just as quick-witted and delight­ their relatives, homelands, and tribal cultures.7° ful as the first moment we had met almost In response to these policies, Stabler wrote: five years earlier. During our talks, he always repeated the same story: He learned about the The federal administrative policy, as we all importance of education from his mother, his know, is to terminate the American Indian mother's intelligence and legacy remain in tribes as quickly as possible .... [I] beg the Um6n hon Nation, and his mother rooted the public to glance at the Indian side in him deeply in understanding the Omaha way. the situation that faces the Indian people Then he in turn passed it to his children, and today.... A mass and hasty liquidation now his children passed this knowledge to their of the American Indian and his tribal and children. ''Anything'' about Omaha heritage, individual property from federal supervision Hollis always said, "to cook, handgame, danc­ would be a tragic error.71 ing ... everything" (Figs. 9 and 10).75 Eunice Stabler's headstone reads, "The Furthermore, she asserted, "Discrimination, Salvation of My People is Education." Stabler prejudice, intolerance will all flee when we used various aspects from her years of American understand other peoples. These cruel practices, education as tools for survival in America's which leave scars on the heart and soul of man mainstream. She took these tools and used and he loses confidence in himself and his fellow­ them to empower and teach her children. man, will diminish as you strive to understand Stabler's purpose as a mother and writer was CULTURAL SURVIVAL AND THE OMAHA WAY 233

FIG. 9. Hollis Dorion Stabler with Rambo at home in Walthill, Nebraska, 2003. Courtesy of Elaine M. Nelson.

FIG. 8. Wehnona "Noni" Stabler at a powwow in April 2009. She is wearing a dress that she made with beadwork from her father's vest and breechcloth. She is also carrying Hollis Stabler's tobacco bag. Courtesy of Noni Stabler.

to educate her children to learn about and embrace their Umonhon identity and to live the Omaha way. She once wrote, "What our fathers handed down to us we hand to our posterity."76 Through Hollis and his children, Eunice Stabler's teachings are instilled in the FIG . 10. Eunice Woodhull Stabler, ca. 1915 . Omaha Nation, and her written works con­ Courtesy of the Hollis Stabler Family Collection, tinue to preserve her legacy. Pawhuska, Oklahoma. 234 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Frederick E. Hoxie, A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate the Indians, 1880-1920 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984). I wish to acknowledge John Wunder, Mark 4. For more in-depth studies of boarding school Awakuni-Swetland, Kurt E. Kinbacher, Victoria experiences see Brenda J. Child, Boarding School Smith, and the late Susan Rosowski for their Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 assistance with this project, as well as Kent (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), and Blansett for reading numerous drafts. I also Jacqueline Fear-Segal, White Man's Club: Schools, Race, and the Struggle of Indian Acculturation thank the Center for Great Plains Studies (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007). and the Nebraska State Historical Society for 5. Hazel W. Hertzberg, The Search for an Ameri­ travel grants that alleviated research expenses. can Indian Identity: Modern Pan-Indian Movements Moreover, I express my deepest gratitude to the (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1971), 18. late Hollis Stabler, Wehnona "Noni" Stabler, 6. Diana Meyers Bahr, Viola Martinez, California Paiute: Living in Two Worlds (Norman: University of Hollis "D." Stabler Jr., and their families for their Oklahoma Press, 2003),156. time, encouragement, and patience. 7. Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity, 19. NOTES 8. P. Jane Hafen, "Gertrude Simons Bonnin: For the Indian Cause," in Sifters: Native American 1. This story is based on my first interview with Women's Lives, ed. Theda Perdue (New York: Hollis Dorion Stabler, Walthill, NE, May 12, 2003. Oxford University Press, 2001), 138-39. The term "Omaha" corresponds to the current 9. K. Tsianina Lomawaima, They Called It ortholpgy of the word "Um6nhon," and both will be Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School used interchangeably throughout this article. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), xiii. 2. Eunice Woodhull Stabler, "My Biography" 10. Ibid., xii. (unpublished essay), Eunice Woodhull Stabler 11. Qtd. in Judith A. Boughter, Betraying the (La-ta-we-sa) Papers, RG2585.AM, Series 2, Box Omaha Nation, 1790-1916 (Norman: University of 2, Folder 11, Nebraska State His.torical Society, Oklahoma Press, 1998), 208. Lincoln, NE (hereafter cited as "Stabler Papers, 12. Mark Awakuni-Swetland, Dance Lodges of the NSHS"). Alice Fletcher and , Omaha People: Building from Memory (New York: The Omaha Tribe (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Routledge, 2001), 97. Press, 1992), 1:165. All references to the orthology 13. Julie Cruikshank, "Discovery of Gold on the used in The Omaha Tribe are to the first volume of Klondike: Perspectives from Oral Tradition," in the book. Fletcher and La Flesche recorded this Reading Beyond Words: Contexts for Native History, female bird clan name by spelling it "Tha'tawe,

21. Fletcher and La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, 32. Qtd. in Tong, Susan La Flesche Picotte, 17-18. 1:44-45; Tong, Susan La Flesche Picotte, 15-16. 33. Fletcher and La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, 22. Awakuni-Swetland, Dance Lodges of the 2:329. Omaha People, 7. 34. Ibid., 326, 329. 23. I refrain from using terminology such as 35. Eunice Woodhull Stabler, "Tipi" (unpub­ "progressives" and "traditionalists" in this study. lished essay), Series 2, Box 2, Folder 18, Stabler However, it may be helpful to understand that in Papers, NSHS. this case "progressives" was a term sometimes used 36. Ibid. by government agents and missionaries to describe 37. Stabler, "My Biography," Stabler Papers, Indians who they believed more readily incorpo­ NSHS. rated American standards into their culture, as 38. Ibid. It is not clear if the hymns Stabler heard opposed to "traditionalists," who they viewed as in her childhood were sung in English or in Omaha. those who tended to resist the ways of the emerg­ It is very likely they were sung in the Umonhon ing American society. See Tong, Susan La Flesche language, for in 1887, Rev. William Hamilton of Picotte, 16. the Omaha Mission School published Hymns in 24. New Moon's Omaha name was "Me-gltha­ the Omaha Language, the first document to trans­ ta-en," which translates to "return of the moon" and late English into Omaha through non linguistic means "New Moon." This spelling was used by the methods. The structure Stabler mentions here was family. In the Fletcher and La Flesche orthology it probably an old barn that resided near the mission appears as, "Mi'gthitonin," 190; UNPS/UNL orthol­ church. However, a "round frame lodge" may have ogy, "Migthitonin." New Moon's father's name was also been a dance lodge, a structure the Omaha "Wah-shin-ska" (which translates to "wisdom" and utilized for secret society dances that were forced means "Wise Man") and her mother's name was underground during this era. In order to avoid "Me-um-bah-the" (which translates to "moon that government and missionary persecution for practic­ travels by day" and means "Bright Moon"). These ing their rituals, Omaha constructed dance lodges spellings were used by the family. Fletcher and La throughout the reservation as a place to maintain Flesche orthology, "Inshta'sunda," 141, "Wazhin'"ka," their culture. The lodges were inconspicuous in that 192, and "Mi'onbathin," 165; UNPS/UNL orthology, they meshed with the architecture of the surround­ "Wazhinska," and "Mionbathin." ing countryside. See Awakuni-Swetland, Dance 25. Eunice Stabler, "My Biography," Stabler Lodges of the Omahas. Papers, NSHS. 39. Margaret Connell Szasz, Education and the 26. It is not known if New Moon's education was American Indian: The Road to Self-Determination a result of her parents' decision or forced by mission­ Since 1928 {Albuquerque: University of New Mexico aries or government agents. Press, 1999),9-10. 27. Stabler, "My Biography," Stabler Papers, 40. Ibid., 2. NSHS. 41. Wilma A. Daddario, "'They Get Milk Practi­ 28. Fletcher and La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, cally Every Day': The Genoa Indian Industrial 1:160; UNPS/UNL orthology. The "two grand divi­ School, 1884-1934," Nebraska History 73 (Spring sions" of the Omaha Nation are made up of the Sky 1992): 2-10. people and the Earth people, and are each divided 42. Stabler, "My Biography," Stabler Papers, into five different clans, which are further divided NSHS. into subclans. All ten Omaha clans exist in tribal 43. Valerie Sherer Mathes, "Susan LaFlesche memory, each containing separate subclans that Picotte, M.D.: Nineteenth-Century and recognize distinctive taboos, rites, and names. One of Reformer," Great Plains Quarterly 13, no. 3 (Summer the rules of marriage that is strictly obeyed prevents 1993): 172-86. "marriage between the members of the [subclans] or 44. Hollis Stabler interview, May 12, 2003. subdivisions of a [clan]." Upon marriage, the woman 45. Stabler received college degrees from Boyles enters into her husband's clan, and the couple's chil­ Business School, Omaha, Nebraska, ca. 1908, dren are raised within their father's clan. See Fletcher William Woods College, Fulton, Missouri, 1911, and and La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, 1:134-94. Bellevue College, Omaha, Nebraska, 1912. Stabler, 29. The family spelled his name ''Ah-hin-sna-dai.'' "My Biography," Stabler Papers, NSHS. Fletcher and La Flesche or tho logy, "A'hin"nede," 46. "Woodhull-Stabler," n.p., n.d., Series 1, Box 1, 167; UNPS/UNL orthology, ''Ahinsnede.'' Folder 7, Stabler Papers, NSHS. 30. "Eunice Woodhull Stabler Family Tree," 47. Hollis Stabler interview, February 8, 2004; Series 5, Box 3, Folder 1, Stabler Papers, NSHS. Photo album, "La-ta-we-sa," Hollis Stabler Family 31. Stabler, "My Biography," Stabler Papers, Collection, Pawhuska, OK. Eunice is pictured on NSHS. the front steps of a white house in a photograph 236 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2009 marked "Denver, CO, 1914." Another photograph 57. Hollis Stabler interview, July 31, 2003, and shows them touring Pike's Peak in 1914. The February 8, 2004. Stablers are also pictured in a group photograph in a 58. Hollis Stabler interview, July 31, 2003. wooded area marked "Warm Springs, Oregon, 1915." 59. Ibid. It is quite likely that the Stablers were employed in 60. Gretchen M. Bataille and Kathleen Mullen the Indian Service of the Office of Indian Affairs Sands, American Indian Women: Telling Their Lives during these years. Current research by Cathleen (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 3. Cahill discusses the development of the Indian 61. Peter Nabakov, Where the Lighting Strikes: Service from the end of the nineteenth century and The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places (New into the Progressive Era. Cahill shows how race and York: Penguin Books, 2006), xiii. gender influenced the federal government assimila­ 62. Eunice Stabler wrote the word as "Ni-shu-da" tion policies during this period, and how Indigenous in her book. Eunice W. Stabler, How Beautiful the women employees in particular played a role in the Land of My Forefathers (Wichita: Wichita Eagle Indian Service. I continue to investigate the possi­ Press, 1943), 12, 17. The author uses the UNPS/ bility that Eunice Stabler-and her husband-were UNL orthology. Fletcher and La Flesche orthology, employed in the Indian Service. See Cahill, "'Only "Nishu'de ke," 91. the Home Can Found a State': Gender, Labor, and 63. Stabler, How Beautiful the Land of My Fore­ the United States Indian Service, 1869-1928" (PhD fathers, 33. diss., University of Chicago, 2004). 64. John R. Wunder, "Retained by The People": 48. Walthill Times, "Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Stabler-A A History of American Indians and the Bill of Rights Son," ca. February 1918, Hollis Stabler Family (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994),63-64. Collection, Pawhuska, OK; Eunice Woodhull 65. Ibid., 77. Stabler, "A Baby's Book," Hollis Stabler's baby book, 66. Stabler, How Beautiful the Land of My Fore­ Hollis Stabler Family Collection, Pawhuska, OK. fathers, 36-37. 49. Stabler and Smith, No One Ever Asked Me, 6. 67. "Standard Certificate of Death," State Depart­ 50. Hollis Stabler quoting his mother, Eunice ment of Health, State of Oklahoma, 1942. Stabler, Hollis Stabler interview, February 8, 2004. 68. Eunice Stabler, "Personal Notes, 16 March 51. Boughter, Betraying the Omaha Nation, 188. 1944," Series 2, Box 2, Folder 12 Stabler Papers, In 1883 anthropologist Alice Fletcher was assigned NSHS. "special agent" to oversee and supervise the process 69. Wunder, Retained by the People, 99. of land allotment on the Omaha Reservation. Robin 70. Ibid., 105-7. Ridington and Dennis Hastings (In'aska), Blessing 71. Eunice Stabler, untitled journal entry, Series for a Long Time: The Sacred Pole of the Omaha 2, Box 2, Stabler Papers, NSHS. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 10. 72. Stabler, "Adjustment to the City," Series 2, 52. Tong, Susan LaFlesche Picotte, 110. Box 2, Stabler Papers, NSHS. 53. Hollis Stabler interview, July 31, 2003. 73. Stabler, How Beautiful the Land of My Fore­ 54. Fletcher and La Flesche, The Omaha Tribe, fathers, 36. 2:373. 74. Stabler interview by Victoria Smith, Walthill, 55. Hollis Stabler interview, July 31, 2003, and NE, October 9, 2003. February 8, 2004. 75. Hollis Stabler interview, February 8, 2004. 56. Stabler and Smith, No One Ever Asked Me, 76. Stabler, How Beautiful the Land of My Fore­ 119. fathers, 36.