Logan Fontenelle

Logan Fontenelle, also known as Chief White Horse, (b. 1825, d. July 16, 1855), was a mixed blood Omaha Tribe leader who rose from obscurity to become chief. He was largely responsible for securing the land where white settlers founded Bellevue, Nebraska; eventually he became one of the seven chiefs who ceded 4,000,000 acres of Omaha land to the United States in 1854. For several years, he also served as an interpreter for the U.S. government.

Biography

Logan Fontenelle was born at Fort Atkinson, Kansas in l825. He was a son of noted French trapper Lucien Fontenelle and Me-um-bane, was a daughter of the Omaha chief Big Elk. Young Logan was educated in Saint Louis. In 1839, his family went to Point aux Poules, a fur trading post on the Missouri River in the Louisiana Territory, later be known as Nebraska Territory. His father died later that year. After that point Logan began serving as an interpreter for the Omaha and for the U.S. government.

Fontenelle was elected principal chief of the tribe in 1853 when the United States was urging the Omahas to relinquish their land. In that role he negotiated the Treaty of 1854, selling all of the Omaha land to the government. Fontenelle was respected by members of his tribe and by the whites. While he maintained absolute control over the Omaha, he promoted education and agriculture.

Logan Fontenelle was killed by a Sioux band while leading a hunt on Beaver Creek in Boone County in 1855. During this trip he was accompanied by Joseph LaFlesche.

Legacy

Many Nebraska landmarks have been named to honor for Logan Fontenelle. They include Fontenelle Forest in Bellevue, and a number of parks, schools, streets, and public housing in eastern Nebraska. The town of Fontanelle, Nebraska in Washington County was named for Fontenelle after he led a party of white settlers from Illinois to that town's location on a scouting party for land. There is also a monument to Logan Fontenelle in Petersburg, Nebraska marking the location of his death.