Logan Fontenelle

The Umóⁿhoⁿ (Omaha) remembered him differently. Melvin Gilmore, writing for the Nebraska State Historical Society, reported that Omaha contemporaries said Logan Fontenelle never was a chief made under the ancient laws of their nation. Chieftainship passed through the father's gens, and a white man's son had no place in it unless adopted, which Logan never was. The chiefs took him to Washington in 1854 as their own interpreter; asked about him, Two Grizzly Bears said, "I brought him here to interpret for me." He was the only member of the delegation who could read or write.

What the plaque says

Logan Fontenelle Logan Fontenelle, an interpreter and Omaha chief, was born at Bellevue in May, 1825. His father was Lucien Fontenelle, a noted fur trader both on the lower Missouri River and near Fort Laramie, Wyoming. His mother was a daughter of Big Elk, noted chief of the Omaha. Logan, the eldest of four sons and one daughter, was educated at a private school near St. Louis before joining the family at Fort Laramie in 1837. Two years later the family returned to Bellevue, where the father soon died. Little is known of Logan's life for the next decade, but in the early 1850's he became recognized as a chief of the Omaha by both the tribe and the U. S. government. As both chief and interpreter he went with the Omaha chiefs to Washington, D.C., where they signed a treaty on March 16, 1854, selling most of their land to the government and restricting themselves to a reservation in northeast Nebraska. This opened the Nebraska Territory to settlement. In 1855, Logan Fontenelle accompanied a party of Omaha on a buffalo hunt near here in present Boone County. The party was attacked by Sioux and Logan was killed, probably on July 17th. His body was returned to Bellevue, where he was buried. Petersburg Commercial Club Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Neligh Mill State Historic Site — 19 mi
  A brick flour mill on the Elkhorn, begun in 1873, that sold its flour as Gold Medal until 1940, ground until 1969, and still has its original 1880s equipment in place.

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• The Neligh Mill Bridge — 19 mi
• The Neligh Mills — 19 mi
• Ponca Trail of Tears - White Buffalo Girl — 20 mi
• Meadow Grove — 21 mi