Big Elk or Ongpatonga, was chief of the Omaha Tribe during a key time in America’s expansion through the Great Plains.  With U.S. acquisition of land and the increase of homesteading, the lifestyle for First Peoples was threatened. Big Elk sought ways to protect his tribe and their culture from obliteration. He created alliances to protect his people and prepare for a future that he thought depended on a closer relationship with the United States.

Big Elk will be portrayed by his direct descendant, Taylor Keen. Fans of Nebraska Chautauqua may recall Keen as Chief Standing Bear during “Free Land? 1862 and the Shaping of Modern America” 2012-2016, and again at last year’s “What Connects Us” Chautauqua. A former HN board member, Keen is a full-time instructor at Creighton University and the author of the new book “Rediscovering America: Sacred Geography, the Ancient Above: Jessica Downing-Ford as Abigail Adams. Right: A rare portrait of Big Elk. Earthen Works and an Indigenous History of Turtle Island.”