Susette La Flesche (1854-1903) was a member of a family of Native American reformers of the Omaha tribe. She lobbied for Indian rights, encouraged assimilation, and professionally advanced in a white man's world.

Susette La Flesche was the child of Joseph La Flesche, also known as Inshtamaza or Iron Eye, the last chief of the Omaha tribe (1853-64). The son of a French fur trader, who was also named Joseph La Flesche, and Waoo-winchtcha, variously mentioned as a member of the Osage, Omaha, or Ponca tribes, Iron Eye often worked with his father, experiencing the white man's world. After a childhood spent among the Sioux, he joined his father in St. Louis for a time, accompanied him on trading ventures, learned French, and became a Christian. Iron Eye concluded that the only feasible future for the American Indian was to adapt to the white man's ways and to...