Fontenelle, Logan
9 Apr 1939 - 11 Dec 2011
Logan Fontenelle, age 72 of Omaha, died at his home of complications from
diabetes. He was preceded in death by parents and son William Paul.
Survived by wife Leah, Children; Natalie and Logan "Steven" Fontenelle, 3
grandchildren, Sister; Patricia Wentz, Aunt; Minnie Stilen.
Visitation: Thursday, 5:00 P.M. - 8:30 P.M. Korisko Larkin Staskiewicz
Funeral Home.
Services: Friday, 10:00 A.M., St Joan of Arc.
Memorials: To Creighton Prep High School.
He had 40 years of service when he retired.
Korisko Larkin Staskiewicz Funeral Home
5108 "F" St.
Omaha NE 68117
402-731-1234
www.klsfuneralhome.com
Fontenelle, tie to history, dies
By Christopher Burbach
World-Herald Staff Writer
Logan Fontenelle bore a famous name - quietly, for the most part - though he
was happy to answer the occasional call to remind Nebraskans about his
ancestors' role in local history.
Fontenelle died Sunday in his Omaha home of complications from diabetes. He
was 72.
He came from a family whose roots in Nebraska soil predate the state and the
cities of Omaha and Bellevue.
"He always used to say 'I'm not famous, but my ancestors are,' " said his
wife, Leah Fontenelle.
"Although he got a lot of recognition for his name, he would always play it
down and say he just liked having the name because he was able to tell
stories of his ancestors."
A 1957 graduate of Creighton Prep, Fontenelle was the
great-great-great-grandson of Chief Big Elk, the last full-blooded chief of
the Omaha tribe. Fontenelle also was the great-great-grandson of Lucien
Fontenelle, a French-American fur trader whose trading post, in what is now
Fontenelle Forest, became one of the building blocks of Bellevue and Omaha
during the early 1800s.
Lucien Fontenelle married a daughter of Big Elk. One of their sons, Logan
Fontenelle, was a leader of the Omaha people at a time when they were
warring with the Sioux people and trying to survive the great influx of
white people. The Logan Fontenelle of the 1800s was an interpreter and a
warrior who spoke three languages and helped negotiate the sale of Omaha
land to the government in 1854.
Many consider him the last chief of the Omaha. That Logan Fontenelle, whom
Sioux warriors killed in 1855, was the great-grand-uncle of the Logan
Fontenelle who died Sunday.
"It's a loss for the whole city," Leah Fontenelle said. "His family, the
Fontenelles and the Omaha Nation, were here way before Omaha was even a
city." Logan Fontenelle, she said, was a living connection to that legacy.
He grew up in Omaha with his sister, Patricia Wentz, and their mother, Mary.
The family moved to Omaha in 1942, after Fontenelle's father, also named
Logan, moved to Washington, D.C., for a federal job, said a lifelong friend
of the younger Logan Fontenelle, Jay Harrington.
During World War II, Fontenelle's mother worked as a riveter on an assembly
line at the Martin bomber plant south of Omaha, one of the millions of women
whose home-front war efforts came to be symbolized by Rosie the Riveter.
"Logan was always proud that his mother was Rosie the Riveter," Harrington
said.
Fontenelle attended St. Peter Catholic School, 27th and Leavenworth Streets,
before enrolling at Creighton Prep. His mother wanted him to go to Prep and
worked two jobs to make it possible, while he also worked as a handyman at
the Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack, Leah Fontenelle said.
Harrington, a classmate of Fontenelle's through St. Peter and Prep, said
Fontenelle kept quiet back then about his famous heritage, partly because
being loud about it was not his nature, but also because of discrimination
and prejudice. Landlords had refused to rent apartments to his mother
because of her race. Fontenelle had been denied entry to Omaha's old Peony
Park amusement park, said Harrington, who witnessed it.
"I knew he was Native American, and with the name 'Fontenelle,' you knew
there had to be a connection with Fontenelle Park, Fontenelle Hotel,
Fontenelle Boulevard, Fontenelle Forest," Harrington said.
The first time he became aware of his buddy's family history was in 1954,
when the Rev. Henry Sullivan walked one morning into a Latin class at Prep
and said, “Logan Fontenelle, come with me.” Everyone figured that Fontenelle
was in trouble. But when he returned in the afternoon, they learned that he
had been a guest of honor at an Omaha centennial luncheon.
Sullivan asked if Fontenelle was famous. Fontenelle delivered what would
become his standard line, that it was his ancestors who were famous.
To his friend Harrington, Fontenelle observed, "They just wanted their token
Indian there."
After high school, Fontenelle attended Omaha University, the precursor to
the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Fontenelle didn't finish, instead
launching a career as a laborer, beginning as a circuit welder at Western
Electric (later Avaya). He worked at the plant for 40 years.
He kept in touch with his Omaha, Sioux and Ponca heritage, attending powwows
and events.
In retirement, Fontenelle made more public appearances related to his
family.
In 2006, he joined other descendants of early Omaha-area founders to give a
history lesson at the General Crook House Museum. His visits to several
Bellevue schools during the summer of 2006 gave rise to a student campaign
that eventually restored the graves of Big Elk, his granddaughter Susan
Fontenelle Neals and more than 1,000 military veterans buried at Bellevue
Cemetery.
Fontenelle didn't rush to controversy, but he did take an unexpected stand
in one Bellevue Public Schools fray, when there was a movement to drop
Indian-themed mascot names. He sided with people who wanted to keep names
such as the Logan Fontenelle Middle School Warriors.
Harrington said Fontenelle reasoned that the school's namesake was indeed a
warrior in the 1800s, and that as a descendant, he found the name an honor.
Survivors include two children: Natalie Fontenelle of Omaha and Logan
"Steven" Fontenelle of Kansas.
Visitation is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Korisko Larkin
Staskiewicz Funeral Home, 5108 F St., with a prayer service at 6:30 p.m. The
funeral is set for 10 a.m. Friday at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 75th
and Vinton Streets.
Omaha World
Herald
