James Eagle Feather’s upbringing as a child was rough. Born and raised in the north side of Omaha, his childhood was marked by moving and inconsistency.
“I was taken out of the home when I was 8 years old for child endangerment,” Feather said. “When I turned 11 [or] 12 years old, when I got some size to me, I started lashing out because I had no impulse control. I had no control over my emotions…From there, I went to different treatment facilities, mental hospitals. And then when I turned 16, started going in and out of detention centers, until eventually I mounted up in a juvenile penitentiary.”
Eventually, Feather ended up in a maximum-security prison, where at first he decided to cause havoc. He said this led to the guards treating him badly, as well as extended stays in solitary confinement.
The environment and how long I was in there had this effect on me, and I had this nervous breakdown, and that was in 2005 so had already been incarcerated for seven years,” Feather said. “I realized that my decisions got me to where I was at. So from that day forward, it was kind of like a slow march to change. I first deeducated myself, then reeducated myself.
“I just started reading, reading because I knew that was my key. That was my key to success. Was reading. And I changed my vocabulary. I extended it, and it, like I said, it was just a slow march to where I am today. It didn’t happen in a day.”
Feather’s story is one of nine that will be told on the TEDxOmaha stage this Friday. Tamsen Butler is the organization’s Director of Strategic Communications. She said the theme for this year’s event is “next.”
“It means so many different things to so many different people. And that’s the cool thing about the group of speakers that we have,” said Butler. “For some, ‘next’ is a natural progression that we have to go through to make the community better. And for some, ‘next’ is something very individual… They all thread through the theme, but what’s ‘next’ for everybody depends on where they’re coming from and where they hope to go.”
Butler began with TEDxOmaha when she spoke at its 2023 event about how authenticity is overrated. Now she helps others tell their stories.
“I’d say our main goal is to find, cultivate and distribute ideas worth spreading. That’s our main goal,” said Butler. “A lot of people, when they think of TEDx speakers, they think of people who speak at conferences and who are super comfortable being up on stage. And that’s not who we’re looking for when we’re looking through applications and stuff. We’re solely looking for that idea worth spreading.”
Once the TEDxOmaha crew picks its cohort, it has the speakers work with coaches to refine their stories, and how they tell them. That is typically within April, and then by October the cohort is ready to tell their story to both the in-person crowd, and the digital crowd that will watch and listen once the video is posted on the TEDx YouTube channel.
That’s partially the reason Feather put in an application to tell his story, to reach out further.
“I mentor at risk youth,” Feather said. “I go and I speak to these kids, and we play games, and we have little breakout sessions where we have, like, real, deep, meaningful conversations… I believe I have a message that can really transform the way the youth think. The reason why is because I’ve been there, I’ve done that, I’ve been surrounded by that.”
Feather wants to eventually create a non-profit where he can help young guides through the tough times, he himself faced at one point.
“You can’t control your environment, you can’t control where you come from, but at a certain age, you reach that maturity level where you become responsible for your future,” Feather said. “You can’t blame an absentee father, you can’t blame a drug addicted Mother, you can’t blame anybody, because they’re not going to suffer your consequences. So I want to come up with a book or a set of system that can basically give these kids the tools.”
Feather will tell the rest of his story on the stage at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. this Friday. The show begins at 6 p.m., and will go until 8:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at TEDxOmaha’s website.
For those who maybe want to apply for future events, Butler has this advice.
“My advice is always to those people, is to figure out what your idea is worth spreading and why you’re the person to tell that idea. And that’s the two things that if you can get those concretely set out, then your application is going to go far.”