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1850 - 1874

During the second half of the 19th century, Nebraska saw a series of rapid and dramatic changes--new people, new government, new technology, and new ways of life. Human rights were being redefined by changing laws and raging battles over slavery and incursions into lands inhabited by Native Americans. With the arrival of beef cattle, railroads, urban centers, and homesteaders, what would become of the bison and the Native people who once relied on them for the basics of life? Read more

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First Contact-Expanding Trade

Activities: 1500-1799: First Contact: Expanding Trade - Grade Level [8-12]

1541 Coronado Reaches "Quivira"

The first recorded contact between Europeans and native people on the Central Plains came between the Spanish and the Wichita tribe in what is now Kansas. Contact with the French and the British came decades later. Contact with the Americans came a century or more later still. Very slowly at first, but inexorably, these contacts would change the lives of native people.

Christopher Columbus landed on an island ... Read more

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Native American Citizenship

Activities: 1900-1924: Native American Citizenship - Grade Level [4-12]

Key Dates in the History of Relations between the United States and Native American Tribes.
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U.S. Indian Policy Timeline

Key Policy Milestones – 1900-1924

• Between 1900 & 1910 Winters Doctrine
• Late 1920s Snyder Act
• 1924 Indian Citizenship Act
• Late 1940s Indian Claims Commission
• Mid 1970s PL93-638 Indian Self Determination Act

It is easy for most of us to become a citizen of the United States. For most U.S. citizens, ... Read more

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Native Americans & Settlers

Lesson Plan & Activities: 1850-1874: Native Americans and Settlers - Grade Level [4-12]

Tribes in Nebraska Give Up Lands in Treaties 1854 - 1857

Select a tribe and year to read the text of each treaty or a law summary that ceded land to the U.S.

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Based on an original Map of Native American land cessions via treaties in what became Nebraska
Courtesy Bureau of American Ethnologies, Smithsonian Libraries, 1899

Native American tribes, including the Omaha, Oto, Missouri, Pawnee, Arapaho and ... Read more

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Emergence of Historic Tribes

Activities: 1500-1799: Emergence of Historic Tribes - Grade Level [4-12]

1600 Native Tribes Return to the Plains

1600 CE was a pivotal time in the history of Nebraska,and there are at least two compelling stories to tell.

1. First, this is a story of the migration of prehistoric tribal groups out of the plains and back. Around 1400 CE , most of the people who had been living in what would become Nebraska were forced to move away, probably because drought conditions made ... Read more

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Fur Traders & Missionaries

Introduction

Activities: 1800-1849: Fur Traders and Missionaries [8-12]

In the 250 years before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, explorers from several European countries had tried to investigate and claim and govern the Great Plains — with little success. A few individual traders traveled in and out of the Plains during the 1600s. But it wasn’t until 1807 that trader Manuel Lisa built Fort Lisa on the west side of the Missouri River in what is now North Omaha. This was the ... Read more

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Susan La Flesche Picotte

Lesson Plans: 1875-1899: Notable Nebraskan: Susan LaFlesche Picotte - Grade Level [4]

First Native American Physician 1889

Notable Nebraskan, Susan La Flesche Picotte was born on the Omaha reservation in northeastern Nebraska on June 17, 1865. She became the first Native American to earn a medical degree.

Susan’s father, Joseph La Flesche, also known as Iron Eye, was the last recognized chief of the Omaha. He had a big impact on Susan’s life. He encouraged his people, especially his children, ... Read more

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Villasur Sent to Nebraska

In the early 1700s, Spain claimed as their exclusive territory most of the Central Plains including Nebraska. They were very concerned with protecting their rights to what they saw as a potentially enormous trade with the Native Americans on the plains. But it had been a Frenchman, Bourgmont, who had reached the Platte first and who named it. And the Spanish in New Mexico were seeing more and more evidence of French trade with tribes like the Apache, ... Read more

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Dismal River Culture

The archaeological record in western and central Nebraska suggests that Native American people migrated to the region somewhere around 1675 CE. We think they came from further west and north. Archaeologists have found evidence of these people and named the culture after where the sites were discovered in the 1930s — along the Dismal River in the Nebraska sand hills. Dismal River Cultural sites also have been excavated in the Republican River basin. So, the Dismal River cultural complex occupied ... Read more

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1500 - 1799

As the sixteenth century began, European explorers were setting sail and staking claims in the exotic lands on the other side of the ocean. Meanwhile, native peoples were on the move, making new homes across the continent, unaware strangers from a world away were arriving and settling. Contacts between cultures brought dramatic change and bloody conflict. Nebraska began the era with relative peace and scarce population. But change was on its way – on horseback, in boats, and by the ... Read more

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Geopolitical Power Shifts

Throughout the 1700s, the nations of Europe played out political dramas on the plains of Nebraska. Successive expeditions would venture forth and negotiate with the plains tribes, offering symbolic gifts — certificates heralding "peace and friendship," peace medals, canes and flags. Towards the end of the century, the gifts given by the Spanish to tribes west of the Mississippi River cost that one colonial power over $100,000 a year. The goal of the whites was to establish alliances and dominate ... Read more

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Recording the Massacre

There is a remarkable record of Villasur’s defeat in 1720 still in existence. An unknown artist recorded the battle scene on three large buffalo hides based on descriptions provided by the survivors of the defeat. The artist was expertly trained in the Spanish style of painting, but we don’t know if he or she was Spanish or Indian. Scenes were first drawn in pencil, then traced in ink, and later the intense watercolors were added on a yellow ground.

The ... Read more

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Long History of Treaties

From 1778 to 1871, the U.S. federal government tried to determine its relationship with the various Native tribes by creating treaties. There were hundreds of these treaties, which were formal agreements between two independent nations. So Native American people were citizens of their tribe, living within the boundaries of the U.S. The Native tribes would give up their rights to hunt and live on huge pieces of land in exchange for trade goods, yearly cash payments, and promises that no ... Read more

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The Battle

In August 1720, Villasur’s army arrived at the Platte River somewhere around Grand Island. The troops crossed the Platte and then the Loup River where Villasur started encountering Oto and Pawnee Indians. He attempted to negotiate with them at various times using a Spanish slave who was a Pawnee named Francisco Sistaca. Near present-day Schuyler, Nebraska, Sistaca disappeared. Villasur became very nervous about the belligerence and numbers of the local Indians, whose villages were south of the Platte, near present-day ... Read more

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The Trial of Standing Bear

Introduction

Activities: 1875-1899: Trial of Standing Bear - Grade Level [4-12]

Imagine yourself living in 1875. You’re living on a small, but beautiful part of the country between the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers. Just to the south, the new state of Nebraska is less than 10 years old.

For years, you have moved and been moved from one place to another. Then a United State government Indian inspector informs you that you have to move again — and you have to move ... Read more

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Horses Change Native Lives

1650 Horses Stolen from Spanish

The Spanish offered many wonderful things that Native Americans found useful or beautiful — iron for tools, weapons, glass beads, mass-produced pottery — but the most prized possession of many Indians was the horse.

In ancient North America, horses had become extinct, probably around 10,000 years ago. Meanwhile across the sea, horses were becoming common in many ancient civilizations and were establishing their place in human history. Around 3,000 years ago, horses were tamed in Europe for ... Read more

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The Dawes Act

Lesson Plans: 1875-1899: The Dawes Act - Grade Level [8-12]

Congressman Henry Dawes of Massachusetts sponsored a historic piece of legislation, the General Allotment Act (The Dawes Severalty Act) in 1887. Its purpose was to encourage the breakup of the tribes and for Indians to blend in with American society. It would be the major Indian policy until the 1930s. Dawes’ goal was to create independent farmers out of Indians — give them land and the tools for citizenship.

While Senator ... Read more

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First Farmers

Activities: Pre-1500: Nebraska's First Farmers - Grade Level [4-12]

One Thousand Years Ago

"Which came first — the chicken or the egg?"

This is an age-old question that may not have a good answer. Neither may this question:

"Which came first — farming or a major increase in the Native American population during the Plains Woodland period?"

On the one hand, farming gave the native peoples a better way to feed themselves. On the other hand, more people were needed to maintain the ... Read more