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As Nebraska entered the 20th century, its ranchers had learned from ranching experiments of the 1870s and 1880s and the Depression of 1898. Ranchers did well with their improved herds and high demand. Meatpacking was by far the state’s leading business. Cattle ruled Nebraska’s economy.
But there were also big problems.
The jobs provided by the expanding stockyards and packing plants attracted a wave of new immigrants to South Omaha. And particularly during ... Read more
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The Redbird culture in northeastern Nebraska left an archaeological record that is similar to the Lower Loup culture, but Redbird sites were smaller villages and we find slightly different pottery styles at these sites.
Ponca and Omaha oral history suggests that the Redbird people immigrated into northeastern Nebraska about 1700 CE. Some archaeologists agree and maintain that the evidence shows that the Redbird culture descended into the Ponca. However, other archaeologists feel they are more likely ancestral to the ... Read more
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When homesteaders arrived on the Great Plains, they found a challenging environment where survival was the goal. The native tribal people had been meeting these same challenges for thousands of years and had evolved complex economic, agricultural and cultural methods of coping. What was life like for the Native Americans in the mid- to late-1800s on the Great Plains?
By the mid-1800s, the Pawnee, Omaha, Oto-Missouria, Ponca, Lakota (Sioux), and Cheyenne were the main plains tribes living in the Nebraska Territory. ... Read more
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"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
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Nebraska entered the 21st century with impressive statistics. As of 2006, Nebraska had the top three beef cattle counties in the U.S., including the nation’s No. 1 cattle county — Cherry County, with nearly 165,000 cattle. Holt County was No. 2 (101,000) and Custer County was No. 3 (93,000). Also among the top counties in the ... Read more
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After millions of years of moving from one place on the globe to another, after millions of years covered by a shallow inland sea, and after millions of years covered with tropical jungles and savannas, what would become the northern Great Plains was plowed under by a series of huge sheets of ice that pushed down from the North Pole and then receded. The glaciers were pushed across the northern plains by the weight ... Read more
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Cattle are so much a part of Nebraska life today that it may seem strange to think of a time when there were none in our area.
We think "west" when we think about beef in America, but its story is really about going north. Cattle are not native to the American continents. The Spanish brought them to the Americas in the 16th Century.
In Mexico, strays from Spanish herds, especially ... Read more
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With the path wide open for cattle’s entry into Nebraska, three new markets for beef increased demand beyond the needs created by the Civil War.
In 1874, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer of the U.S. Cavalry emerged from an expedition into the Black Hills and announced that he had found gold there. Prospectors flooded into the area.
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Several events caused an increase in the number of cattle in Nebraska after the Civil War. The destruction of the Plains bison made more room for cattle, and Native Americans needed a new meat source. Meat-processing plants in Chicago and gold miners rushing to the Black Hills needed beef. The enormous growth in the beef industry caused many changes and challenges.
In the 1870s, Americans’ taste for beef became more refined. ... Read more
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After Manuel Lisa died, the remaining partners signed a new contract, and Joshua Pilcher became the field representative in charge of the company’s outposts and their fur traders. It was primarily through his efforts that the reorganized company enjoyed a degree of success. He was a merchant and banker in St. Louis, but had joined Lisa’s company due to personal financial problems. He was a junior partner and served an apprenticeship as a trader among the Indian tribes in what ... Read more
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Major Stephen Long coined the phrase during his expedition to the Great Plains in 1819-20. His journey was only the third major exploration of the Louisiana Purchase since the U.S. bought it from France in ... Read more
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Before Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the "New World," Native Americans living in Nebraska lived in villages made up of small numbers of earth lodges, usually square in shape. Large wooden posts were placed upright in the ground and supported a framework of smaller logs. Then this was covered with grass and earth which provided shelter from the weather.
Nebraska Indian tribes, such as the Pawnee, Oto, Ponca, and Omaha, also lived in earth lodges that were round in shape and made ... Read more
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The Oto and Missouria have left impressive archaeological sites, including the Oto-Missouria village near Yutan.
The Otos immigrated into eastern Nebraska about 1700, building the Yutan village about 1775; remnants of the Missourias joined them in the 1790s.The village was occupied until 1837. It was the first major Indian settlement seen by fur traders on the journey up the Platte to western bison-hunting and beaver-trapping ranges. Spanish correspondence from 1777 noted the presence of this site that was named after the ... Read more
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9000 to 7000 Years Ago: Nebraska’s First People
The objects from this site were made by some of Nebraska’s first known people: the Paleo-Indian people.
The site is located in southern Nebraska’s Frontier County. Learn more about them in the Activities and Resources.
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Most of us take road maps for granted. It is easy for today’s travelers to get a clear map to guide them on their way. This was not true with early voyagers across Nebraska’s "sea of grass." They had to make their own maps, and one of the most significant chart-making explorers was Captain John C. Fremont.
In 1841 Congress appropriate $30,000 to pay for a survey of the Oregon Trail and named Lt. John C. Fremont to head the expedition. ...
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The trappers, fur traders, and river men are generally given credit for exploring the West and opening it to settlement. The Army Corps of Engineers should also be credited. Stephen H. Long was a member of this group. Like most engineers, Long was college-trained and was willing to work with the modern technology of the time. Engineers were different from the ... Read more
