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The first accepted evidence we have of human beings on the Central Plains is around 12,000 years old. Archaeologists have found spear points near Clovis, New Mexico, and elsewhere that date from that era.There is some evidence that human beings may have lived here even earlier, but that evidence is disputed. Most scientists believe the ancestors of today’s Native Americans walked across a "land bridge" from Asia to ... Read more
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In the east, there was history of Indian wars. Because of this, some white Americans new to the Louisiana Purchase area thought they needed protection from Native Americans. There were only some minor conflicts, but people still worried.
So in 1820, Fort Atkinson became the westernmost U.S. military post. The fort provided the only government authority in the huge territory west of the Missouri. It was built on the same Missouri River ...
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Edward Flanagan was born in County Roscommon, Ireland on July 13, 1886. As a young man Flanagan wanted to be a priest. Father Flanagan moved to America in the 1910s. His first parish was in O’Neill, Nebraska. His second one was in Omaha, Nebraska.
Father Flanagan developed an understanding for the boys and young men who were orphaned by society. He realized that children who ... Read more
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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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Notable Nebraskan, George William Norris was born near Clyde, Ohio, on July 11, 1861. Norris’ father died when he was four years old — only months after George’s older brother had died in the Civil War. Norris was the 11th child of a very poor family of farmers. George’s mother, Mary, encouraged him to continue his education to help him ... Read more
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Within days of the declaration of war, troops began to move across the country, on their way to the front lines. In many ... 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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The Oto tribe gave this state its name, but they were not native to the region. "Nebraska" is an Oto word that means "flat water." Like migrant groups before and after, the Oto immigrated to the Central Plains from the east, just ahead of the Europeans.
The earliest mention of the Oto and Missouria tribes in the European historical record dates from the late 1600s. The Missouria were then in central Missouri and the Oto were in central Iowa. The Otos ... Read more
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A black man by the name of York accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition as a slave to Clark. He had been a childhood companion to William Clark and made invaluable contributions to the expedition on many occasions. Clark reported that York was especially attentive to Sergeant Floyd during his final days. York also risked his life to save Clark in a flash flood on the Missouri River near Great Falls in present-day Montana.
York participated in the hunts to bring ... 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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The large Siouan tribal language group was made up of many smaller tribes such as the Ponca, Omaha, Osage, Kansa, and Quaqaw tribes. These five tribes once lived in an area east of the Mississippi River, but just prior to Columbus’ arrival, they had begun moving westward. The Ponca and Omaha split from the other tribes sometime prior to 1500. According to tradition, the Omaha and Ponca followed the Des Moines River to its headwaters and then moved northeast.
Eventually they ... Read more
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Who was "Bright Eyes"? What was her role during the Standing Bear vs. Crook Trial?
Susette was born in Bellevue in 1854, the year the Omaha gave up their Nebraska hunting grounds and agreed to move to a northeastern Nebraska reservation. She was the oldest daughter of Joseph La Flesche, the last recognized chief of the Omaha. Joseph was known as "Iron Eyes." Susette was raised on the Omaha Reservation and from 1862 to 1869 attended the Presbyterian Mission Boarding Day ... Read more
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The temperance movement in Lincoln of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a good example of how prohibition affected towns and cities across the nation. Lincoln had active temperance groups who believed the saloon was an evil institution that undermined the traditional values of family, thrift, social order and community prosperity. But the city also had groups who regarded alcohol as a normal part of social life and saw nothing wrong with having a drink, now and then.The ... Read more
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Through the years, a variety of laws were passed in Nebraska to limit the sale of alcoholic beverages. But until the second decade of the new century, these laws all fell short of outright prohibition.
Early in the fight, prohibitionists pushed for a "county option" law that would permit a counties — rather than local cities — to determine whether they would be wet or dry. It was just too hard to outlaw alcohol town by town. But, the bill was ... Read more
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Behind the scenes of this racial situation was a political machine that may have contributed to one of the most ugly incidents in Nebraska history. In the first two decades of the 20th Century, Omaha had acquired the reputation of a "wide open" city controlled by a political machine run by Tom Dennison. In 1910, one estimate put the number of prostitutes in the city at 2,500 women. Dennison was a professional gambler who had little education or social standing. ... Read more
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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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Electrical generation equipment first began to appear in Nebraska in the early 1880s. As the use of electricity became more common, businessmen formed companies and entered into contracts with cities and towns to provide electric service, primarily for street lighting and, in larger cities, streetcar service. At the time, most power plants were small hydroplants or small coal or diesel-powered plants. By the start of the 20th century, private companies had replaced towns and cities (also called municipalities) as the ... Read more
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"It was something different to see minority people. . . . their presence was a little uncomfortable for some residents in the community."
—Elaine Hatten, Hastings, NE
Rick Wallace interviews Willie Trip about his experiences at the Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot during World War II. An NET Television’s THE WAR: NEBRASKA STORIES interstitial,excerpted from NET Television’s series, Next Exit. Courtesy 2007 NET Foundation for Television
Racism was a serious problem in World War II. The defense factories needed more workers than small towns ... Read more
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"Ironically, at home, the soldier’s mothers, wives, and daughters were being told, ‘Go home to Mexico, where you came from.’"One mother is reported to have said, ‘Send my son home from Germany first.’ "
—From Our Treasures, A Celebration of Nebraska’s Mexican Heritage by Dr. Emilia González-Clements
In the early 1900s, Mexicans migrated to Nebraska in large numbers for many reasons. Some left Mexico to escape the Mexican Revolution. Some came here to better their economic condition. Nebraska offered work in the ... Read more
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"I remember once in a difficult part of the war that these MPs made the patients (German prisoners of war) think that they were not going to give them food from the carts. . . . I cried and said, ‘Oh, you can’t deprive them.’ This (guard) said, ‘Oh, we’re just kidding.’ But I know they weren’t. They were angry with the Germans."
—Barbara Gier, Seward, NE
Nurse, 203 General Hospital in Paris
World War II lasted over three and a half years ... Read more
