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Judge Dundy’s decision in the case Standing Bear vs. Crook was an important development in the history of Indian-white relations. It established for the first time that Indians were something more than just "Uncle Sam’s stepchildren" to be regulated by the Interior Department as they pleased. Standing Bear and his followers were now free. But, the unanswered questions were: Free to do what? Free to go where?
They had no place to live, no food to eat, nor clothing to wear. ... Read more
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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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During World War I, about 9,000 American Indians served in the armed services. They fought and died in defense of a nation that still denied most of them the right to participate in the political process. Congress, as a result, enacted legislation on November 6, 1919, granting citizenship to Indian veterans of World War I who were not yet citizens.
"BE IT ENACTED . . . that every American Indian who served in the Military or Naval Establishments of the United ... Read more
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In other western states like Wyoming, the collision of the visions of land use between cattle barons and grangers erupted into range wars. In Nebraska, these wars were waged in the legislature and courtrooms.
In 1885, the federal government passed legislation outlawing the enclosure of public lands. That law, without enforcement, was toothless and widely ignored until the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt ordered that fences around public lands had to be removed, and took particular aim at Read more
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The resentment that many farmers felt against bankers reached the boiling point during the height of the farm crisis in the 1980s. Some bankers said they got the silent treatment on the street. A few were even assaulted by angry customers. Some farmers wore black armbands to protest foreclosures. Bankers became the target of bitter jokes making the rounds in Nebraska communities.
Question: What’s the difference between a dead skunk on the road and a dead loan officer?
Answer: There are skid ... Read more
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The first half of the 19th century was a time of great change on the Great Plains. It was only 1803 when President Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon — a purchase including the Great Plains region. No one knew what was in the purchase besides a lot of land and relatively few Indians. This land was not organized into a territory. In 1854, the federal government passed the ... Read more
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The federal government’s decision in 1948 to locate the Strategic Air Command (SAC) near Omaha was a key reason that Omaha became a state of the art communications center.
SAC (now U.S. Strategic Command) had a mission to lead U.S. military operations in the event of a nuclear war. They needed the most advanced communications system possible. As a result, the local telephone company installed an incredibly large and complex telecommunications infrastructure, staffed with people who knew how to run it. ...
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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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After a short trial, Judge Elmer Dundy issued a ruling that surprised many observers and caused comment across the country. The judge found that "an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law" and that Standing Bear was being held illegally. He issued a "writ of habeas corpus" — which is an "order to produce a body" or release someone held illegally. Here are the five key points of the ruling:
"First. That an Indian is a person with ... Read more
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The battle over rights for women has a long history. In America, supporters of equal rights took a huge step when a small group of women met in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Leaders such as Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton came together and adopted a document that listed the rights women felt were being denied to them. High on their list of priorities was the ... Read more
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Imagine yourself as a young person in a place where the land has all been taken. You might want to become a farmer, but there is no farmland available. Then imagine seeing advertisements for land, some for very little money, some for free! You face many unknowns. What is this new land really like? Will there be enough rainfall to grow your crops? Will you have neighbors? Who will they be? What about the people who are already on the ... Read more
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In late 1950, Nebraska Governor Val Peterson told the press that he had compiled a list of suspected subversives, who were to be rounded up in the event of a national emergency. Peterson’s list supposedly named many suspected communists in Nebraska, but he told the State Defense Council, only one had a job working for the state. The Governor said it was his duty to defend the state.
Critics of Peterson’s action said the list had little practical significance and may ... Read more
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Another influential figure during the efforts to secure federal approval and funds for the project was U.S. Senator George W. Norris of McCook, Nebraska. Senator Norris played a pivotal role in guiding the project through the federal government’s bureaucratic maze. Senator Norris personally intervened on behalf of the Tri-County Project on several occasions. His efforts to convince Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and President Franklin Roosevelt, with whom he had a good working relationship, that the project was ... Read more
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There are very few people who have seen an atomic bomb explode — or who would want to. But in 1955, there were several Nebraskans who were among the 5,800 civilian and military witnesses to an atomic test blast. The civilians were there by choice, while most of the military observers had been ordered there. The experiment was known as Operation Cue.
Operation Cue was not the first attempt to test the effects an atomic explosion would have on buildings and ... Read more
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Construction of the Tri-County Project began on March 13, 1936. Kingsley Dam was completed in 1941.
Part 1: Digging & Filling in the Dam
Part 2: Laying Concrete Blocks
Part 3: Construction Camp
At the time of its construction, Kingsley Dam was the second largest hydraulic-fill dam in the world. (Only Ft. Peck Dam in Montana, which remains the largest hydraulic-fill dam in the ... Read more
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William Jennings Bryan was a prominent force throughout his political life from the 1890s to the 1920s. During his early career, he had supported a variety of progressive measures, but prohibition was not at the top of his agenda. In his private life, he did not drink alcohol, had taken a temperance pledge as a child, and felt prohibition would contribute to the moral improvement of the individual and to civic progress. He stressed temperance and opposed the ... Read more
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When the 37th Congress met on July 1, 1861, members returned to an unfinished capitol building, several unfinished laws, and news of the first battles of the Civil War. But even during those awful times, three major laws were passed that affected the history of Nebraska. Why did Congress and President Abraham Lincoln turn their attention to homesteading, the creation of land grant colleges, and the transcontinental railroad in a time of war?
Before the Civil War, Northern states had wanted ...
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Life in Nebraska during the 1950s and 60s was determined, in large part, by what happened here during World War II. Life in the atomic age was really a legacy of the war.
For instance, nuclear scientists from Nebraska helped create the Atomic Age as part of the secret "Manhattan Project" that built the first A-bombs during World War II. The planes that dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were built in Omaha. The air base ... Read more
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Despite the surprising victory in the Nebraska legislature, anti-suffrage forces did not give up. They decided to use a weapon they had previously opposed — the initiative and referendum petition drive — to overturn the action of the legislature and governor.
Progressives had added the initiative and referendum amendments to the Nebraska constitution in 1912. Just two years later, suffragists had used the initiative petition to place the woman suffrage amendment on the ballot for the general election. (The ... Read more
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Under the reservation system, American Indians kept their citizenship in their independent tribes, but life was harder than it had been. The reservations were designed to encourage the Indians to live within clearly defined zones. The U.S. promised to provide food, goods and money and to protect them from attack by other tribes and white settlers. Also, some educators and protestant missionaries felt that forcing the Indians to live in a confined space would make it easier to "civilize the ... Read more
