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The Ponca were very unhappy with the land and living conditions on the Quapaw Reservation. Much of the land was not suitable for cultivation; sanitation conditions were deplorable. Government agents refused to provide adequate farming equipment, and many of the people died from malaria. Since leaving Nebraska, nearly one-third of the tribe had died. In January 1879, Standing Bear’s son, Bear Shield, died. The distraught chief decided to return to his tribal lands in Nebraska to bury his son. It ... Read more
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From May through September 1919, over 25 race riots rocked cities from Texas to Illinois, Nebraska to Georgia. In Omaha, the trouble began on September 25, when a white woman, Agnes Loebeck, reported that she was assaulted by a black man.
The next morning, the Bee reached new lows reporting the event. The headline was: "Black Beast First Stick-up Couple."
"The most daring attack on a white woman ever perpetrated in Omaha occurred one block south of Bancroft street near Scenic Avenue ... Read more
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Just as the Nebraska economy was settling down after the war, the blizzard of 1948-49 hit. Its magnitude staggers the imagination. It was the worst blizzard in recorded history. A series of storms began in November of 1948 and continued straight through to February of 1949. The snow stopped trains, buried houses, and threatened nearly a million head of cattle. Operation Haylift was a massive, perhaps desperate, effort to save livestock.
By the fourth week in January, it was evident that ... Read more
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The Homestead Act of 1862 was a piece of inspired legislation. It allowed anyone who was over 21 or the head of a household to own land. The Homestead Act became a symbol of newfound freedom for many African Americans. The day that the Homestead Act went into effect — January 1, 1863 — was the same day that President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Many Black Americans began looking to the west as a place where ... Read more
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The Internet traces its beginnings back to a U.S. Defense Department project during the Cold War. The system was supposed to be a way to let computer users, attached to different networks, exchange data with each other.
The key questions were:
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Initiative 300, the anti-corporate farming amendment, passed in 1982. The farm crisis that had begun during the late 1970s deepened in the ’80s. The prices being bid for agricultural land dropped. Opponents of I-300 were quick to argue this was partially because corporations were no longer allowed to bid for farmland in Nebraska. Supporters of Initiative 300 responded that the amendment was doing exactly what it was intended to do — keep corporations from snapping up Nebraska farm and ranch ... Read more
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Nebraska has had only two official state names:
However, beef had become so important to Nebraska’s economy by the 1950s that from 1956 through 1965, the Nebraska license plate carried the motto,
That title was never an official state name ... Read more
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In the early days of World War II there was eagerness and dedication to the war effort. Thousands of young men answered the call to join the military. But the services found that sometimes their recruits needed a lot of training. The young recruits were needed badly so the military would not refuse to accept them. If the new recruits could not read well enough to understand training materials and instructions, other servicemen had to teach them. But if those ... Read more
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So, what was it like to live in a sod house? Some people found life in a sod house unendurable, others felt like they were on top of the world. It is difficult to judge the way of life by today’s standards because each person looked at their life in a slightly different way.
For example, dirt floors were found in the majority of the early sod homes. A family that could afford them might fasten carpets to the dirt floor. ... Read more
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Underlying the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, there was a raging debate over what were the best kind of farms. Farms were getting larger, and many farms were organizing themselves into corporations. Activists believed that family-owned farms were better than corporate farms. In Nebraska, the debate was played out in a battle over the constitution of the state.
We should define some terms. A family farm can be set up as long ... Read more
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Getting free land from the government was amazingly simple. The first thing you had to do was fill out an application form that stated several facts:
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The Great Depression and the coincidental drought ruined farmers across America. But in Nebraska, many ranchers seemed to get along just fine. Why?
In fact, during the Depression, Christopher J. Abbot, Sr., a rancher and banker in Hyannis made so much money that he was considered by many to be the richest man in Nebraska. He owned seven ranches and was president of nine banks. In February of 1944, the Sunday Lincoln Journal and Star ran an ... Read more
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"What a time to be alive! What a glorious time!"
—Jeanette Meyer Davis, Omaha, NE
Army Nurse Corps at 187th General Hospital in England
At the end of World War II, Nebraskans looked forward to the return of their loved ones and to a world at peace. In North Platte and all over Nebraska, both V-E (Victory in Europe) and V-J (Victory in Japan) ... Read more
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Native American tribes, including the Omaha, Oto, Missouri, Pawnee, Arapaho and ... Read more
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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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For centuries before 1800, Native tribal groups had inhabited the land of the Great Plains and the West. In that sense, they "owned" it. Between 1650 and 1800, a series of European governments — Spain, Britain, France and Russia — all sent explorers into parts of the West and "claimed" to own the land.
But in 1802, ownership of a large part of the West changed, and changed fundamentally. ... Read more
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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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Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was airplane commander of the 509th that was responsible for dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. In 1942, Colonel Tibbets was Squadron Commander of the 340th Bomb Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group that was destined for England. Tibbets flew 25 missions in B-17s.
In March 1943, Colonel Tibbets returned to the United States to test the combat capability of Boeing’s new Super Fortress, the B-29. In September, 1944, he ... 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
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By 1925, beef production had been greatly improved. New laws were enforced that reduced ranchers’ illegal use of public land. Stockyards and packing houses began to follow health guidelines and had somewhat improved working conditions for their workers.
In 1926, a new Livestock Exchange Building towered over the South Omaha stockyards. It reflected the strength of the cattle and the livestock industry over nearly a quarter century, and it promoted hope ... Read more
