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The Oto & Missouria

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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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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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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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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Living in an Atomic Age

Activities: 1950-1974: The Cold War & Living In The Atomic Age - Grade Level [4-12]

As World War II ended, a new age began — the Atomic Age. The first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, ended World War II and created a new, more nervous age. Very quickly, the Soviet Union also developed atomic bombs. Countries that had been allies against the Nazis were now enemies, each pledged to outdo the other in the battle for ... Read more

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Europeans Compete for Trade

In 1714, a French explorer with a long name — Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont — reached the mouth of the Platte. He named it the "Nebraskier River," using an Oto word that means "flat water." Bourgmont had been in North America for 27 years and was a remarkable soldier, trader, and explorer. When he reached the Missouri territory he married a Missouria Indian woman and lived with the tribe. While living with them, he began to carefully explore ... Read more

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Posse Comitatus

The Posse Comitatus was a right-wing extremist group that contended that the true intent of the country’s founders was to establish a Christian republic where the individual was sovereign, and that the Republic’s first duty was to promote, safeguard, and protect the Christian faith. They saw farmers as the victims of a Jewish-led, communist-supported conspiracy that had infiltrated the government. They thought the conspiracy would rob the farmer of his land through manipulation of ... Read more