Nebraska Flag on Our Flagpole

Nebraska – The Cornhusker State

Introduction:

Nebraska is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north, Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River, Kansas to the south, Colorado to the southwest and Wyoming to the west.

Nebraska in the United States
Nebraska in the United States

It is the only triply landlocked U.S. state.  Nebraska’s area is just over 77,220 square miles with almost 1.9 million people.

Its state capital is Lincoln, and its largest city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River.

Omaha
Omaha

Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state of the United States in 1867.  It is the only state in the United States whose legislature is unicameral and officially nonpartisan.

Origin of the Name:

Nebraska’s name is derived from transliteration of the archaic Otoe words Ñí Brásge, pronounced [ɲĩbɾasꜜkɛ] or the Omaha Ní Btháska, pronounced [nĩbɫᶞasꜜka], meaning “flat water”, after the Platte River that flows through the state.

History:

Indigenous peoples lived in the region of present-day Nebraska for thousands of years before European exploration.  The historic tribes in the state included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, and various branches of the Lakota (Sioux), some of which migrated from eastern areas into this region.  When European exploration, trade, and settlement began, both Spain and France sought to control the region.  In the 1690s, Spain established trade connections with the Apaches, whose territory then included western Nebraska.  By 1703, France had developed a regular trade with the native peoples along the Missouri River in Nebraska, and by 1719 had signed treaties with several of these peoples.  After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an armed expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur in 1720.  The party was attacked and destroyed near present-day Columbus by a large force of Pawnees and Otoes, both allied to the French.  The massacre ended Spanish exploration of the area for the remainder of the 18th century.

Nebraska in 1718
Nebraska in 1718

In 1762, during the Seven Years’ War, France ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain.  This left Britain and Spain competing for dominance along the Mississippi; by 1773, the British were trading with the native peoples of Nebraska.  In response, Spain dispatched two trading expeditions up the Missouri in 1794 and 1795; the second, under James Mackay, established the first European settlement in Nebraska near the mouth of the Platte.  Later that year, Mackay’s party built a trading post, dubbed Fort Carlos IV (Fort Charles), near present-day Homer.

Nebraska is crossed by many historic trails and was explored by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Lewis and Clark Map
Lewis and Clark Map

In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as the first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri River, just east of present-day Fort Calhoun.  The army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west.  European-American settlement was scarce until 1848 and the California Gold Rush.  On May 30, 1854, the US Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North, under the Kansas–Nebraska Act.  The Nebraska Territory included parts of the current states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.   The territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha.

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