Native American tribes in Nebraska
Native American tribes in the U.S. state of Nebraska have been Plains Indians, descendants of succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples who have occupied the area for thousands of years.
Today six tribes, (Omaha, Winnebago, Ponca, Iowa, Santee Sioux, Sac and Fox), have reservations in Nebraska.
[5] The eastern range of the Algonquian-speaking Cheyenne included western Nebraska, after the Comanche who had formerly lived in the territory had moved south toward Texas.
[6] The Great Sioux Nation, including the Ihanktowan-Ihanktowana and the Lakota located to the north and west, used Nebraska as a hunting and skirmish ground, although they did not have any long-term settlements in the state.
[7][8] The Omaha belong to the Siouan-language family of the Dhegihan branch, and have been located along the Missouri River in northeastern Nebraska since the late 17th century, after having migrated from eastern areas together with other tribes.
Other Siouan-Dheigihan tribes who moved west from the Ohio River about then were the Osage, Kansa and Quapaw, who settled to the southwestern part of the territory.
[11] In 1877 the United States forced the Ponca tribe to move south to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, although they had wanted to stay on a reservation in Nebraska.
The Missouri lived south of the Platte River and, along with the Otoe, met with the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the Council Bluff.
In 1830 the Fox Meskwaki and the Sauk, distinct Algonquian-speaking tribes that were closely related, ceded a great deal of land in Nebraska to the United States.
In the mid-nineteenth century, they ceded all of their lands in Nebraska to the United States except one reservation; in 1876 they surrendered this tract and moved to Indian Territory.
[14] Between 1857 and 1862 tribes were forced to give up, or ceded, land for sale in Nebraska in five separate treaties with the U.S. government in the years immediately leading up to the passage of the Homestead Act.
By the 1850s the Pawnee, Omaha, Oto-Missouri, Ponca, Lakota, and Cheyenne were the main Great Plains tribes living in the Nebraska Territory.
[20] Indian reservations in Nebraska currently include land of the Ioway, Santee Sioux, Omaha, Sac and Fox, Winnebago, and Ponca.
[21] The Oto, Omaha, and Ioway were forced to cede much of their land to the U.S. government in 1854, resulting in moving onto reservations in eastern Nebraska.
