/r/NebraskaHistory

Photograph via snooOG

I feel like a lot of the bigger historical places/websites/pages/instagrams rehash the same history year after year - which is boring.

Trying to delve into the forgotten nooks & cranies of our history.

Nebraska History Past & Present

/r/NebraskaHistory

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8

Book launch for new book on Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Nebraska primary

The book launch for this new book on Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Nebraska primary is scheduled for December 18 at 5:30 PM at Francie and Finch at 130 South 13th in Lincoln. You don’t want to miss it since this book has broken new ground on Kennedy and the Nebraska campaign. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!The Nebraska Democratic primary mattered in 1968. Because only fifteen states held primaries, Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy made the state a high priority.

https://www.denniscrawford.org/

3 Comments
2024/11/22
17:33 UTC

4

George Flippin

2 Comments
2024/11/20
21:52 UTC

5

Mug?

Has anyone seen this mug before? Curious when it was made because its in such great condition, but I can't find any evidence of the Dorsey logo ever looking like this

2 Comments
2024/11/16
21:34 UTC

5

New book on the Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 Nebraska campaign

We believe that this fills in a real void in the history of Robert Kennedy’s campaign for president. There are no books on the 1968 Nebraska primary and the Husker state is largely neglected in the histories of Kennedy’s campaign and the 1968 presidential campaign in general.

This book will further burnish Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy and place in history. Nebraska brought out the best in Kennedy and he brought out the best in Nebraska. 

https://goosecreekpress.com/products/robert-f-kennedy-the-road-not-taken

3 Comments
2024/11/05
15:24 UTC

30

Omaha Band Lavender Couch promoting National Coming Out Day(Oct.11) at Civic Auditorium, October 1994

7 Comments
2024/10/10
14:18 UTC

7

Various Topics, as written by Mrs. A. F. Ingraham, The Omaha Daily News, January 29, 1920

Wish I knew the context, a WTF did I just read of the 1920s

2 Comments
2024/09/17
15:32 UTC

24

These men were well known for putting together skits in Sherman County, their names have been lost to time, 1940s?

4 Comments
2024/09/10
16:31 UTC

27

"Big Red fever breaks out at special events events in Lincoln"

2 Comments
2024/09/09
12:29 UTC

7

ISO: Images of 1970s Era Nebraska Drivers License

Hi there! I'm doing a research project on Nebraska in the 1970s and am looking for an Image of a Nebraska Drivers License from any time in the 70s. I've tried the library and the historical society with no luck. Thanks in advance Nebraskans!

2 Comments
2024/08/14
14:59 UTC

1

Air base housing.

0 Comments
2024/07/30
05:57 UTC

0

What is the history of Lincoln’s motels?

0 Comments
2024/07/30
02:31 UTC

2

What is the history of Lincoln’s motels?

0 Comments
2024/07/28
02:08 UTC

0

What Stevie Wonder records are at Lincoln Vintage Vinyl in Lincoln, Nebraska?

1 Comment
2024/07/27
18:13 UTC

16

Nebraska's Ancient Towns: Indian Caves State Park and our Métis Founding Fathers

Although the story is on full display at the historical sections of Indian Caves State Park, few people know the details. In many ways, the story of the forgotten town of Deroin, Nebraska is the story of our state. Exploring how this community, and other early Nebraska towns evolved in the nineteenth century reveals fascinating themes in the history the American West. Indian Caves State Park is an archetype of an ancient Nebraska town, and it has more in common with our modern cities than you might think.

https://preview.redd.it/wjmxezysrqed1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cf91d160ffa146c9f669d5ba6084748606803c2c

There are many seemingly mysterious things about Indian Caves; from the "Half-breed Cemetery" full of simple wooden crosses, to the ignominious death of the town's founder in a drunken fight, and the town's destruction by the encroaching river... the park has its fair share of stories. Thanks to the park's name and the now-defaced petroglyphs, the public can probably guess that Indian Caves is associated with the Native Americans of southeastern Nebraska. The location was actually a major village in the ancestral homelands of the Otoe-Missouria. Their neighbors included the Iowa, Omaha-Ponca, Pawnee, and native visitors from across the plains and greater North America. Relations between natives and whites in 1800s Nebraska were characterized by military and removal policy by the United States Government, but also by alliances, treaties, reservations, allotments, and above all, trade.

https://preview.redd.it/biclldb0sqed1.jpg?width=843&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d39cb4ac6f1953a196014ea48ad1d1ccc824499

One critical theme to understand about this history involves kinship alliances based on marriage. In very general terms, colonial agents and white merchants tended to forge familial relationships with indigenous communities through marriage. Scholars of the American West like Juliane Barr have compared the approaches of colonial powers in establishing their respective fur trade networks. They have concluded that the French, despite their lack of administration or infrastructure, had the most extensive fur trade network. This is certainly the result of alliances formed through marriage.

In fact, French-Indigenous people are among the largest native heritages in North America, spanning many different linguistic, national and tribal identities. The emergence of European-Indigenous communities (The Métis) is correlated to the fur trade that dominated North American commerce until the mid nineteenth century. This correlation is largely due to marriages. Marriages represented economic alliances between individuals, and by proxy, the communities they represented. Alliances and familial ties based on marriage were important for native communities to express agency in international relations. Marriage was also an important way for fur traders (usually French speaking ones) to establish networks in native lands.

Of course, this is a broad generalization with many exceptions, but it was true in the Missouri River basin and many other parts of the American West. Manuel Lisa for instance, is said to be the first American to set up a trade post in Nebraska. Lisa was born in New Orleans to Spanish and French merchants. He became an American after the Louisiana Purchase, and his outfit, the Missouri Fur Company, was given permission by Lewis and Clarke to open Nebraska to US markets.

Lisa established a fort near the Missouri River in 1813, gaining the blessing of the local Omaha people, who had a village close by in what is now known as Ponca Hills. He gained this blessing because his wife, Mitane, was one of their own. She was actually a noblewoman, a daughter of the First Family of the Omaha. Her father was Otopanga (Big Elk), Head Chief of the Omaha. Other traders that established ties with Big Elk's family included Lucien Fontanelle and Joseph LaFlesche Sr.

The children of these white traders and Omaha women would go on to be some of the most influential people in the early history of the state. Indeed, they are a link between the modern communities of eastern Nebraska and their ancient past. The genealogy of Joseph Deroin, "founder" of the abandoned town that is now Indian Caves, is not as clear. His father was Amable Deroin, brother of Francois Deroin, who was head of the American Fur Company operation in Bellevue. Amable married Joseph's mother, an Omaha woman named Mika'ahume, though some sources name her as one of Joseph's wives. The records on all of the men's spouses are incomplete.

https://preview.redd.it/v6qe6s3dsqed1.jpg?width=339&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b8c71390d2f56653f162796c9a78c9af6fb5d82

What is clear is that the descendants of Amable and Francois Deroin, especially Joseph, are wedged between the Indigenous and US history of the Missouri River basin. This is the same kind of story we saw in the Omaha and Bellevue area. Though Mika'ahume's genealogy is not widely available, we can assume the native women who married the Deroin brothers were part of a relatively important paternal line. Joseph Deroin left home around 1836 when he was 17, and followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle. He married an Omaha woman, and two Metis women of Iowa or Otoe heritage named Julis and Susee Baskette. Six years earlier, in 1830, a treaty between the US and plains Peoples established the Great Nemaha Half-breed Reservation in today's Nemaha county, Nebraska. Joseph Deroin aqcuired two allotments, including the Otoe village where he lived. By the 1850s, this place was being called Deroin.

In 1858, Joseph Deroin was killed by a man named James Beddow after approaching Beddow's home armed, drunk, and with a posse of men. His community lived on after him. The town's inhabitants later renamed the town "St. Deroin" in order to associate it with St. Louis and encourage trade. Its water-side position on the Missouri River made it a popular stop for steamboats, but repeated floods and shifting from the river gradually doomed it. A disasterous flood in 1911 marked the end of an ancient legacy of permanent settlement, and the town was abandoned by 1920.

https://preview.redd.it/xaey9wissqed1.jpg?width=1333&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b9fcced7055d890bfac6ea90360f653135cee2e

With this context in mind, we can see why a seemingly forgotten cemetery on a foot trail in Indian Caves State Park might be called "Half-breed Cemetery", since everybody in this town identified as "Half-breeds". A few memorials remain at the cemetery, but the full story might be found in the tribal history of the Otoe-Missouria. The St. Deroin Cemetery on the main park road is much larger, and is the resting place of many original inhabitants of the town, only a handful of whom lived beyond their thirties. Joseph Deroin was buried here, upright, and astride his horse like a warrior.

1 Comment
2024/07/26
00:07 UTC

12

Hanged Grandfather Innocent, William Jackson “Jack” Marion, Beatrice, The Grand Island Independent, July 27th, 1986

2 Comments
2024/07/23
02:38 UTC

6

What kind of cars did people living on Sheridan Boulevard in Lincoln, Nebraska own back in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s own?

2 Comments
2024/07/22
21:00 UTC

10

I've recently discovered that I'm a direct descendant of H. P. Lau Sr. who founded H. P. Lau Co. Would anyone here know much about this company? It was a wholesale grocer.

I'm from California and have never been to Nebraska. My grandfather estranged himself from the Laus, moved to California, and never talked about them much again. But I've done my DNA on Ancestry, and my family tree and H. P. Lau Sr. was my third great-grandfather.

I was wondering if anyone here might know more about H.P. Lau Co.? Or if you have any suggestions for researching Lincoln, Nebraska history?

5 Comments
2024/07/16
17:02 UTC

38

Omaha Pride Parade UNO Students from the Gay and Lesbian Organization (GALO) Marching

6 Comments
2024/07/10
15:08 UTC

18

Libbie Piatt’s Brave Act, for neighbor, G. W. Messenger, Hay Springs, Omaha World-Herald, April 3, 1893

3 Comments
2024/07/05
21:26 UTC

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