INJUNS

   In the years immediately leading up to the passage of the Homestead Act, there were five separate treaties in which Native American tribes gave up (or “ceded”) land in Nebraska to the U.S. government. In 1854, the Omaha tribe gave up part of their traditional lands in the first of five separate treaties. The Oto and Missouri tribes negotiated the last of four treaties that same year. The Pawnee, Arapaho and Cheyenne all signed treaties in this short span of time. Actually, these treaties were a part of a much larger pattern of land transfers that set the stage for an explosion of European settlement. In all, there were 18 separate treaties between 1825 and 1892 in Nebraska alone.   First, there is the story of how native people met the challenges of living on this plains landscape. And second, there is the story of conflict as more and more people tried to live on the same land.
    By 1850, the tribes had seen increasing traffic moving through along the Platte River. The Homestead Act meant that large numbers of immigrants were now going to STAY.

   When homesteaders arrived on the Great Plains, they found a challenging environment where survival was the goal. The native tribal people had been meeting these same challenges for thousands of years and had evolved complex economic, agricultural and cultural methods of coping. What was life like for the Native Americans in the mid- to late-1800s on the Great Plains?

   By the mid-1800s, the Pawnee, Omaha, Oto-Missouria, Ponca, Lakota (Sioux), and Cheyenne were the main plains tribes living in the Nebraska Territory. Each tribe faced the challenges of the plains in slightly different ways. Some tribes had settled into their own villages with earth lodges for shelter. These tribes were primarily engaged in farming, with seasonal buffalo hunts to supplement their diets. Other tribes were much more nomadic, especially after they got horses. They lived in the 1850s equivalent of mobile homes — tepees. These tribes were hunters.
   The Pawnee were the most populous tribe in Nebraska and lived in the area longer than any other group. The earliest known villages of the Pawnee consisted of circular earth lodges located along the lower Loup River where most of the tribe continued to live even after contact with Euroamericans. There were also villages along the central Platte and Republican rivers.
    The Pawnee were divided into four autonomous bands, Skidi, Republican, Tappage, and Grand. The Skidi always had their own village. The other bands lived separately or joined together for added protection or as a result of shifts in political alliances. It was estimated there were ten to twelve thousand Pawnee in the early 1800s. They spoke a Caddo language, which is very different than the language of other Nebraska tribes.
   Because of their numbers, the Pawnee had little to fear from their enemies, but in the early 1800s their fortunes began to change. Smallpox and other diseases for which they had no immunity reduced their numbers by half. By the 1830s, villages on the Loup River were being raided by the nomadic and better-armed Lakota (Sioux). In the 1850s the Pawnee moved eastward along the Platte River to avoid the attacks, and this put them in contact with the new immigrants.