Indigenous Peoples of Nebraska

The name Nebraska comes from an Oto Indian word meaning "flat water".

Tribes and Bands of Nebraska
The following list of tribes is compiled from:


 * Hodge, Frederick Webb. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin # 30 1907.
 * Swanton, John W. The Indian tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin #45.

Many of these tribes or bands lived in or had only minimal association with the area now known as Nebraska. Some of them are only mentioned in treaties as parties to the cession of land in Iowa to the federal government.

Arapaho, Arikara, Cheyenne, Comanche, Dakota, Flaudreau, Sioux, Fox, Iowa, Kansa or Kaw, Kansas, Kiowa, Oneida, Missouri, Omaha, Oto, Pawnee, Ponca, Santee-Sioux, Sac (also spelled Sauk), Sioux, Stockbridge-Munsee, Tonkawa, Winnebago

Reservations
As identified in the National Atlas of the United States of America, the following reservation names in bold are current federally-recognized reservations:

Iowa Reservation

Omaha Reservation (Federal, under jurisdiction of Winnebago Agency, Tribe: Omaha)

Ponca Reservation

Sac and Fox Reservation

Santee Sioux Reservation (Federal, under jurisdiction of Winnebago Agency, Tribe: Santee Sioux)

Winnebago Reservation is a federal reservation, under the jurisdiction of the Winnebago Agency. The primary tribe is the Winnebago. The reservation is mostly located in Thurston County, Nebraska, with a small segment in Woodbury County, Iowa, just east of the Missouri River.

Agencies
Pawnee Agency

Ponca Agency

Red Cloud Agency 1873-77

Rosebud Agency 1878

Santee Agency

Santee Sioux Agency

Spotted Tail Agency 1874

Winnebago Agency, Winnebago, NE 68071

Yankton Agency

Half-Breed Tract
In the early 1800s, a tract of land was set aside by the federal government in Nebraska for the descendants of French fur trappers and other Europeans who had inter-married with Native Americans. These individuals were called "half-breeds." Thus the tract of land came to be known as the "Half-Breed Tract." Similar tracts were established in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Another similar tract was reserved in Nemaha County for "half-breeds" of the Oto, Omaha, and Iowa Tribes and for the Yankton and Santee Bands of the Sioux Tribe. The tract was on land belonging to the Otoes and the other tribes paid them for the right to give their descendants land there.

Records
Records of the Indian Tribes of Nebraska may be found in the National Archives or in the Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Kansas City, Missouri.

Family History Library
Many Indian records have been microfilmed and copies are housed at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. To find American Indian records in the Family History Library Catalog look in the Subject Search under the name of the tribe, such as:

OMAHA INDIANS

WINNEBAGO INDIANS

You can also look in the Locality Search under:

NEBRASKA - NATIVE RACES

NEBRASKA, [COUNTY]- NATIVE RACES

To see a partial list of records the Family History Library has about Indians in Nebraska, click here.

See Also:
Nebraska History for calendar of events

Nebraska Military for a list of forts