Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation
Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation | |
---|---|
Location in Nemaha County, Nebraska | |
Coordinates: 40°14′24″N 95°34′48″W / 40.24000°N 95.58000°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Nebraska |
County | Nemaha County |
Founded | 1830 |
Disestablished | 1860 |
The Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation was established by the
Located in part of the
In 1861 the Reservation was disbanded as a legal entity. The owners of plots were never required to live on the properties they had been allotted, and many eventually sold their lands to white settlers. Some white men married native women to get control of their property. One of the original survey lines has been followed (and identified) by the Half-Breed Road, which runs in a southeast direction from here. The descendants of some of these multicultural families still live in the area.[3]
The
History
The Omaha and other tribes asked the government to set aside territory for their mixed-race descendants.
The Omaha and Osage tribal structures were divided into two moitie, representing the Earth and the Sky. Each had five
At the same time, the European-American "tribe" of the majority of the United States considered the children to be Native American, because of their mothers, although the United States society was generally patriarchal, and
The United States government selected an allotment of land along the Missouri River bluffs, an area described as "too steep and tree-covered for farming, fit only for hunting." It was described in the Treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1830, confirmed by the
The tract was located between the Little and Great Nemaha rivers (spelled Ne-me-haw on the map) in what became
Owners were never required to live on their properties, and many eventually sold their lands to non-Indian settlers. One of the original survey lines is now partly marked by the Half-Breed Road which runs in a southeast direction from the Missouri River. Some of the descendants still live in the area.[10][11]
Since the land belonged exclusively to the Otoe prior to the exchange, the government worked to secure agreement by the Omaha, Iowa, and Yankton and Santee bands of Sioux to pay the Otoe $3000 for the rights of their "half-breeds" to live on the reservation. Original plans were for land ownership to be held in common, as other American Indian land titles were held. However, legislation included a provision allowing the US President to assign individual tracts to individual owners. In 1860, thirty years after the creation of the Reservation, the government moved to allot tracts to individual households, in an effort to force assimilation to European-American practices. This was the first time in the history of American acts and treaties that American Indians were allotted land in severalty.[12]
Towns
Barada
In 1856
There is evidence the Underground Railroad ran through this tract up to John Brown's Cave, located 35 miles (56 km) north.[4]
St. Deroin
The younger Deroin operated a trading post along the river's edge starting in 1840. He was killed in 1858 in a dispute over money as white settlers moved into the area and displaced Native residents. The town became predominantly European American, with settlers moving in around Deroin's trading post. They named the town St. Deroin. Since that time, most of the town has been washed away by floods, leaving only a cemetery and the St. Deroin School on the original location.[15] Half Breed Creek, named after the tract, still flows through the area.
Other notable residents of the tract included French-Canadian fur traders who had married Native American women, such as
Closure
Because of continued individual land sales, Nebraska's Half-Breed Tract vanished as a legal entity by 1861. Today much of the former reservation land is within the boundaries of the Indian Cave State Park.
See also
References
- ^ Wishart, D.J. (2007) Encyclopedia of the Great Plains Indians. University of Nebraska Press. p 77.
- ^ Wishart, D.J. (1995) An Unspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of the Nebraska Indians. University of Nebraska Press. p 60.
- Nebraska State Historical Society. Retrieved 12/5/08.
- ^ a b c d e Sandage, S.A. (2006) "Half-Breed Creek", Brown University. Retrieved 1/28/08.
- ^ a b Melvin Randolph Gilmore, "The True Logan Fontenelle", Publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Vol. 19, edited by Albert Watkins, Nebraska State Historical Society, 1919, p. 64, at GenNet, accessed 25 August 2011
- ^ Dennis McAuliffe, Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Murder and Greed on the Osage Reservation, Times Books, 1994
- ^ Lewis, H.M. (2004) Robidoux Chronicles: Ethnohistory Of The French-American Fur Trade, Trafford Publishing, p 184.
- ^ "Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784 to 1894". A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875. Library of Congress American Memory. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
- ^ "Métis firsts", Manitoba Métis Foundation. Retrieved 8/9/08.
- ^ "Half-Breed Tract"[usurped], Nebraska State Historical Society. Retrieved 1/28/08.
- ^ Foster, L.M. (1965) "The Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation, 1830–1860", Ioway Cultural Institute. Retrieved 1/28/08.
- ^ Foster, L.M. (1999) "The Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation, 1830–1860", Ioway Cultural Institute. Retrieved 8/9/08.
- ^ a b "Barada" Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, University of Nebraska. Retrieved 1/28/08.
- ^ Farrar, J. "Indian Cave State Park" Archived 2010-03-02 at the Wayback Machine, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Retrieved 8/9/08.
- ^ "An evolving exurban landscape: Clay County, Missouri" Archived 2010-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, University of Kansas. Retrieved 8/9/08.
- ^ a b "Nebraska", Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1/28/08.
- ^ Kira Gale, "Escape from Death and a Sister’s Revenge: the Daughters of Omaha Chief Big Elk" Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, Kira Gale Blog at Lewis and Clark Travel, 13 April 2007, accessed 30 November 2011
Bibliography
- Chapman, B.B. "The Nemaha Half-Breed Tract", The Otoes and the Missiourias. Chapter 5.
- Barkwell, Lawrence. "Great Nemaha Half Breed Tract", Louis Riel Institute.
- Barkwell, Lawrence. "The People of the Métis Nation: D-G/History through Biography Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine, page 10.