William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) was born in Illinois in 1860. His father, Silas L. Bryan, was a prominent and respected lawyer, who represented his district for eight years in the Illinois State Senate.
Willa Cather
Wilella “Willa” Sibert Cather (1873-1947) was born in 1873 in the Back Creek Valley of Virginia. She was the oldest of seven children–four boys and three girls. She was taught at home and given classical authors to read.
University of Nebraska
The Morrill Act, also known as the Land Grant Act, was signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862. This act, named after its sponsor, Vermont congressman Justin Smith Morrill, gave each state thirty-thousand acres of public land for each Senator and Representative it had in congress. These numbers were based on the census of 1860.
The Chief Standing Bear Trail
The development and designation of the Chief Standing Bear Trail was one more important step in the ongoing goal to educate the public about Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca tribe’s forced relocation to Oklahoma.
Chief Standing Bear
Standing Bear, Ma-chu-nah-zha in the language of his people, was born in 1829 in the valley near the confluence of the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers. He inherited the role of clan chief from his father. The Bear clan, one of nine bands of the Ponca led by head chief, White Eagle, oversaw the social life of the tribe, as well as ceremonies and rituals. He was known for his strength of character and his eloquent speaking abilities.
Chief Red Cloud
Oglala Sioux Chief Red Cloud (1821 – 1909) ranks historically in the top tier among the greatest Native American leaders. He was a courageous warrior, supreme military strategist, eloquent spokesman, and masterful statesmen in protecting his peoples’ rights and homelands.
Santee Sioux
The Santee Sioux originally lived in the north central region of Minnesota. They were called the “frontier guardians of the Sioux domain”, which spread from the Santee homeland in Minnesota westward across the plains to the northern Rocky Mountains in Montana and southward through northwest Nebraska.
Nebraska Sandhills
The Nebraska Sandhills region is the largest sand dune formation in the Western Hemisphere, spanning over one-fourth the total land area of Nebraska. Formed after the last Ice Age when winds blew the loose sand deposited by retreating glaciers, the Sandhills were shaped into dunes as high as four hundred feet and stretching over twenty miles across the landscape.