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The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Center for Great Plains Studies and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe will receive a three-year, $1.58 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to embark on initiatives that honor past and present Indigenous peoples in Southeast Nebraska.
The state of Nebraska gets its name from the Otoe-Missourias (two Otoe-Missouria words “Ni Brathge” meaning “water flat”, according to the tribe’s website). The tribe lived in the area—along with Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas—until the U.S. government eventually pushed them off their land and first moved tribal members onto a reservation in 1854, and then later to the state of Oklahoma, where they remain today.
Planned activities for the project include a survey of area residents, an audit of current commemorations, a lecture series on decolonizing museums slated for spring 2024, and updates to commemorative signage in area parks and roadsides, among other activities.
Otoe-Missouria Chairman John Shotton called the project “very important [in] reconnecting the Otoe-Missouria Tribe with our former homelands in Nebraska,” in a statement.
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