A sign for Half Breed Drive in Nebraska. Photo by LewisNClark / ADVrider
A road in Nebraska speaks to a seemingly forgotten piece of history -- the creation and dissolution of the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation. The 138,000-acre reservation was set aside by the 1830 Treaty of Prairie du Chien. It was designated for mixed-blood descendants of European men who married Indian women from the Otoe, Iowa, Omaha, Yankton Sioux and Santee Sioux tribes. The reservation didn't last very long and Congress soon opened the lands to allotment. But there's one reminder -- Half Breed Drive traces the western boundary of the reservation and still sparks controversy.
A marker explains the history of the Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation in Nebraska. Photo by LewisNClark / ADVrider
“I hate that word,” Victoria Hoff, an area resident, told The Lincoln Journal Star. “I’d rather anybody call me anything else, other than that.” Hoff, who has Blackfeet heritage, tried to get the name of the road changed in 2011. But she ran into numerous obstacles so she dropped the effort. “They couldn’t have cared less. I knew they weren’t going to do anything," Hoff told the paper, referring to officials in Nemaha County. Get the Story:
History and hurt on Half Breed Drive (The Lincoln Journal Star 2/15)
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