Historic Omaha

transportation past along with diverse
traveling exhibits ranging from dinosaurs to
Princess Diana’s gowns and vignettes on
Douglas County history.
Following the success of the Union Pacific,
other rail lines became part of the Nebraska
scene, notably the Burlington, Northwestern,
Missouri Pacific, and Rock Island. As
telemarketers discovered a century later,
being located in the center of the nation has
its advantages. By 1870, Omaha’s population
reached nearly twenty thousand, and the
police force had gone from one officer to four.
The city also could boast of some public
transportation with the advent of the streetrailway
system in 1869. A pair of horses
pulled the small cars only a matter of a
few blocks, but some Omahans were willing
to pay the ten-cent fare, especially in
inclement weather. The street-railway system
began to run into trouble because many
investors and their friends rode free, and the
individual cars could accommodate only
seven people. To help defray costs, owners
began to accept advertising inside the cars,
renting space for about $2 a month. By 1870,
four cars pursued a zigzag route from Ninth
to Twenty-second Streets and from Jones
to Cuming.
Although the next century would witness a
racial incident considered one of Omaha’s
darkest hours, one of the city’s landmark
stands on civil rights occurred in Omaha in
1879, just nine years after the street-railway
system came into operation. This was the trial
of Standing Bear, a chief of the Ponca, a
peaceful tribe friendly to the white settlers.
Through an error in the Fort Laramie
Treaty of 1868, the Sioux were granted land
that belonged to the Ponca. The government,
compounding this error, ordered the Ponca
off their lands in northeastern Nebraska. The
ensuing forced march, in late Spring 1877,
was long, cold, and marked by many deaths.
Even after they finally reached Indian
Territory in Oklahoma, the deaths continued.
Nearly a third of the tribe perished.
Standing Bear lost a brother, a sister, two
daughters, and a son. Even when the Ponca
were moved to a site thought to be more
favorable, the deaths continued. Standing
Bear lost another son, his oldest. Just before
he died, Standing Bear’s son asked his father
to bury him in their homeland, “by the swift
running water, the Niobrara.”
Seeking to honor his son’s last wish,
Standing Bear put the body of his son in a
✧
Left: John L. Webster, a prominent Omaha
attorney who, along with Andrew J.
Poppleton, represented Standing Bear and
his Ponca tribesmen in the famous 1879
case. Their work opened the door to civil
rights for Native Americans.
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
Below: One of the most famous cases of
jurisprudence in Omaha was the 1879 trial
involving Chief Standing Bear, General
George Crook, Judge Elmer S. Dundy, and
Andrew Jackson Poppleton, and the
citizenship rights of Indians.
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
CHAPTER II
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