Nebraska

Various groups of people lived in what is now Nebraska as early as about 8000 BCE.⁠[1]

In the 19th century semisedentary Native peoples, chiefly the Omaha, Oto, Pawnee, and Ponca, lived in eastern and central Nebraska, while the Brulé and Oglala Teton Sioux held the west; the Arapaho, Comanche, and Cheyenne also used the area at times.⁠[1]

At the end of the 1600s both France and Spain claimed the area. In 1763 Spain gained title to the trans-MississippiMississippiMississippi is a state of the United States on the Gulf of Mexico; Jackson is both its capital and its largest city. It was admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817, as the 20th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,961,279.Open the full entry region, including Nebraska, but its efforts to develop trade with Native peoples on the upper Missouri had little success; in 1800 the region reverted to France.⁠[1]

In 1803 the United States acquired the region from France. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition visited the Nebraska side of the Missouri River and carried out the first systematic exploration of the area. A vigorous fur trade then developed along the Missouri, with Nebraska serving mainly as a route to richer trapping grounds to the north and west.⁠[1]

In the 1840s the Platte valley became a major route as thousands of settlers travelled west to OregonOregonOregon (officially the State of Oregon) is a state on the Pacific coast of the western United States; its capital is Salem and its largest city is Portland. It was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1859, as the 33rd state. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 4,237,256.Open the full entry, California, and UtahUtahUtah is a U.S. state bordered by Idaho to the north, Wyoming to the northeast, Colorado to the east, Arizona to the south and Nevada to the west, with its capital at Salt Lake City. It was admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896, as the 45th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 3,271,616 residents.Open the full entry along the path opened by the fur trade; the valley also drew interest as a possible railroad route to the Pacific.⁠[1]

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas and Nebraska territories and repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820’s ban on slavery north of latitude 36°30′, leaving the question of slavery to the territories’ residents under popular sovereignty. The act also set the boundary between present-day Nebraska and Kansas.⁠[1][2][3]

The original Nebraska Territory covered 351,558 square miles (910,531 sq km). The territorial capital was placed at Omaha, which angered residents south of the Platte, some of whom sought annexation to Kansas. Omaha was founded the same year and incorporated as a city in 1857.⁠[1][4]

The early Missouri River settlements relied largely on land speculation; the Panic of 1857 drove many residents into farming, which soon prospered, while river towns became transfer points for freight and passengers. The same year land was surveyed into townships of about 6 square miles, each divided into 36 sections of 640 acres.⁠[1][5]

With the creation of the Colorado, Dakota, and IdahoIdahoIdaho is a state in the northwestern United States, often classed as a Mountain state and also considered part of the Pacific Northwest; its capital and largest city is Boise. It was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,839,106.Open the full entry territories (the last including present-day MontanaMontanaMontana is a state in the northwestern United States, with the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Great Plains in the east; its capital is Helena and its largest city is Billings. Montana became the 41st U.S. state on November 8, 1889, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 1,084,225 residents.Open the full entry and Wyoming), Nebraska had been reduced to nearly its present size by 1863.⁠[1]

The Homestead Act of 1862 took effect on January 1, 1863, allowing claims of 160 acres, a quarter of a square mile. Legend holds that Daniel Freeman filed his claim ten minutes after midnight that day at the land office in Brownville; his claim site is now part of Homestead National Historical Park at Beatrice.⁠[6][7]

The Homestead Act distributed more than 270 million acres in 30 states before being repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. On March 19, 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation creating Homestead National Historical Park.⁠[7]

The same year Omaha became the starting point of the Union Pacific RailroadUnion PacificUnion Pacific Corporation is an Omaha-based U.S. railroad holding company whose Union Pacific Railroad runs freight trains in 23 western states. In 2025 it agreed to merge with Norfolk Southern.Open the full entry’s first transcontinental line.⁠[4]

The Nebraska constitution submitted to Congress in 1866 restricted voting to white males. Congress passed a statehood bill with conditions attached; President Andrew Johnson vetoed it and Congress overrode the veto. Governor Alvin Saunders then called the legislature into special session, which met for one day and adjourned the next after accepting Congress’s conditions, including removal of the white-male voting restriction.⁠[2]

Andrew Johnson reluctantly signed the proclamation declaring Nebraska a state. Nebraska is the only state admitted to the Union through the override of a presidential veto.⁠[2]

The same year the capital moved to Lincoln, south of the Platte, angering leaders north of the river and in Omaha. Lincoln and Omaha grew into major regional centres, while western Nebraskans often looked toward Denver, Colorado.⁠[1]

After statehood the population grew from about 120,000 to more than 1,000,000 by 1890 despite an economic depression and a grasshopper plague, and settlement spread into the panhandle. In the 1880s Omaha became an industrial and meatpacking centre, while Lincoln grew as the capital and home of the University of Nebraska.⁠[1]

The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869, followed by further railroad construction, spurred the state’s development.⁠[1]

On February 15, 1869, Nebraska lawmakers took about a day to establish a new land-grant university, the University of Nebraska; land-grant institutions stemmed from the Morrill Act of 1862, which gave federal land to states that established new colleges. Classes did not begin until 1871.⁠[8]

A new constitution proposed in 1871 was rejected by voters, 7,986 to 8,627. In 1875 a 69-member convention met in Lincoln on May 11 and adjourned on June 12; the new constitution was adopted on October 12, 1875, by a vote of 30,332 to 5,474.⁠[9]

In 1872 Nebraska, at the urging of politician J. Sterling Morton, became the first state to celebrate Arbor Day; the federal Timber Culture Act followed in 1873. Tree planting on the treeless plains later produced the Nebraska National Forest in the west-central part of the state.⁠[3][10]

In the 1870s the Oto, Pawnee, and Ponca, who had been assigned reservations in Nebraska, were removed to Indian Territory (now OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a U.S. state whose capital is Oklahoma City. It was admitted to the Union on November 16, 1907, as the 46th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,959,353.Open the full entry). The federal government decided in 1877 to remove the Ponca, who reached Indian Territory in the summer of 1878. In 1878 several bands of the Teton Sioux (Lakota) were relocated from northwestern Nebraska to reservations just across the border in Dakota Territory (now South Dakota).⁠[1][11]

In late December 1878 the 16-year-old son of the Ponca leader Standing Bear died; in early January 1879 Standing Bear set out for the Ponca homeland and reached the Omaha reservation about two months later, after which the Army arrested him and his followers and took them to Fort Omaha. The case opened on May 1, 1879, in the U.S. District Court at Omaha; on May 12 Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled in Standing Bear’s favour, holding that he and his band were “persons” under the law. Standing Bear died in 1908 and was buried in the Ponca homeland.⁠[11]

In the 1890s farmers facing low crop prices, high transportation costs, and depression supported the People’s Party (Populists). The movement was short-lived but energized state politics; its champion, William Jennings Bryan, became a national figure and a three-time presidential candidate.⁠[1]

In 1898 Omaha hosted the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, intended to revive the economy after the panic of the 1890s; it drew more than two million visitors over four months. Prosperity returned by 1900 and lasted about two decades.⁠[1]

A constitutional convention sat from December 2, 1919, to March 25, 1920, and submitted 41 amendments to the people, all of which were adopted at a special election on September 21, 1920. The current state constitution remains the Constitution of 1875 as amended.⁠[9]

A farm depression in the 1920s contributed to the failure of about two-fifths of the state-chartered banks from 1921 through 1930. The Great Depression worsened the economy and required large-scale federal aid, and several southwestern counties were struck by the Dust Bowl.⁠[1]

In 1933 the legislature authorized public power and irrigation districts, and U.S. Senator George W. Norris helped secure federal loans for hydroelectric and irrigation projects in the Platte and Loup valleys. Public agencies later bought out the private power companies outside Omaha; in 1946 the Omaha Public Power District acquired the local private company, making Nebraska the first state with entirely public ownership of electric generation and distribution.⁠[1]

George Norris campaigned across the state for a single-house legislature, calling the two-house system outdated, inefficient, and unnecessary. In 1934 voters approved the unicameral amendment by 286,086 votes to 193,152; the amendment also made legislative elections nonpartisan.⁠[12]

The first unicameral session began in 1937; it lasted 98 days, passed 214 bills, and cost $103,445, compared with 110 days, 192 bills, and $202,593 for the last bicameral session in 1935. Membership fell from 133 to 43, and the number of committees from 61 to 18. Nebraska remains the only state with a unicameral legislature.⁠[12]

World War II brought recovery, and a plant at Fort Crook, south of Omaha, became a large aircraft factory. In 1948 the base was renamed Offutt Air Force Base and became headquarters of the Strategic Air Command, spurring growth in greater Omaha.⁠[1]

On April 26, 2021, the Census Bureau delivered the 2020 census apportionment results to the President. Nebraska received 3 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, unchanged from before, with an average of 654,444 people per seat; on that basis the state has 5 electoral votes in the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.⁠[13][14][15]

The state legislature is the Nebraska Legislature, a unicameral body (the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature) of 49 members serving four-year terms; sessions last 90 legislative days in odd-numbered years and 60 in even-numbered years. Legislative ballots carry no party labels, and the top two primary finishers advance to the general election.⁠[16][17][12]

As of November 2026 the governor is Jim PillenJim PillenJim Pillen is an American Republican politician, veterinarian and agricultural businessman who founded Pillen Family Farms and has served as governor of Nebraska since January 2023. He was re-elected in November 2026.Open the full entry, sworn in on January 5, 2023, as the state’s 41st governor. He grew up on a farm in Platte County, earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Kansas State University, and founded Pillen Family Farms in 1993.⁠[18]

Under Article V, Section 2 of the state constitution, the Nebraska Supreme Court consists of seven judges, one of whom is the chief justice.⁠[19]

The state’s executive-branch page lists the other elected officers as Lieutenant Governor Joe Kelly, Secretary of State Robert Evnen, State Treasurer Joey Spellerberg, Attorney General Mike Hilgers, and Auditor of Public Accounts Mike Foley.⁠[20]

In the Census Bureau’s 2010 state area measurements, Nebraska has a total area of 77,348 square miles (200,330 sq km), of which 76,824 square miles (198,974 sq km) is land and 524 square miles (1,356 sq km) is water, all of it inland water.⁠[21]

The eastern third of the state lies in the till plains of the Central Lowland and the rest in the Great Plains; the Sand Hills cover nearly a quarter of the state in the north-central and northwest. Elevation rises from 840 feet (256 m) in the southeast to a high point of 5,426 feet (1,654 m) near the Colorado and Wyoming borders.⁠[3]

The state lies within the Missouri River drainage system; its chief tributary, the Platte, joins the Missouri south of Omaha and is vital for irrigation, and the Niobrara flows across the far north. The Ogallala Aquifer underlies most of the state and has made extensive well irrigation possible.⁠[3]

Summer temperatures often reach the 90s °F (about 32 °C) and sometimes exceed 100 °F (38 °C). Annual precipitation ranges from over 30 inches (750 mm) in the southeast to under 16 inches (400 mm) in the far west, and about half the state is semiarid; the growing season is about 170 days in the southeast and 130 days in the panhandle.⁠[3]

The Census Bureau estimated the population at 2,018,006 on July 1, 2025, up 2.9% from the April 1, 2020, estimates base of 1,961,980. Population density in 2020 was 25.5 people per square mile. In 2020–2024 there were 797,847 households, 34.6% of people aged 25 and over held a bachelor’s degree or higher, and median household income was $76,475 (in 2024 dollars).⁠[22]

Omaha had a population of 486,051 in 2020.⁠[4]

In the early 21st century Native Americans made up about 1% of the population, about a third of them living in Omaha and Lincoln; the Omaha, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), and Santee Sioux reservations lie in the northeast, and the Iowa and the Sauk and Fox have reservations in the far southeast.⁠[5]

Germans were the largest immigrant group, numbering 72,000 in 1890; others included Scandinavians (especially Swedes), Bohemians, people from the British Isles, and German-Russians. By 1900 Omaha had more than 3,400 African American residents, and the first African American legislator served in 1892. Late 20th-century immigrants were mostly Hispanics, largely from Mexico, and Asians from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam; together they made up about a tenth of the population in the early 21st century.⁠[5]

Nebraska’s nominal GDP in 2025 was $206,616.2 million (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data).⁠[23]

Services, manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture are the main sources of income, and agriculture employs about a tenth of the labour force. The number of farms fell from about 135,000 in 1934 to 82,000 in 1965 and fewer than 50,000 in the early 21st century, while average farm size rose from 588 acres in 1965 to 930 acres in 2002. Corn is the leading cash crop, with sorghum, soybeans, hay, wheat, and dry beans also important; the state is the top producer of alfalfa and Great Northern beans and ranks among the leading states in cattle slaughtered and is a major pork producer. Centre-pivot irrigation systems introduced in the 1970s brought previously unirrigable land into cultivation.⁠[5]

The state Department of Economic Development was established in 1967, and a 1987 state law provided tax incentives for business and industry.⁠[5]

The name comes from an Oto word meaning “Flat Water,” referring to the Platte River.⁠[3]

In 1895 the legislature made “Tree Planters’ State” the state’s official name; in 1945 it changed this to “Cornhusker State,” repealing the 1895 act. Nebraska is also known as the “Beef State.”⁠[10][3]

The state seal was provided for by the first constitution of 1866 and adopted by the 1867 legislature with the approval of Governor David Butler; it reads “Great Seal of the State of Nebraska, March 1st, 1867.” The state motto, “Equality Before the Law,” appears at the top, and the design shows a steamboat on the Missouri River, a blacksmith with hammer and anvil, a settler’s cabin, sheaves of wheat, growing corn, and a train heading toward the Rocky Mountains.⁠[24][10]

The flag bill was introduced in 1925 by Representative J. Lloyd McMaster of Lancaster County, passed the House 92 to 4 and the Senate unanimously, and was approved by Governor Adam McMullen on April 2, 1925; the law designated a state banner showing the state seal in gold and silver centred on a field of national blue. It was first displayed on January 1, 1926, at a New Year’s celebration at the Nebraska State Capitol.⁠[24][25]

The state bird is the western meadowlark (1929), the state flower the goldenrod (1895), the state tree the cottonwood (1972), and the state song “Beautiful Nebraska” (LB 535, signed by Governor Norbert Tiemann on June 21, 1967). March 1 is observed as State Day.⁠[25][10]

Nebraska.gov: Official website: https://www.nebraska.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]

Office of Governor Jim Pillen: Official website: https://governor.nebraska.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[26]

Nebraska Legislature: Official website: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[17]