The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1854-05-04
Life I'm Nebraska.

the people are talking of Nebraska, it may
be interesting for our readers to accompa-
ny US to the territory itself, and see where
and what it is, who inhabit, or life in Ne
braska.
In visiting this unorganized territory,
upon which there is now so much dispute,
We must first go by any route we chose
to the city of st. Louis. Here will take
a steamboat and float for hundreds of
miles to the mouth of the Kansas river.
We land here. and are in the region call
ed Nebraska. If we were pleased to take
another steamboat, we could so up the
Kansas river, or nearly west, towards the
interior
But let us prefer rather to continue our
voyage up the Missouri, still by steam
boat, for some hundreds of miles. We
are now at the mouth of Platte river, or
the Nebraska, which means, "Shallow
Bottom" 1t is rightly named, for though
it is from one to three miles wide, it is
generally very shallow, and steamboats,
pass up its waters for only forty miles
By this river Col. Fremont passed much
of the way, on his route to california and
Oregon in 1912. In his journals of his
two expeditions, there, is, probably, more
information on Nebraska than can be OBJ
tanned from all other books.
We find Nebraska to be vast region.
By the late census it isestimated at 1885,
700 square miles, or region as large as
\. England, N.York, New Jersey, Della
ware and Maryland, and even larger. If
organized as proposed by the bill of Mr..
Douglas, now pending in Congress, it will
be larger still, as it will embrace much of
what has been known as the Indian Ter
ritory.
We find the Northern part of Ncbras-
ka as cold as New England; the interior
as cold as the climate ofthe middle States,
and southern portion with something of
the mildness of virginia There is, how
ever, this difference; Nebraska is more
Asiatic in It's climate and general features.
There are vast prairies, high table lands
thousands of miles above the level of the
sea. rivers of almost interminiable length.
On the west it is bounded by the Rocky
Mountains, whose highest peaks are COW
cred with perpetual snow. A large por-
ton of the great American desert is in
this territory; here many an emigrant
bound for California has lain down to die;
worn out with fatigue and hunger. The
soil of Nebraska is mostly fertile, the ge-
illogical formation being that of limestone
and sand stone, which always indicates
good soil, 1t must, in the future, become
a fine farming region. Already many
young farmers of our country have their
eyes apon it, and will be beending thith-
er their steps as soon as Senator Doug
lass bill, or any other passes, organizing
the territories.
But who inhabit Nebraska? Indians and
hardly any but Indians. tits their grandest
hunting ground, and it is supposed that
from IS, 900 to $4,000, or about one
sixth part of all the Indians that yet re-
main Ia the United States, roam over its
prairies and table lands, pass their ca
noes over its water, pursue game by rlv-
ers, and over mountains, and wage war
one upon another. Here are Christian
Indians, so called, such as the Della wares,
Stock bridges, ect.; here are the wild and
warlike Sioux, and Cheyenne Indians that
delight in scenes of blood; here roam the
Mandans, the Grows and Blackfoots, the
Assinibones, the Aricares, the Gros Ven
tres, and the Mandans. Our civilization
has driven them beyond the Mississippi,
and soon another wave of civilization will
push them westward, where it is expected
that they will be fitted to become part
of the body polite, and to be duly repre-
sented in Congress.
Hunting the buffalo is the great pur-
suit of the wild Indians of Nebraska, and
their greatest source of profit. Their
skins they sell to the furtraders; but, alas
the bufaloes are becoming scarce under
the influence of the many rifles that are
aimed at them. What will they do when
they are gone! They must become civil
ized and till the soil, as the Christian In
dians now do, and with considerable sue
cess, as will be seen from the following
statistics:
These Indians, less than 5000 IN num-
Der, that live under the Fort Leavenworth
agency north and south of the Kansas river,
cultiyate moro than 1000 acres. From
these acres they raised in single year,
so bushels of corn, $500 of wheat. I2.-
600 of oats, and 2,OOO,0 900 melons of all
kinds. They have large numbers of bor-
scs and oxen, and live like happy and in
dependent farmers.
OF whites, permanently living in Ne