The Red Cloud chief., 1911-08-17
History Of the Earliest
Farming in Nebraska

The first report we have on farming
in the Nebraska country is found IN
the letter Of Francisco vasqnez Coro-
nado to the king Of Spain, dated Octo.
Der 10, i54l. In July Of that year
Coronado found the people of the pro-
vince OF Quivera raising corn, beans
and melons. How long these crops
had been grown In the plains region
Of Kansas and Nebraska can only be
conjecturcd. From the floors and fire.
places and from the concealed cellars
or caches beneath the floors of prehis-
toric homes in eastern Nebraska, ex-
plored by X. +. Glider and other Ne
braska ethnologists, have been taken
parched kernels OF corn. Five to ten
feet Of soil blown by the winds or car
ried upward by earthworms Eow cover
the floors and freplaces Of these earl.
lest Nebraska homes. A thousand
years ago is not too distant date to
give to these early corn raiscrs in the
fertile valleys of our state.
There is also little doubt that all
the crops cultivated by the Indian in
habitants of Nebraska had been de.
veloped from their wild forms in a
region far to the south and their eeed
brought to these plains by migrating
bands The common edible wild vege.
tables of this region such as the tiep-
sin or sweet wild turnip, the Indian
tribes were content to dig from the
native sod without attempt at domes-
tication. In fact, of the numerous
edi pie fruits and vegetables Of the Ne
brAska region, including the astra-
galus or buffalo pea, the wild bean,
the buffalo berry, the wild currant,
the sand cherry and others, none Of
them have been developed to any con-
siderable extent by cultivation even ut
the present time.
From the date of the Coronado en-
petition in l5il, for the following $50
years there is no further report in his
torical literature upon farming in the
Nebraska region. a dispatch from
the French governor at New Orleans
to Paris, dated April II, l7OG, states
that two Canadians had arrived there
who for two years had been going from
village to village along the Missouri
river and that they said it was the
most beautiful country in all the world
and that the savages there kept horses.
This is the first record we have of
horse raising among the western Ind.
ians, indicating that In the $50 years
which had elapsed since the first Span
iards under Coronado had reached the
plains, the descendants Of horses
brought BY the Spaniards from Europe
had reached the Missouri river and
were bred by the Indian tribes there.
The documents Of the French colonial
office for the next fifty years contain a
number of brief references to the Ne
braska country, secured from the
early adventurous fur traders who
penetrated this region and even inter
married with the women of the native
tribe, but evidently had little eye for
agriculture. The wealth of mines
along the Missouri is the burden OF
the tales Of these early travellers.
The frst authentic description we
have Of Nebraska 10 that made by the
Mallet brothers, who wintered with
the Pawnees on the Loup or Elkhorn
river In 1889, and In the spring Of l74(
named the Platte river and followed
its valley as far west az tho forks
thence crossing hwestwardly 4
Santa Fe. They accurately described
the topography. but say nothing o.
the primitive agriculture which W,
know was carried on BY the Pawnee'
in that day. 'h]
Lewis and Clark found the cultivat
cd fields of the Otoes aud Pawnee
along the Platte in the Vicinity Of Ash
land and in Dakota county, in tn
neighborhood Of Homer.
The father Of improved agricultur
I in Nebraska was Manuel Lisa, a Span
ish fur trader, who first reached Ne
braska from st. Louis In the summe
f.. OF 1907, and who was for the mex
thirteen years the leading spirit i
{ Nebraska enterprises and the ret
= ruler of this region. Lisa establishe
e a large trading post called Fort Lis
l. eight miles above Omaha on the Mi
r souri, river and numerous otherlbranc
trading posts ut other places. II
4 passion was to make money in the (,
O trade, and incident thereto to promot
O the welfare of the Indian tribes
every possible way in order to seoul
i more furs and more profits. So v
D, fnd him promoting peace between Il
% tribes, since dead Indians brought I
furs to his trading posts. The repo
ID Of his services in behalf of an improv,
to agriculture in Nebraska may best