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Landmark Sites

The following Landmark Sites will be visited during the workshops:

Pawnee Indian Village, Republic County, Kansas

Richard Gould, caretaker of the Pawnee Indian Museum, will be our host as we see the excavated floor of a large Pawnee earth lodge, a Pawnee sacred bundle, and other Pawnee artifacts. Copies of several George Catlin paintings are on display, and we will see a movie about Catlin’s Native American art. We will hear the voice of a Pawnee elder as she describes the Pawnee culture. Outside the museum we will view many more earth lodge archaeological sites and see first hand the size of this large village. Our guide will be archaeologist Dr. Donna Roper from Kansas State University.

Nance County, Nebraska

Genoa U.S. Indian School

We will visit our next landmarks as we travel to Nance County, Nebraska. The Genoa U.S. Indian School was established by the U.S. government in 1884. This Indian School, the fourth established in the U.S., was one of the largest, and was in operation until 1934. Following a tour of the school, Ponca tribe of Nebraska member Judi gaiashkibos, Executive Director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs,will be our speaker. Her mother, a member of the Ponca tribe, was a student at the school. She will cite detailed accounts of her mother’s experience of being separated from family and placed in the U.S. Indian School in Genoa, followed by a question and answer session.

Veteran’s Memorial, Fullerton

We will then travel to Fullerton, Nebraska. Here we will visit the new Veteran’s Memorial and see the Pawnee Indian Nation flag flying proudly. We will learn of the involvement by Pawnees in our nations’ wars.

Nance County Archaeological Sites

Archaeologist Nancy Carlson will take us to several Pawnee sites in Nance County and explain their significance.

Macy, Nebraska – Omaha Reservation

We will travel to Macy, Nebraska, and the Omaha Indian reservation. At the Senior Center, director Sydney Bird will tell us about the Omaha, life on the reservation, and the work she’s doing to help others on the reservation. Dr. Ardis BadMoccasin, Academic Dean at the Nebraska Indian Community College will lead a tour and tell us about the Nebraska Indian Community College. We will be joined by Michael Oltrogge, president of the community college.

Neihardt Prayer Garden

On the way back from Macy, we will visit the Sacred Hoop Prayer Garden at the John G. Neihardt Center in Bancroft, NE. The Center is a Nebraska State Historic Site. The famous poet called Bancroft home from 1900 to 1920 and authored 25 volumes of poetry, fiction, and philosophy. Bancroft’s close proximity to the Omaha reservation provided opportunity for him to know many of the old “long hairs” on the reservation. Deeply impressed, he wrote widely successful short stories based on these talks. Neihardt, Nebraska’s Poet Laureate and author of Black Elk Speaks, based the garden's design on an object, "The Sacred Hoop of the World," given to him by Black Elk, an Ogala Sioux holy man. It symbolizes Neihardt's interest in American Indian customs and traditions.