II COLONIZATION AND HISTORY. 

 COLONIZATION OF NEBRASKA. 



The beginnings of the occupation of Nebraska by white 

 men are, as would naturally be expected, to be found, not 

 among agriculturalists, but among traders and trappers. As 

 early as 1810 the American Fur Company had established a 

 station on the Missouri river, in what is now known as 

 Sarpy county; and for many years it had sole possession of 

 the trade of vast stretches of territory. The United States 

 government guarded with great jealousy the rights of the 

 native Indian tribes, Sioux, Poncas, Otoes, Missouris, and 

 Omahas and until 1854, when the lands were formally 

 thrown open to settlers, no white man was allowed to reside 

 on Nebraska territory without a special permit from the 

 Secretary of War. Traces are evident of one or two such 

 permits during 1852, and by the close of 1853 some seven 

 or eight cabins, occupied with the consent of the govern- 

 ment, could have been found at various points along the 

 shore of the Missouri. 



As it became evident that the territory of Nebraska would 

 soon be organized and its lands thrown open to settlement, 

 speculators and adventurers began to gather in the western 

 part of Iowa, more especially at Council Bluffs and other 

 river cities. In the first months of 1854 a few of the more 

 impatient ventured across the river and laid out for themselves 

 squatters' claims, but they rarely remained longer than the 

 day or two required to blaze the boundaries of their chosen 

 pieces of land. During March, 1854, treaties were concluded 

 with the Omahas and Otoes by which these tribes gave up 

 their rights to vast tracts of land; and at length, on the 24th 

 of June, the President, after authorization by the act of Con- 

 gress creating the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, for- 

 mally declared the removal of all restrictions as to residence. 



