HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SOUTHWESTERN NEBRASKA By JOHN F. CORDEAL [Paper read at the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical Society, January 10, 1912.] It is my purpose to briefly outline the history of southwestern Nebraska; and, as history is defined to be the true story of that which is known to have occurred, I shall read what I have to say so that if I shall say what is not true, I will not be in a position to equivocate when those who are better informed than I am attempt to correct my errors. In recounting the events of the past, our highest aim should be accuracy, and, as far as possible, I have gathered my material from original sources. If, at times, I stray beyond the boundaries of Nebraska, I do so merely because it seems necessary to an adequate comprehension of the subject. When some of the events of which I shall speak happened there was no Nebraska; when a part of them happened there was not even a United States; and, in any event, our state boundaries are but arbitrary lines. Save these incidental digressions, my story shall be confined to events which occurred, for the most part, in the valley of the Republican river, west of the one hundredth meridian. CORONADO If Coronado is correct in his assumption that in 1541 he crossed the fortieth parallel of latitude, then he was the first white man to set foot upon the soil of Nebraska. Whether he did or not, we do not know. We have his asser tion for it that he was here1; but modern authority is not agreed on the question, and as we are dealing with facts, the doubt that has been raised should render us cautious about accepting the explorer's uncorroborated statement. Perhaps future investigations will clear away our uncertainties. The journey of Coronado and his band, beginning in Mexico and terminating somewhere on the trans-Missouri plains and consuming nearly two years of time, is without parallel in the annals of exploration. We cannot even form any conception of the difficulties that it involved; and, despite the motives that animated the leader and his followers, we are bound to yield them the tribute of our respect. If, as 1 Coronado said that Quivira, “Where I have reached it, is in the 40th degree"; but F. W. Hodge, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, an acknowledged authority on the Coronado expedition, points out that the common error in determining latitude in the sixteenth century was about two degrees,. According to Hodge, Quivira where Coronado said he reached it was in fact in the 38th degree. The following letter to the editor, dated at Washington, February 5, 1914, throws light on this interesting, though insoluble, and so fortunately, not very important question: "Answering your letter of February 2 I beg leave to say that the determination of the fact that the Spanish explorers were almost invariably two degrees out of the way in estimating latitudes was reached after the comparison of various early narrations and maps. I cannot explain why the error should have been so persistent, except, of course, that it resulted from the crude means at the disposal of the early explorers, although this would hardly account for the almost uniform exaggeration of two degrees. "Regarding my statement as to the trend of the evidence that Coronado did not enter Nebraska, you will observe from the chronicles of the expedition, that, after reaching Quivira, Coronado sent parties in various directions, one or more of which may have entered Nebraska, but there is no positive assertion that Harahey was visited, although Tatarrash (Tatarrax) was sent for by Coronado and visited the latter. "I have found no reason to change my views on the above points since writing the account of Coronado's route in Brower's 'Harahey.' I should have been glad if the white man's history of Nebraska could have been traced definitely to 1541, but the only basis for this is the statement of the visit of the Harahey (Pawnee) Chief Tatarrash to Coronado while he was apparently in Kansas. Yours very truly, F. W. HODGE, Ethnologist-in-Charge."-(ED.) has been said, Coronado is right, and recent critics are wrong, then southwestern Nebraska was known to white men within a half century after the discovery of America, sixty-six years before the settlement of Jamestown, sixty-eight years before the Half Moon sailed up the Hudson river, and eighty years before the pilgrim fathers landed on Plymouth Rock. MALLET BROTHERS In 1739, or nearly two centuries after Coronado's expedition had penetrated to the heart of the North American continent, the Mallet brothers, two French explorers, attempted to reach Santa Fe by way of the Missouri and the Platte rivers. Realizing when they reached the forks of the Platte river that further pursuit of their course would not take them to their destination, they started in a southwesterly direction across the prairies, following, it is said, a more or less well defined trail that had been made by the Indian tribes in their migrations northward and southward. They named the streams and described the country through which they passed with some minuteness. When the opportunity comes to give closer attention to their records perhaps we may be able to determine, with reasonable certainty, the route they followed. That their way took them across the country embraced within the limits of this sketch, there can be little doubt; so that if it shall be decided, eventually, that southwestern Nebraska was not visited by Coronado, we have left the important fact that this section of the state was seen by white men before the revolutionary war.2 FREMONT Again a century elapsed before civilized men, save, possibly, French Canadian trappers, came to this region. 2 As the writer hints, knowledge of this expedition is uncertain and gauzy-ED. In 1842 John C. Fremont followed the Platte river to its sources. In 1843 he started with a large party to ascend the Kansas river. Becoming impatient at the slow progress of his expedition, he pushed ahead with a small detachment. Taking a northwesterly direction, he crossed what is now the boundary line between Kansas and Nebraska, a few miles east of the southwest corner of this state. On the evening of the 25th of June he camped a short distance from the main Republican on a little creek, doubtless the Driftwood. Shortly after leaving the encampment, on the morning of the 26th, he remarks that the nature of the country had entirely changed. Instead of the smooth, high ridges, over which they had been traveling, sand-hills swelled around them, and vegetation peculiar to a sandy soil appeared. When they reached the Republican river, they found that here its shallow waters flowed over a sandy bed between treeless banks, beyond which, to the horizon, rolled the sand-hills, clad with billowing grasses, and beautiful with flowers. Here the yucca, the cactus, the sagebrush and the poppy grew. Among the hills, tiny brooks, fed by never failing springs, threaded their way. Except for isolated groves that the fires had left, the land was untimbered. In places out-croppings of magnesia gave to limited areas an aspect almost Alpine. In places, where trampling hoofs had worn the grass, the wind had blown the sand away, leaving great basins, in which stood masses of clay that had been sculptured into fantastic forms. Around the ponds, formed by the rains, they found excellent pasture for their horses. Buffaloes in countless numbers were scattered over the country. For two or three days Fremont and his men traveled in Nebraska territory. Crossing the line into what is now Colorado, they continued their journey, finally reaching the Platte river. THE INDIAN TRIBES None of these explorers mentions the Indians, and yet we know the Indians must, at times, have frequented this country in large numbers, and that their villages were scattered along the streams. The Pawnee, who may be called the aboriginal Nebraskans, were divided into two clans, called the Grand Pawnee and the Republican Pawnee, the habitat of the latter being the Republican valley. The Sioux occupied western Nebraska north of the North Platte. The southwestern section of the state, including Dundy and Chase counties, together with the high plains of eastern Colorado, were occupied by the Arapaho and the Cheyenne, who, from a time antedating the coming of the white men, held the headwaters of the Republican and its largest western tributary, the Frenchman, against the aggressions of all other tribes. While we lack detailed information in regard to the encounters that unquestionably took place in this locality among the natives, we know this borderland was the scene of many conflicts; that incursions were made by war parties from each tribe into the territory claimed by the others; and that these invasions were repelled. No one who is familiar with the grassy, stream-threaded valleys of southwestern Nebraska can wonder that they were guarded jealously by the people who asserted possessory rights over them. They were the haunts of the wild game that swarmed on the prairies, which made them of value to a people who secured their living from the land. Here it was the buffaloes made their last stand, and here to-day antelopes may sometimes be found grazing in the meadows. Before the advent of railroads, southwestern Nebraska was out of the usual course of travel. The Oregon and California trails to the north and the Smoky Hill route to |