Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation

The Nemaha Half-Breed Reservation was established by the Treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1830, which set aside a tract of land for the mixed-race, or Métis descendants of French-Canadian trappers and women of the Oto, Iowa, and Omaha, as well as the Yankton and Santee Sioux tribes. (In Canada such mixed-race people are known as Métis; they were numerous enough to develop their own ethnicity over the decades. In the twentieth century, they became organized politically and have gained recognition as a distinct ethnic group with status under the Indian Act.)

Located in part of the Indian Territory, which was later in the Nebraska Territory and then the state of Nebraska, the tract's eastern border was the Missouri River. The reservation extended west for 10 miles (16 km). The north/south borders were between the Little Nemaha River to the north and the Great Nemaha River, near Falls City to the south.

In 1861 the Reservation was disbanded as a legal entity. The owners of plots were never required to live on the properties they had been allotted, and many eventually sold their lands to white settlers. Some white men married native women to get control of their property. One of the original survey lines has been followed (and identified) by the Half-Breed Road, which runs in a southeast direction from here. The descendants of some of these multicultural families still live in the area.

The Underground Railroad, a route staffed by volunteers' helping slaves escaped to the North, ran through the Reservation toward John Brown's Cave. This was its last stop, located 35 miles (56 km) north of the Tract.