Live Stock Exchange Building

 The Live Stock Exchange Building is on 30th Street between L and Edward Babe Gomez Ave.  It use to be the center hub of the livestock exchange, and at one time was surrounded by stock yards and holding pens.   The architect was George Prinz and it was built by Peter Kiewit and sons.  It is a ten-story brick building built in an "H" shape.  It was completed for the Union Stockyards Company of Omaha.  It housed the Stockyards National Bank, offices, a bakery, cigar stand, soda fountain, kitchen, cafeteria, telehone and telegraph offices, sleeping quarters and apartments, and two ballrooms.  

Today it still houses the two ballrooms.  It now has 200 apartments.  On the bottom floor is a medical clinic, One-World Health.

Magazine Article Review: The Doctor's Work Endures,

 The Doctor's Work Endures by Ron Soodalter, Nebraska Life, July/August 2025, p 53.

Susan Laflesche was passionate about caring for her people, the Omaha Indians on the Omaha reservation in Nebraska.  She had seen disregard for Omaha life and decided to take upon herself the task of making a difference.  Susan was eleven years younger than her famous sister, Susette La Flesche.  An elder had been denied treament, with the doctor saying it didn't matter, she is only an Indian.  Susan decided it did matter and did something about it.  1889 she graduated valedictorian from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.  She became the first Native American physician.  She returned to Nebraska determined to care for all.   She would do house calls.  She opened a hospital in Walthill in 1919.  This hospital has recently been restored and is a medical and community center.  In addition a couple women recently reenacted her life, keeping the story alive. They were able to present at the Smithsonian.  

Magazine Article Review: Bright Eyes: The Interpreter Who Won a People's Freedom

 Bright Eyes: The Interpreter Who Won a People's Freedom by Ron Soodalter, Nebraska Life, July/August 2025, pp 48-52.

Susette La Flesche was born in Bellevue in 1854.  Her family lived in a traditional earth lodge.  At age two, she and her family moved to the Omaha reservation farther north, and closer to the Ponca reservation.  The Omaha were familiar with the troubles faced by the Ponca, who were removed from their reservation and sent to Oklahoma.  This resulted in the Trail of Tears, and much death.  The Oklahoma weather was different and some did not adjust.  when Chief Standing Bear's adult son passed away, he asked his father to bury him at the traditional burial place in Nebraska.  This resulted in a group of people leaving the reservation and traveling north.  After much harship, they finally landed at the Omaha reservation, where they planted crops.  However they were arrested and taken to Fort Omaha, under the direction of General Crook.  Standing Bear sued for habeas corpus, and was brought to trial in Omaha before Judge Elmer Dundy.  Chief Standing Bear testified in his own behalf, and Susette La Flesche interpreted.  Omaha and Ponca are different dialects of the same languague.  La Flesche also spoke English.  Her father, Chief Joseph Iron Eyes's La Flesche was part Anglo.   She was of mixed descent.  Her mother was Ponca.  She had spent time in both White and Indian worlds.  She had attended a young lady's school in New Jersey.  She worked with Thomas Tibbles for the Omaha Daily Herald.  Tibbles was a newspaper man who had told the story of the Ponca.  

As Chief Standing Bear gave his famous "I am a Man" it was La Flesche's words people could understand.  "My hand is not the same color as your hand, but if I pierce my hand I will feel pain.  If you pierce your hand you will feel pain.  The blood that will flow from mine will be he same color that will flow from yours."  

La Flesche's eloquent interpretation lead she, Chief Standing Bear and Tibbles on a journey east.  The judge ruled in favor of Standing Bear.  He was able to bury his son; but they still had no land.  Their land had been given to the Sioux.  They found an islan in the Niobrara River where the lived and farmed for a tim.  They toured and gave discourses in many eastern cities, slowly turning the argument in their favor.  The Ponca were eventually granted a small reservation on their traditional land.  While on their trip, the wife of Tibbles became ill and passed away.  La Flesche would later marry him.  

La Flesche became somewhat of a celebrity with her speaking on behalf of civil rights for Native Americans.  This including speaking on behalf of other Native peoples.  When she passed away she was eulogized by the Senate.  She is now inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

Magazine Article Review: A Grand New Design

A Grand New Design by Michelle Stacey photos by Cassie Floto Warner, Smithsonian, December 2025, pp 66-72 86-91.

This is the second story I have read where train tragedy lead to chang.  The first is the train accident in South Jorda, Utah.  After this laws were changed requiring buses to stop at railroad tracks.  In this article, there is a big train accident in a tunnel in New York in 1902 with many injuries and loss of life.  The steam engines made too much smoke, which clouded the stop signal and so one train engineer did not see it and plowed into another.  New York was in need of a completely revamped train system.  This would involve changing everything from steam to electric.  However it also involved levels of trains, with smooth ramps in between to avoid stairs.  It also involved an ingensous way for paying for it.  The project would involve the destruction of 200 buildings, but how to pay for such a project.  William J Wilgus had worked himself up through the train industry.  With no money for a formal education, he apprenticed with an engineer for two years, learning engineering, mechanics  and mechanical drafting.  It was his idea to build layers of tunnels for trains; and then to finance it all by selling air rights, the right to build on the surface.  This included a grand redesign for Grand Central Station.

Many other cities have followed suit, building layers of subway tunnels and then using the surface real estate to help finance the projects.  

Native American Artifacts and Clothes from Joslyn Art Museum.

 There are many artifacts from Native American life displayed at the Joslyn Art Museum.  They are artistic but they also show Native American life.

Ancestor artist, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Bandolier bag

Haida button blanket with rib design

Ancestor artist, Umoho (Omaha) breech clothe

left Valery Killscrow Copeland, Oglala Lakota, Honoring Blanket
right, Okta Keen (New Moon) Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, Wearing Blanket with Appliqué

beaded baby mocassins, top Cheyenne, bottom Great Plains

left, ancestor art, Southern Plains, women awl case
middle, Ocheti Sakawin (Sioux), beaded pouch with turtle design
right, elk horn and flint knife

First Moon Ceremony Regalia
girl's buffalo robe behind

Ancestor Artist, Ocheti Sakowin (Sioux) Beaded Dress

Ancestor Artist, Umoho (Omaha) beaded shirt

Pipe Tomahawks

woodstock club, Dakhota

bear claw necklace, Great Plains region

Book Review: Wicked Omaha by Ryan Roenfeld

 Wicked Omaha by Ryan Roenfeld, History Press, Charleston, SC, 2017.

If you want to read exerpts from old news papers about the prostitutes, thieves, murderers, gamblers, suicides and other low-lifes of Omaha this is the place to find it.  The book covers until about 1915 when the red light disgtricts were finally dispersed, and the prostitutes then found in many different areas.  It mentions Tom Dennison's political machine as partially responsible for tolerating the vices.  It also says he was behind the 1919 riot.  

For a long time prostitution was tolerated in Omaha.  The prostitutes were fined $5 at the first of the month, and then free to do what they wanted, sort of like a license.  

I found the book lacking.  I find the most disturbing thing about Omaha history was the racism betwen ethnic groups. The 1909 riot of Irish focing Greeks out of the community, and the race riots of 1919 are examples of this and barely mentioned in the book.  However the author obviously spent considerable time going through newspapers to report on the underbelly of Omaha history.

The Martin Luther King Story from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Pedestrian Bridge

 The Marting Luther King Jr. Pedestrian Bridge starts from the Kiewit Luminarium parking by the Sioux Warrior Statue.  Some of the markers are faded and hard to read, especially the Omaha side.  However this does give a good overview of Martin Luther King's crusade which resulted in greater civil rights.  He was murdered in Memphis in 1968 at the age of 39.