Indigenous Land Acknowledgment
Prepared and presented by Kevin Abourezk, a local leader from the Sicangu (Rosebud) Lakota Tribe, on opening night of Season 76, The Fantasticks, September 10, 2021:
Before we begin tonight, we want to acknowledge that we are living on the past, present, and future homelands of the Pawnee, Oto-Missouria, Omaha and Kansa peoples.
The salt basin around present-day Lincoln attracted many Indigenous nations to this region. The Omaha called the area Niskithe, or “salt water,” and their women used eagle feathers to collect the salt, which they used to cure buffalo meat. The Otoe-Missourias ceded the land that became Lincoln to the federal government in 1833 and 1854, and this forced out the tribal peoples who had called the Niskithe home for many generations.
Native peoples of many nations live in Lincoln today and contribute to our community's vitality and diversity, and today we thank them for their stewardship of these lands.
