Notes on Omaha Ethnohistory, 1763-18201

Abstract

When first known to Whites, the Omaha were east and north of the Missouri River; they are not reported west of that stream until the late 18th century. At that time they occupied parts of what is now northeastern Nebraska, with their major villages and hunting territory in that area. Trade influences, direct and indirect, probably first reached them in 1700. Contact with the Spanish and later French was principally economic, but there were accompanying major changes in political organization, especially in the authority of chiefs, even before the time of Lewis and Clark.