Nebraska is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha.
Nebraska probably gets its name from the archaic Otoe words Ñí Brásge, pronounced [????b?ask?] (contemporary Otoe Ñí Bráhge), or the Omaha Ní Btháska, pronounced [?n??b??aska], meaning "flat water," after the Platte River that flows through the state.[3] American Indian tribes in Nebraska have included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, and various branches of the Sioux.
Once considered part of the Great American Desert (actually highly biodiverse prairie land), Nebraska is now a leading farming and ranching state.
Nebraska is the only U.S. state with a unicameral legislature.
Long before the Lewis and Clark Expedition, French-Canadian explorers traversed the territory of Nebraska, including the Mallet brothers in 1739, on their way to trade in Santa Fe. European-American settlement did not begin in any number until after 1848 and the California Gold Rush. On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the Kansas Territory and the Nebraska Territory, divided by the Parallel 40° North. The territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha.
In the 1860s, the first great wave of homesteaders poured into Nebraska to claim free land granted by the federal government. Many of the first farm settlers built their homes of sod because there were so few trees on the prairies.
Nebraska became the 37th state in 1867, shortly after the American Civil War. At that time, the capital was moved from Omaha to Lancaster, later renamed Lincoln after the recently assassinated President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
The Arbor Day holiday began in Nebraska. The National Arbor Day Foundation is still headquartered in Nebraska City, with some offices also located in Lincoln.
Nebraska has a long history of civil rights activism, starting in 1912 with the founding of Omaha's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter.