Nebraska unveiled a ‘Founders’ exhibit to start US 250 celebrations. Tribal members and historians see it as a missed opportunity.

The Spanish soldiers did not stand a chance. As they hastily broke camp to continue their southward retreat, arrows began raining down from the sky.

When it was done, 45 Spaniards and allied Native Americans lay dead in the grass near present-day Columbus. The slaughter, carried out by Pawnee and Otoe warriors, became known as the Villasur Massacre. It effectively ended Spain’s excursion into the Great Plains in 1720.

That episode is not often included in the Nebraska history that students learn in school, nor is reflected in the Nebraska Capitol. 

But it should be, said Walter Echo-hawk. 

The Pawnee elder and prominent Oklahoma attorney is among the Indigenous people and historians hoping Nebraska recognizes Indigenous people’s contributions as the U.S. gears up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding. They spoke after history-themed posters from a controversial conservative nonprofit went on display at the Capitol last month. 

State leaders told the Flatwater Free Press that Indigenous people and their contributions will feature in the state’s celebration of Nebraska history. They noted the posters, designed by PragerU, were focused specifically on the country’s founding and provided at no cost to the state. 

“Much is planned throughout this year to more specifically celebrate Nebraska’s history, including an exhibit connected to the 250th that will be displayed by the Nebraska State Historical Society this spring,” Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement provided to the Flatwater Free Press. “One of the core themes of the exhibit will tie in the earliest origins of the territory, including the history, culture and contributions of Native Americans.”

The display that caused a stir last month, dubbed “The Founders Museum,” was part of the Trump administration’s efforts to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. A White House task force enlisted PragerU to create history-themed content in the lead-up to the celebration, NPR reported in 2025. 

PragerU, a nonprofit that creates conservative content designed for educational purposes, has faced criticism in recent years. 

One video from 2023 titled “Did Europe Destroy Native American Culture?” states, “They (Native Americans) were certainly not exterminated at the behest of any concerted ideology of hatred or grand plan. After the initial deaths from disease, and in spite of a few sensational wars and small-scale massacres, remaining Native Americans took on so many Old World technologies and customs that most of them gradually assimilated into European culture.”

The speaker later states: “It is undeniable that Native Americans suffered terribly — but this suffering was more a product of tragic inevitability than malice. … It’s time to stop the apology parade.”

“The Founders Museum” exhibit at the Nebraska Capitol features posters with more than 80 images of figures such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, as well as historical events like the Boston Tea Party. The only person of color in the exhibit, which rings the walls of the Capitol’s lower level, is Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman in Massachusetts considered to be the first Black published author in American history.

Pillen unveiled the “Founders” display during a Jan. 6 press conference. Asked at the time about potential criticism of PragerU, the governor said people can celebrate however they see fit and called for unity. 

The display quickly became enveloped in controversy when State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat from Omaha, pulled down several of the posters. She told the Nebraska Examiner that she did so because “we are not allowed to adhere anything to walls in the hallway of the Capitol.” She later apologized on the floor of the Legislature. Last week, a legislative committee formally reprimanded her.

“I am grateful the Nebraska Semiquincentennial Commission approved its use as part of the state’s official America 250 observance and that PragerU generously designed the historical exhibits, thereby saving taxpayer dollars,” Pillen said in a statement provided to Flatwater.

Daryl Bohac, director of the Nebraska State Historical Society and chair of the semiquincentennial commission, said an upcoming exhibit tied to the 250th celebration will feature Indigenous communities past and present.

The “Who Are Nebraskans” section will include early settlers of the area and highlight their role in shaping the state. Another section titled “Notable Nebraskans” plans to showcase the La Flesche family, including Joseph La Flesche and Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte, the first Native American to earn a medical degree, among others.

Exhibits will include community initiatives, including the organized opposition to the Keystone Pipeline, Bohac said in an email.

“The goal is to highlight members from various Nebraska tribes, but the selection of final objects and narratives has not yet been completed, making it too early to determine who will or will not be featured,” he said.

“Nebraskans are diverse, adaptable and innovative,” Bohac said, “so it is impossible to have just one perspective on our history.”

The state’s plans, as relayed by Bohac, will paint a more comprehensive portrait beyond the initial “Founders” display.

Nebraska history around the time of the nation’s founding is, effectively, Native history, said Brady DeSanti, director of the Native American Studies program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Focusing on the “Founding Fathers,” who had nothing to do with Nebraska in 1776, ignores the contributions of Indigenous people and continues a common misperception that they’re a thing of the past, he said.

“It overlooks that complexity and diversity that we see centuries ago for Native nations, and it really also overlooks that we’ve had ongoing histories to the present,” said DeSanti, an enrolled citizen of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Nation.

Besides French-dominated trade, European influence in Nebraska didn’t truly take hold until the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark expedition, when the Army Corps of Discovery traveled along the Missouri River on the eastern edge of what’s now Nebraska. Expedition members eventually met with some tribal leaders, including a gathering near modern-day Fort Calhoun.

It didn’t take long for more European-American expeditions to make their way across the Great Plains, including one led by Army Gen. Zebulon Pike, whose westward expedition would eventually lead to the naming of a mountain near Colorado Springs after him.

The Kitkahaki band of the Pawnee was the first to greet Pike’s troops in 1806 in the area along the Republican River in modern-day south-central Nebraska, Echo-hawk said. The Americans referred to the Pawnee as the Republican Pawnee. This is likely because, unlike other bands that had hereditary chiefs, the Kitkahaki Pawnee elected their leaders, Echo-hawk said.

“It was more of a republican form of government, I guess. … And so we were a republic probably long before 1776,” Echo-hawk said.

As European-Americans made their way west, Indigenous people were forced out, eventually relegated to life on reservations. Today, more Native Americans live off-reservation than on them.

While the majority of the nearly 25 tribal nations that once lived in Nebraska or routinely visited were forcibly removed, four tribes call the state home today

The Omaha and Northern Ponca were original residents, while the Winnebago and Santee were relocated here. Each tribe has its own unique history that should be told as part of a Capitol exhibit, DeSanti said.

The Winnebago were assigned land along the Missouri River in northeast Nebraska after Chief Little Priest agreed in 1865 to lead a team of 75 scouts to work with the U.S. Army in its war on Indians — a decision that weighed on the chief. Today, the world’s oldest powwow is hosted at Winnebago each July.

The Santee Dakota were relocated to a small section of land in Knox County following the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War in Minnesota. The hanging of 38 warriors alleged to have fought in the war remains the largest mass execution in American history. Two more men were later captured and hanged, leading to the warriors being dubbed the Santee 38+2. They’re honored as part of the tribal nation’s veterans memorial.

More contemporary stories include the restoration of the Ponca Tribe in 1990, following the tribe’s termination as a federally recognized tribe in the 1960s.

The Ponca story reflects Natives’ attitudes, DeSanti said.

“No matter what, we’re not going anywhere,” he said. “We’re still here.”

Margaret Jacobs, director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Great Plains Studies, said she hopes the upcoming 250th celebration will provide an opportunity to connect Nebraska’s history with a national story.

“The national story needs to be more than just who were the founders who signed the Declaration of Independence,” she said shortly after the unveiling of the “Founders” exhibit. “It’s meant to perform something for our current day, rather than to really celebrate our true and complicated heritage, and what an opportunity lost not to really go into the history of Nebraska.”

Jacobs has been involved with Walking in the Footsteps Project, seeking to reconnect the Otoe-Missouria people to their ancestral lands in Nebraska and to engage non-Native people with their history. They were the first Indigenous people to greet the Lewis and Clark Expedition in Nebraska. They were relocated to Oklahoma in 1880.

While the Nebraska portion of the country’s 250th celebration is still in development, historical society staff collaborate regularly with Nebraska tribes, including the Omaha, as well as Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribes, to strengthen relationships and enhance understanding of how to represent the state’s history more effectively, Bohac said.

Acknowledging that Nebraska tribes haven’t been directly involved with the state’s plans, Bohac said they will be engaged for a long-term project at the Nebraska History Museum. A multiyear project will be dedicated to early settlers of the area, including Indigenous people.

Echo-hawk said the America 250 display and the lack of a dedicated exhibit featuring Indigenous people sends a strong message — one of exclusion.

“Our contributions have been overlooked, and our participation in U.S. history and our contributions to the republic have been pretty much overlooked,” Echo-hawk said. “So it’s a pretty serious problem. And you hate to see that take place in Nebraska, because it’s in the heart of the Great Plains, and it has been the homeland of many of our iconic Great Plains tribes.”