I did it. I actually wrote a thing for Flatwater Free Press. It’s been a while, September to be exact, since we published an FFP story with my byline. I have been doing a few different things in that time. Eating snacks. Screaming at the Nebraska basketball team through my teevee. And, oh, starting a brand-new statewide nonprofit journalism with outlet head honcho Matt Wynn. But I’m so glad to be back writing, especially this first edition of a series we’re calling Why We Stay.
For our entire lives, Nebraskans have heard somber stories about brain drain and rural depopulation. We have watched friends and family members move East or West or South. And, if we are being honest, we have all asked ourselves, mostly in the month of February: “Why do I stay here?”
Why We Stay will attempt to provide answers to that question, viewing key issues of depopulation and brain drain through the lens of people who did choose to stay and make this state better somehow. Because I’m a big nerd, I figured we better start this series by trying to understand why Nebraska homesteaders came here in the first place. “Free” land, sure. (It cost the Native Americans a great deal.) But why else?
Turns out that most of what I thought I knew about Nebraska homesteaders was incomplete, silly, or just plain wrong. I was right about one thing: Homesteading! Turns out it was hard! But I didn’t know so much about this history…like the incredible story of Dewitty, where Black homesteaders, many of them former slaves, carved their own place in this state.
Thank you to the many historians and experts who talked to me for these stories, and especially to History Nebraska for allowing us to republish several photos in their fabulous collection of Solomon Butcher pioneer photographs. I will be back soon — I swear — with my next story in the occasional series, focused on a small town that is fighting to thrive in 2021.
Lee to Alden: Buzz off. (For now.): Alden Global Capital, the notorious hedge fund currently attempting to buy nearly every daily Nebraska newspaper, got brushed back a little this week, when Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based chain that owns those papers, told ‘em, thanks but no thanks. We’re publishing Iowa Public Media’s stories on this topic, like the one I just linked to, and we will continue to do so because this is an issue worth following if you care, as we do, about the future of Nebraska journalism.
One last thing: Remember that these stories are your stories, and the Flatwater Free Press could always use your help. Do you know of a story that needs to be told? Send us your news tips using this form or via [email protected].
Sincerely,
—Matthew Hansen, Executive Editor
Here’s what we’re into this week: News from around Nebraska
Every week we like to share great Nebraska journalism, no matter who made it. Here’s what caught our eye this week:
- Lincoln Journal Star reporter Andrew Wegley with an important story: The Nebraskans who the state charges as “habitual criminals” are incredibly disproportionately Black, Hispanic and Native.
- We’re big fans of Nebraska Public Media’s Elizabeth Rembert, and we’re a fan of her story on small Nebraska towns attempting to pay people to move there…but we’re not sure it works. As Rembert notes, a similar effort has been tried before in Nebraska, with little success.
- The following line from this Lexington Clipper Herald story on the lack of quality child care in Lexington jumped out and slapped us in the face. “There are 1,142 children in Lexington under the age of six with all available parents working and there are only 184 total licensed child care spots and 121 spots in preschools.”
- The Omaha World-Herald’s Sara Gentzler figured out that state employees knew Nebraska would be on the hook for deploying state troopers to the southern U.S. border, even as spokespeople held out the possibility of the state being reimbursed.
- Also in the OWH, Alia Conley tells the story of $118,000 in pension payments erroneously paid to a former city employee for eight years after the worker’s death.
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