History of North Omaha, Nebraska

The history of North Omaha, Nebraska includes wildcat banks, ethnic enclaves, race riots and social change spanning over 200 years. With a recorded history that pre-dates the rest of the city, North Omaha has roots back to 1812 with the founding of Fort Lisa. It includes the Mormon settlement of Cutler's Park and Winter Quarters in 1846, a lynching before the turn-of-the-twentieth-century, the thriving 24th Street community of the 1920s, the bustling development of the African-American community through the 1950s, a series of riots in the 1960s, and redevelopment in the late 20th and early 21st century.

Bands from the Pawnee, Otoe and Sioux nations were the first to occupy the area around Carter Lake. After a short period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when they were the most powerful Indians on the Great Plains, the Omaha nation settled in the vicinity of present-day East Omaha. After a smallpox epidemic killed much of its population, and encroaching American settlement further reduced their historic way of life, the Omaha sold their lands and moved to their present reservation to the north in Thurston County, Nebraska in 1856.

The first settlements in North Omaha were the 1812 Fort Lisa located near Hummel Park and the 1823 Cabanné's Trading Post along the Missouri River. Fort Lisa was built by famed fur trapper Manuel Lisa, a founder of the St. Louis, Missouri Fur Company (later known as the Missouri Fur Company). It was an important fur trading post for securing initial American investment in the Louisiana Territory. Cabanné's Trading Post belonged to John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, which competed with many traders for the patronage of local Native American tribes. The American Fur Company later bought out Fontenelle's Post, originally founded by the Missouri Fur Company. Fontenelle's Post became the start of Bellevue, the first town in Nebraska.

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