News Flash

Kearney Public Library welcomes Nancy Gillis on Monday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m. for her presentation on “The Plains Indians and the Homestead Act”. While many tribes inhabited the immense tract of land called The Great Plains, interacting with their environment, neighboring tribes, and even European explorers and trappers for centuries, two decades prior to the American Civil War and the two decades following the Civil War brought tremendous changes due to increased tensions in the East and legislation enacted in Washington – the Homestead Act of 1862. Nancy will examine why and how these changes occurred on the Plains for the tribes.

Nancy S. Gillis is the former Executive Director of the John Neihardt State Historic Site and the Neihardt Foundation’s Institute for Vision and Learning. Nancy joined the Foundation as Assistant Director in May 1997 and retired in 2014, joining its Board of Directors, and speaks to schools and civic groups on Neihardt’s work and a variety of related topics. Since 1992 she has served as faculty at Wayne State College, Northeast Community College, Nebraska Indian Community College, and Little Priest Tribal College teaching Native American History and Cultures, U.S. History, World History, Anthropology and Sociology.

Of Cherokee and Choctaw heritage, Gillis moved to Nebraska in 1987 to work with the Winnebago people for the Reformed Church in America and has served as their delegate to its Native American Council and the Commission for Race and Ethnicity.

This program is free. The Kearney Public Library is located at 2020 First Avenue, Kearney, NE.