Omaha

This is Barb Gross with the Sioux City Public Library, and you’re listening to “Check it Out.” 

Today, I’m recommending Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Pulitzer-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson. A friend told me this book had “gobsmacked” her, giving her a profound new perspective on the racial constructs that divide America.

To be sure, there was a good reason for the Poncas to cut the deal they did with the strange emissary who showed up one day from Washington. He’d come to let them know  that “the Great Father” wanted the Poncas to move from their homeland on the Missouri River, to Indian Country, what would become Oklahoma, to a place where, he claimed, they’d be safe from raids by larger and more warlike neighbors.

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The three survivors of a South Dakota plane crash that killed nine members of an extended family from Idaho were in stable condition today, a family representative said.

The survivors were being treated at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls. The family was returning from an annual pheasant-hunting trip when the plane crashed Saturday in a cornfield near Chamberlain shortly after takeoff during a snowstorm.

Coming up on The Exchange, we talk with Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill about next week’s primary election.

Gill also addresses new changes in Iowa’s voter ID law.  

Also, a new exhibit at the SC Art Center’s hands-on gallery and more. 

We will learn about a new effort to understand the immigrant experience in Siouxland and learn about the legacy of a lynching that took place in Omaha a century ago.

We will preview Riverssance which is coming up this weekend in Riverside Park.  

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Strong thunderstorms hit eastern Nebraska and western Iowa and dumped heavy rain and, in southwest Omaha, piles of hail left some motorists temporarily stranded.

Western Nebraska was first to endure the storms last night, with hail larger than 2 inches in diameter. The Omaha World-Herald reported dozens of cars pulled off Interstate 80 with broken windshields.  In Council Bluffs, Iowa, a number of streets flooded as more than 2 inches of rain fell there overnight. Flash flood warnings were issued there and for areas around Lincoln and Omaha.

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Strong thunderstorms that raked eastern Nebraska and western Iowa dumped heavy rain and, in southwest Omaha, piles of hail that left some motorists temporarily stranded.

Western Nebraska was first to endure the storms Monday night, with hail larger than 2 inches in diameter. The Omaha World-Herald reported dozens of cars pulled off Interstate 80 with broken windshields. About 8,000 Omaha Public Power District customers lost power.

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Water releases from Gavins Point Dam will be increased today and Wednesday because of heavy rainfall over a large portion of the Missouri River basin above Sioux City.

Rainfall in Nebraska, South Dakota and central North Dakota for the past seven days has been 200 percent to 600 percent of normal, leading to higher inflows to South Dakota reservoirs.  Increasing Gavins Point releases will allow more water to pass through the system and slow the rise at reservoirs upriver from Gavins Point, near Yankton, South Dakota.

"Kaneko is based in Omaha, has been there for many many years and is probably the best known artist in Omaha," says Behrens.  "And if you go to almost any public square or park in Omaha, you'll find his works, so this a piece that we are very proud to have in our collection."

You’re listening to The Exchange, on Siouxland Public Media.  I’m Mary Hartnett.  The language of the Omaha Tribe is in crisis.  There are fewer than a dozen native speakers left.  However, a Nebraska filmmaker has produced a new documentary called “The Omaha Speaking.”  Timmerman has been working in partnership with Omaha tribal elders and sisters Octa Keen, Winona Caramony, and Glenna Slater.   85 year old Glenna teaches at the Nebraska Indian Community College.  I spoke with Timmerman and Glenna this week when they were in Sioux City for an event.  

Edem Soul Music will be opening Ode’s live storytelling night on Friday, April 6, starting at 6 p.m. at The Marquee in downtown Sioux City.

On The Exchange this week, we speak with three of the nine candidates for the Sioux City City Council primary that's coming up on October 10th.  Today we talk with incumbent Alex Watters, who was appointed last year to take over the seat of council person Keith Radig.  Radig was elected to the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors.  We also hear from challengers Doug Waples and Brett Watchorn.  Next week, we talk with the remaining six contenders.

This week's artists:

Her father doesn’t ask her consent, but promises his greatly-admired daughter to the old warrior anyway, despite her silent protest. Many years separate the girl from the man she is bound to marry, and secretly—her parents know nothing of it—she had promised herself already to a young warrior from the village.

All of that is the first act of this somehow familiar drama. What it clearly suggests is an ancient human conflict: love versus community, tradition, and family. This version belongs to Omaha lore.

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Vouchers for private schools are being proposed in Nebraska.  But vouchers may have minimal effects in rural areas of the state.  Siouxland Public Media’s Mary Hartnett has more.

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Exactly where the Corps of Discovery was when William Clark took men to a beaver dam that day no one really knows. Historians guess the place was once somewhere above Macy, Nebraska; but wherever it was, it isn’t. Too bad.

It’s not altogether clear what kind of gear they employed to catch fish. Clark described the technology this way: “the men picked up Some Small willow & Bark [and] we made a Drag.” A seine of some sort, I’m sure, which would have required a couple of the men to drag the ends through the water to thereby trap fish within.

According to an old Omaha history, the Omahas first saw a white man somewhere close to where today they would find Homer, Nebraska. Those strange white people carried with them “blankets, cloths, trinkets, and guns,” all of which made that first meeting historic—deathly-looking white folks were one thing, but guns—that was amazing.

It was the late 18th century, and that first sighting was reciprocal—it was the fur traders’ first sight of the Omahas as well. There are no reports of those trappers being equally awed.

The W. K. Kellogg Foundation is giving a 100-thousand grant to help Omaha Tribal public schools preserve their indigenous language.  Siouxland Public Media’s Mary Hartnett has this report.

Dwight Howe is the cultural liaison and Omaha language Instructor for the St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, Nebraska. Dwight has been an educator and public speaker for over twenty years. He is an enrolled member of the Omaha Tribe.

Ode presents an evening of true stories, told live outside at Koffie Knechtion, 419 Golf Road, in South Sioux City at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23. Storytellers will share personal essays crafted around the theme "Just Work." Admission is $10.