Numbering between 900 and 1,000 at that time, occupied the country lying along the Missouri, extending from the mouth of the Platte River, northward to the old Council Bluffs of Lewis and Clarke, in Washington County, and westward some forty miles. Their main villages were at Bellevue (Sarpy County) and Saling's Grove, on the Big Papillion, eight miles distant, where they had lived most of the time since 1830.
The Omahas are a tribe of the Dakota family. Marquette represents them on his map in 1673, and about 1766 Cover found them on the St. Peter's, where they formed two tribes - the Hongashanos and the Ishbanondas, or Grey Eyes - divided into thirteen clans, one of which preserved a sacred shell in a rude temple, constantly guarded. They cultivated corn, beans and melons.
Among their customs was one preventing a man from speaking with his father-in-law or mother-in- law. Just what length of time this tribe was known on the Missouri is difficult to ascertain, but somewhere about the year 1780, they crossed over the country from the Upper Lakes and settled on the Missouri, at or near the mouth of the Big Sioux River, in Iowa, at which time there was a band of Cheyennes with them. Shortly afterward they crossed to the west side of the Missouri and settled on the Niobrara, near its mouth, at which place Lewis and Clarke found them in June, 1804, numbering about 600. Being pursued relentlessly by the Sioux, and greatly reduced in numbers by small-pox, they burned their village on the Niobrara and removed to the Blackbird hills, about 100 miles further down the Missouri, where they have resided at times for more than half a century. Treaties were made with them on July 20th, 1815, September 23d, 1825, and July 15th, 1830, ceding lands at Council Bluffs for an annuity, blacksmith shop and agricultural implements. After this last treaty they formed their villages at Bellevue, near the trading post of Colonel Peter A. Sarpy, and at Saling's Grove, where they remained until June, 1855. The Sioux frequently drove them to the Elkhorn River, but in 1843 they returned to their villages and made peace with certain bands of the Sioux. A mission begun in 1839 failed, and one established in 1846, had but little success. By treaty of March 16, 1854, more of their lands were ceded, and in the following year they were removed to their present reservation of 345,000 acres in the northeastern part of the State, between the Missouri and Elkhorn Rivers. Since then they have devoted themselves to agriculture, and their condition has rapidly improved. In 1879 they numbered about 1,050. Their Great Chief, Logan Fontenelle, was killed by the Sioux while on a hunting expedition, in July, 1855.