Nebraska

Nebraska takes its name from an Omaha and Otoe expression for the Platte River, the broad, shallow stream crossing the central Plains. Its sandy channels and grassy banks ran through the country of the Pawnee, whose earth-lodge villages stood near the river and its tributaries. Families grew maize and other crops and traveled onto the plains for seasonal bison hunts. The river valley provided a passage between the Missouri and the western grasslands.