Fort Omaha (Omaha, Nebraska)
Omaha · Nebraska · Indian Wars
History & Significance
Established December 5, 1868 by Captain William Sinclair of the 3rd U.S. Artillery and named for General William Tecumseh Sherman, Sherman Barracks occupied an 82.5-acre tract four miles north of Omaha. Pioneer entrepreneur Augustus Kountze sold the land to the federal government.
Renamed Omaha Barracks the following year, the post was designated Fort Omaha on December 30, 1878. Soldiers from the Fort provided protection for the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1860s, patrolled the streets of frontier Omaha, and participated in the American Indian Wars of the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s.
Fort Omaha held Ponca Chief Standing Bear and 29 fellow Ponca prior to their landmark 1879 trial, where Judge Elmer Dundy ruled that American Indians were persons within the meaning of the law and that the Ponca were illegally detained. The post remained home to upwards of ten companies of the 2nd Infantry until 1896, when the garrison was relocated to Fort Crook near Bellevue.
In 1905, it reopened as an Army Signal Corps training school. Closed in 1913, the fort again reopened in 1916 as a training school for Army observation balloon crews, with about 16,000 men training there in preparation for World War I service.
Today Fort Omaha is home to the Metropolitan Community College's Fort Campus. Many historic brick buildings remain and have been repurposed as administrative and classroom buildings, and the General Crook House Museum is open to the public.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- General Crook House museum with period furnishings and officers' quarters
- Historic site of Chief Standing Bear's 1879 landmark civil rights trial
- Original barracks and military buildings from 1868 Sherman Barracks era
- Native American history and Indian Wars significance
Sources
- https://www.nps.gov/places/fort-omaha-historic-district.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Omaha
- https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/location/fort-omaha-historic-district/
- https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=33057
- https://mynehistory.com/items/show/175