Nebraska History
The area that now forms the state of Nebraska was originally settled by Native American tribes. Nebraska, meaning "flat water," was the name the Native Americans gave to the river now called the Platte. Some of the tribes that lived in this area were the Pawnee and the Lakota (Sioux). First exploration under France and Spain (1541 - 1803) [ edit | edit source text ] Initially, both France and Spain wanted to control the area. Without visiting the area, French explorer René Robert Cavelier de La Salle claimed the area for France as part of Louisiana in 1682. According to watchtutorials, in the late seventeenth century, Spain had contact with the nomadic Apaches, who also settled in present-day western Nebraska. Several years later, in 1703, France also traded regularly…