Native Omaha Days

Native Omaha Days

Native Omaha Days is a bi-annual community event that was established in 1976. The event works as a homecoming for Native Omahans who have left the city. Those who gather for the event enjoy parades, dances, and other community events. One of the aims of Native Omaha Days is to preserve and pass on cultural and historical legacies of the North Omaha community. The newspaper clippings and montages below are part of that legacy. The pictures and articles represent many historical aspects of life in North Omaha and serve to promote both pride of past accomplishments and rememberance of past struggles.

By exploring the business and advertisement or jazz and music sections of this page, it is easy to see how these clippings could instill a viewer with pride in a community that thrived in a variety of locally owned businesses and music venues. The wedding, birthday, and family sections emphasize the strength of the North Omaha community ties that still survive into the present. The youth and sports activity sections showcase the community's ability to find enjoyment even in times of segregation and oppression.

These clippings also showcase North Omaha as a community that actively fought against racism and oppression. Through clubs, protests, and other modes of resistance, the community members of North Omaha were active particpants of the Civil Rights Movement and struggled to end unfair hiring practices and police brutality in their neighborhoods. This community has a legacy of hard work and community participation that yielded results.

These images are parts of montages that were created by community members and are displayed during Native Omaha Days. This collection was contributed as part of the 2011 North Omaha History Harvest.

Native Omaha Days, North Omaha History Harvest, 2011

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.