VII. Especially for Young Audiences

C. Nebraska/Plains History and Culture

These programs fit 4th grade State Social Studies-History Standards, Nebraska Studies

For State Reading-Writing Standards look at each program

Away and Across the Plains: Pioneer Trails Through Nebraska
By Jeff Kappeler
Discover how pioneers passing through Nebraska territory in their journey west had a profound influence on the settling of the state. This presentation focuses on the lives and experiences of the emigrants and the pioneer inhabitants. It includes authentic artifacts used on the trail pertaining to the areas of transportation, food, clothing, tools and bedding.

The Courage to Continue: Changing Homesteads in Nebraska
By Cherrie Beam-Clarke
Beam-Clarke, in period attire with Irish brogue, depicts Nebraska life on the prairie, 1870 to 1885. Based on fact, she draws every emotion from the audience through a dramatic one-act play. Selling the homestead, the family travels by wagon to begin again as cattlemen in the remote western Nebraska Sandhills. Relive the trials of building a sod house, lightning storms, crying for rain, rattlesnakes, extreme loneliness and the never-ending wind. Delight with the 4th of July, a present-less Christmas and American pride.

Ho for America! Northern European Immigrants to the Midwest in the 19th Century
By Jeff Kappeler
Stories of immigrants who settled Nebraska contain fascinating accounts of sacrifice, courage and endurance. The journey to America was a difficult process that is examined in three parts: The decision, the journey and the adjustment. The presentation includes packing an actual immigrant chest and other essential baggage needed by the immigrant for the ocean voyage and the new life on the prairie.

J. Sterling Morton, Author or Arbor Day
By Darrel W. Draper
This history program introduces the audience to the life of J. Sterling Morton, from his birth in upstate New York to his rise to power and fame in Nebraska.Within five years after his arrival at Bellevue, Morton was twice elected to the Territorial Legislature, appointed Clerk of Supreme Court, became Territorial Secretary and was made acting Governor at the age of 26. The founder of Arbor Day would later become secretary of agriculture. The presenter, in costume and in character, uses humor and pathos to give new insight into Morton's failures and successes.

The History of Nebraska as Told by Peter A. Sarpy
By Darrel W. Draper
Dressed in period costume and speaking in his native French accent, "Peter Sarpy" describes the transformation of Nebraska from French colony to statehood. This dramatic one-act play uses humor, interactive audience participation and factual historical anecdotes to captivate youth and adult audiences alike. This living-history presentation is appropriate for schools, civic groups, churches, museums and festivals.

Music of the Plains
By David Marsh
Pioneers who settled Plains traveled from far and wide, yet endured many similar joys and hardships. David’s goals with this program are twofold: 1) to demonstrate the various cultures represented by these courageous folks, and 2) to share stories and sing songs that arose out of their common experience of early life here. Though music, audiences learn about homesteading, cowboys, children’s games, and the wonders of the wide open prairie.

Ordinary Heroes
By Dale Clark
In our modern world, young people have few genuine heroes to emulate. Most of the heroes they have chosen are either sports superstars who make millions of dollars, violent movie characters or TV cartoon characters. This presentation illustrates that real heroes often are ordinary people who find themselves in situations that require them to perform heroic acts. Most of the stories are set in Nebraska and the West.

Promise in a New Land: Migrating and Settling in Nebraska
By Cherrie Beam-Clarke
Beam-Clarke, with Irish brogue and period costume, depicts a Nebraska settler between 1845 and 1870. Based on historical fact, this is a first-person one-act presentation. Laugh and cry as the stories transport you in time to sail the stormy ocean, ride the wagon trail, and fight a prairie fire. The captivating first person stories tell of successful crops, losing loved ones, dancing, grasshoppers, hard work and becoming an American. The program has a sequel entitled "The Courage to Continue." Both are educational and entertaining.

Sandhills Song
By Otto Rosfeld
This program combines songs, stories, chants and poems to describe prairie life before "easy energy" such as electric power and hydraulic pumps entered the lives of settlers on the Great Plains. Beginning with the "last frontier" in the 1870s and extending to the 1950s, this program transports audiences back in time through the eyes of a prairie boy. Rosfeld performs original songs on acoustic instruments. A collection of old-time, hand-powered equipment is used as visual background for the stories and poems.

Stories of the Irish in Nebraska
By Thomas A. Kuhlman
In Lincoln and Omaha, on farms and in small towns, Irish Nebraskans left their mark on business, politics, the church, agriculture and the arts. From the establishment of Father Trecy's colony in Dakota County in 1856, the connection between Ireland and Nebraska has remained strong. Sometimes dramatic, sometimes hilarious, the stories of Nebraska's Irish immigrants range from the storing of rifles in the cellar of Lincoln's first millionaire for an invasion of Canada to the last minute rescue by a Nebraskan of Irish leader Parnell from hanging as a traitor in London.

Storytelling of the Dakota

By Joyzelle Gingway Godfrey

This presentation demonstrates the historic societal structure of the Dakota people through the medium of storytelling. The adventures of the first set of twins born in the world will give a glimpse of the family structure, food gathering and beliefs of their tribal people.

The "Tradition" in Traditional Folk Music
By David Seay
David Seay examines how over the generations folk traditions of different cultures have merged to become our own traditions as immigrants have found their way to Nebraska. This presentation features demonstrations and stories of folk instruments such as harmonica, penny whistle, Indian flute, ocarina, pan pipes, yak horn, bugle, musical saw, banjo, singing bowl, and limbertoys. This show is very flexible and works for audiences of any age.

Train Songs and Tales of the Westward Rails
By David Seay
What is it about trains that so easily engages one's imagination? Climb aboard with David Seay as he sings and plays a variety of railroad inspired songs and tells tales of the westward expansion of the rails towards Nebraska's western border in the mid-1800's. This upbeat excursion features storytelling, banjo, harmonica, whistles, and sing-alongs.

A Visitor From Russia
By Richard Kimbrough
Kimbrough assumes the personage of Dr. Viktor Ustinov, a Russian visiting the U.S.A. He points out cultural differences ranging from food to education to marriage. Later in the program he drops his "Russian" accent and addresses the audience as himself, but before he assumes his real identity, the audience will be forced to think about cultural and political differences. He has presented this program more than 500 times all across the nation.

A Young Man's Journey on the Oregon Trail
By Dale Clark
In 1843 an emigrant group of about 1,000 people left Independence, Mo., traveling to Oregon guided by Marcus Whitman. The group included more than 100 women and 600 children. In the next 25 years, over 350,000 emigrants made the 2,000-mile journey in this huge voluntary migration. Many myths have sprung up about this journey. The program is delivered as though Clark is reflecting on the diary and artifacts he kept when embarking on the cross-country adventure he "recreates" as an 11-year-old might have lived it in 1849.