Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/939

OMAGUA. villages along the Amazon. Forty years later these mission villages numbered forty, all in flourishing condition, and continued to prosper in spite of attacks by Portuguese slave-hunters, until the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish colonies in 1767. The mission settlements were gradually broken up, and the Indians retired to the forests and relapsed into their original condition.

They still maintain their reputation as a superior tribe, being of fine physique and light complexion, intelligent, industrious, honest, kindly, and cleanly in house and person. They bury their dead in large earthen jars beneath the floors of their huts, the relatives wailing constantly for a month after the funeral. Young men are subjected to a whipping ordeal to try their fortitude, while girls are hung up in a net over a smoldering fire. They have long since abandoned the practice of head-flattening. Our knowledge of caoutchouc or india-rubber was derived first from this tribe.  OMAHA,. An important Siouan tribe, formerly claiming an extensive territory on the west side of the Missouri, between the Platte and Niobrara, within the present limits of Nebraska, and now gathered, together with the Winnebago, upon a reservation in the northeastern part of that State. The name signifies ‘upper-stream’ people, in distinction from the Quapaw, or ‘down-stream’ people. They speak a dialect of the same language used also by the Ponca, Quapaw, Kaw, and Osage, from whom, according to their tradition, they separated at no very distant period. They made a treaty of peace and alliance with the Pawnee in 1800, but were constantly at war with the Sioux, from whom they repeatedly suffered until the United States Government interfered and put a stop to hostilities. In spite of war and smallpox, they have held their own in population, and number now about 1200, being slightly on the increase, while the Winnebago, on the contrary, are decreasing. Their agent reports them as prosperous and steadily improving in industry and civilized habit. The majority still occupy the circular long house, covered with earth, formerly common to the semi-sedentary tribes of the Upper Missouri region.  OMAHA. The largest city of Nebraska and the county-seat of Douglas County, 492 miles west by south of Chicago, Ill.; on the Missouri River, opposite Council Bluffs, Iowa, and on the Burlington Route, the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley, the Chicago and Northwestern, the Illinois Central, the Missouri Pacific, and the Union Pacific railroads (Map:, J 2). The great bridges across the Missouri are among the sights of the city. These unite it, through Council Bluffs on the east side, with a great radiating system of railways to all points eastward. A belt line encircles the city, affording railway intercommunication.

Omaha is finely situated on a plateau, rising into bluffs which are largely used for residence sites, the business district lying adjacent to the river. From its important position, with reference to the West, it has been called the ‘Gate City.’ It occupies an area of 24½ square miles

at an elevation of about 1030 feet above sea level, and 80 feet above the river, and has broad streets, of which 85 miles are paved. The public park system, nearly 600 acres in extent, includes the more notable Hanscom, Riverview, Bemis, Miller, and Elmwood parks, and Jefferson Square. Omaha is the seat of Creighton University (Roman Catholic), founded in 1879, a Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Creighton Medical College, Omaha Medical College, Nebraska College of Pharmacy, Brownell Hall, Academy of the Sacred Heart, and Saint Catherine's Academy, and has several libraries. The Public Library contains more than 55,000 volumes, and is located in one of the prominent buildings of the city. Other architectural features are the city hall, county court house, United States Government Building, high school, New York Life Insurance Building, office of the Omaha Bee, Paxton Block, the Exposition Building, the Coliseum (a large convention hall), and Protestant Episcopal and Roman Catholic cathedrals. The State School for the Deaf is in the city, and there are also several well-equipped hospitals, among which particular mention may be made of Saint Joseph's, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Immanuel (Swedish) hospitals. Omaha is the seat of the United States military headquarters of the Department of the Platte. The city has extensive shops of the Union Pacific Railroad, and one of the most complete establishments in the country for smelting and refining the ores of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc which come from the mining regions along the line of the Union Pacific and other railways. The meat-packing industry, represented by five separate plants located in (q.v.), has assumed an extent excelled only by Chicago and Kansas City. Other manufactures include linseed oil, white lead, carriages, malt and distilled liquors, boilers and steam-engines, and bricks. The trade in live stock, grain, lumber, dry goods, and groceries is enormous, due to the city's excellent facilities for transportation.

The government is vested in a mayor, chosen every three years; a unicameral council; and in subordinate administrative officials, appointed by the executive with the consent of the council. The board of education, composed of 15 members, is independently elected by popular vote. Omaha, spends annually, in maintenance and operation, nearly $1,500,000, the principal items being about $375,000 for schools, $295,000 for interest on debt, $120,000 for the fire department, $80,000 for the police department, and $80,000 for municipal lighting. The city carries (1901) a bonded debt of over $5,600,000. Population, in 1860, 1883; in 1870, 16,083; in 1880, 30,518; in 1890, 140,452; in 1900, 102,555, including 23,600 persons of foreign birth and 3400 of negro descent.

In 1804 Lewis and Clark held a council with the Indians on or near the present site of Omaha, and in 1825 J. B. Royce, a fur-trader, built here a stockade and trading station, which, however, soon fell into decay. The first permanent settlement was made in 1854, and from that date to 1867 Omaha (so called from the Omaha Indians, a tribe of the Dakotas) was the capital of Nebraska. It was incorporated as a city in 1857. The growth of Omaha was greatly accelerated by the construction of the Union