The photograph collections of History Nebraska contain more than two hundred images of Nebraska baseball players, teams, and diamonds. The images reflect the pride and support the teams engendered, especially when they represented their hometowns.
Several photographs in the collections document Native American baseball teams. Whether representing their school or a business enterprise, these teams took pride in their skills and their involvement in the national game.
The most famous team of barnstorming Indian baseball players was Green’s Nebraska Indians. Formed by Lincoln businessman Guy W. Green, the Indians crisscrossed the country from 1897 into the 1910s, playing town teams that challenged them. Although the name implied that Native Americans constituted the team, it is clear that white players were also members.
The U.S. Industrial Indian School at Genoa existed to assimilate Native children into white society by removing them from their families and culture. (Read more here.) By the early twentieth century, the school had a baseball team, pictured here, that competed successfully against area white schools.
Perhaps hoping to repeat the success of Green’s Nebraska Indians, the Oxford Indians of Oxford, Nebraska, formed around 1909. It appears that this group of “Indians” included a fair representation of whites.
