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Happy Birthday, Nebraska!
"Study your Nebraska history. Be proud of your Nebraska heritage ... your Nebraska roots."
That was the message that Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale, aka "Cactus Jack," gave to fourth graders gathered in McCook Monday for an official "Nebraska Statehood Day" birthday party.
Gale and his entourage -- which included Sidesaddle Sharon, Sodbuster Sam and Deadwood Dave -- planned 10 such parties across the state. "We'll travel 1,200 miles to promote Nebraska," Cactus Jack said. "That's a lot of partying with Nebraska's fourth graders."
The parties observed the 139th anniversary of Nebraska becoming a state on March 1, 1867.
Celebrating Nebraska's statehood at the party at McCook Community College were 125 students from St. Patrick's in McCook and District 41, rural McCook; Hitchcock County Schools at Stratton and Culbertson; Southwest Elementary at Indianola; and Cambridge, Hayes Center and Arapahoe elementaries.
McCook Mayor Dennis Berry welcomed the students to MCC, Nebraska's first junior college; and to McCook, which he said is known for its residents who become prominent politicians, including senators George Norris and Ben Nelson and Nebraska governors Nelson, Ralph Brooks, Frank Morrison and Dave Heineman.
Dr. Richard Tubbs, MCC campus vice president, gave the students a math quiz: "If Nebraska is 139 years old, and McCook college is 80 years old, how old was Nebraska when the college started?" "That's right -- 59 years old," Dr. Tubbs said, pointing to a student in the center of the gym who spoke up quickly.
Dr. Tubbs told the students about MCC's youth enrichment summer classes named, "Wind in the Buffalo Grass," in honor of a Lakota Sioux proverb that explains the Indian's respect for their history: "A people without history is like wind in the buffalo grass."
"Deadwood Dave" and "Sodbuster Sam" helped students envision life on the Nebraska prairie 139 years ago with a song, "Little Sod Shanty on My Claim," written in Wheeler County, Nebraska, and popular in the early years of Nebraska's settlement.
Cactus Jack said it was that very lack of trees -- and the need to build homes of sod -- that led to Nebraska being called "The Tree-Planter State" between 1895 and 1945.
"Nebraskans made it a point to plant trees," Cactus Jack said, which led to the creation of the largest hand-planted forest in the world, at Halsey State Park.
"Nebraska is known for starting 'Arbor Day,'" Jack said, the national observation of the joy of planting trees to benefit people and the environment.
During another quiz -- this one with Cactus Jack, Deadwood Dave and Sodbuster Sam -- students proved that they know the state tree is the cottonwood. They also knew the state insect -- the honey bee; the state fossil -- the wooly mammoth; and the state gemstone -- the blue agate.
They also knew the official fish, and twirled and twisted their tongues around the words of a song: "The channel catfish is Nebraska's official fish, Nebraska's official fish, Nebraska's official fish. The channel catfish is the official fish, the official fish of Nebraska."
Cactus Jack asked the students about Nebraska counties named after presidents, including Hayes, Adams, Lincoln and Polk; counties named for trees or bushes -- Red Willow and Cedar; and counties named for Indian tribes -- Sioux, Pawnee, Dakota, Otoe and Cheyenne.
"Nebraska itself is an Indian word, meaning what?" Jack asked. "That's right -- flat water."
After Deadwood Dave bugled in Gov. Heineman's proclamation declaring March 1 as "Nebraska Statehood Day," and the students sang the state song, "Beautiful Nebraska," Secretary Gale encouraged the students, "Be proud of your Nebraska history, your Nebraska heritage, your Nebraska roots."
Secretary Gale expected 3,000 students from across the state to attend statehood parties, a part of Gale's broad mission to provide civics education to the state's youths.
Events coordinator Sharon Hambek, aka "Sidesaddle Sharon," planned parties n McCook, Kearney, Scottsbluff, Chadron, O'Neill, Wayne, Omaha, Boys Town, Lincoln and Grand Island.
The parties were sponsored by Gale, the NEBRASKAland Foundation and the Nebraska Humanities Council.