 Next up on our lightning rounds is Amy Coussera who is our next Nebraska speaker from the John Nighthart. Did I say that right? Yes, and they have a great research library there and she's going to tell us all about what they do there and the resources you can use. So go ahead and take it away Amy. Great, thanks again for being patient with me here. Hi everybody, my name is Amy Coussera and I have been the Executive Director here at the John G. Nighthart State Historic Site in Bancroft since May of 2015 and it really is an honor to have the chance to present the information about our research library and our historic site here in Northeast Nebraska with all of you. I'm going to fill you in just a little bit about our site and then speak about our library and our future programs here as we go on. But first we should mention John G. Nighthart, the man whose life and works we house here at the Nighthart State Historic Site. John Nighthart was the Nebraska's poet laureate in perpetuity and this is a two and a half acre site that includes Nighthart's Historic Study, an admission free museum, a research library, the Sacred Hoop prayer garden which was actually designed by Nighthart in 1971 that's out on our grounds, and a number of special events and programs. The site is open year round and we are a branch museum of the Nebraska State Historical Society and operated by the Nighthart Foundation. We have four staff members we're all part-time employees. It's myself the Executive Director. We have an administrative assistant part-time. We have a part-time librarian and a part-time groundskeeper. So we work hard here and the purpose of our site is to educate the public through the legacy of John G. Nighthart who is perhaps best known for his work Black Elk Speaks but also he published over 40 works and with a very accomplished writer. So Nighthart himself here in these photos that you can see. I tell folks that I have a lot in common with Nighthart myself. He was a graduate of Wayne State College at the time Wayne Normal School at age 16 and taught country school for a short time and as did my grandma. So we have that in common. He also worked extensively in native communities of the areas documenting the stories and spending a lot of time with the elders from different tribes and I myself also do work part-time as well through the Indian Center in Lincoln, Nebraska through documenting endangered indigenous languages. So there's a lot of tie into the work that I do here as well. And then he was also five foot two and lived in Bancroft and I am also that tall and live in this area. So though he was... So it's destiny then that you're... Yes it is. One of his autobiographies is patterns and coincidences and I'm seeing a lot of those really very strong but just to kind of summarize when he was 11 years old he moved to Wayne, graduated in 18 or at age 16 rather in 1898 and his exposure and his life on the plains previously really inspired his work. And so when he moved to Bancroft in 1900 after graduating from Wayne State he also started working for a trader on the Omaha Reservation here in the area and then he rented this one-room cabin you can see here which was used as a house rather up as a residence until the 60s of the 1960s when it became a designated as a historic study on a historic site. So his early time here at the study in Bancroft really opened him up to a lot of acquaintances with native people in the plains Indian culture and it eventually led him to work or meet rather the Ogallala Lakota Holy Man Black Elk in 1930. He was here working on his epic poem volume, A Cycle of the West and that's when he met Black Elk when he was doing research for the ghost dance movement in Pine Ridge. So it's again his probably most well-known work but he's got a number and this this was restored. I'll go on to show some more photos here of how the shape it was in and this here these photographs show the interior of the study and we keep it the way it would have been as he used it and it's the only remaining structure where Neihart either worked or lived that that does remain. Right now our library is actually under construction so we don't have any updated photos at the end of this presentation. I'll provide some links to more photographs but we have a museum and a library here at the Neihart Center. That includes a memorial room which you see is in a sacred hoop design. We also have extensive artifacts and displays that have a lot to do that have to do with Neihart's life and also the cultures of the Great Plains and that kind of segues into talking about our library. Our library is a research library and a majority of our books and our holdings are on loan from the State Historical Society and we also do have a number of donated historic photographs articles books and information and also we have five subject categories and those include reference poetry and prose biography American Indian Studies and Western History in Americana. We also just have an extensive collection of Neihart's related memorabilia information and including personal items such as his desk where he wrote Black Oak Speaks and a lot of his own paintings and art events. We also are rather artifacts perhaps this is what I'm looking for. We also do have bronze busts of Ben Black Oak as well as Suzette LaFlesh Tibbles and I'll speak a little bit more about those and our other really an amazing sculpture that we're going to have installed here on our grounds and that will have a lot to do and tie in back with our with our items in our library. Again Black Oak Speaks was his most popular well known work and really how a lot of people identify and know who Neihart is so we are looking at working on curriculum related to Black Oak Speaks in order to invite more people to take part of our research here and the materials here available to them and as well as use our center as kind of a way to educate folks about all the different cultural history of the Great Plains and especially in this region and so part of that involves a Neihart Black Oak sculpture that will be installed on our grounds and again with the connection to Neihart's Black Oak Speaks it'll be the 85th anniversary of the publication of that book and we really hope to tie in and bring more folks in to see that connection between the cultures of the Plains as through Neihart as he was very connected. This is a again a view of our Sacred Hoop Garden of before and after imagery you can see it's changed a lot and actually Neihart's study was in very much disrepair when it was looked to be restored and thankfully the townspeople saw the benefit for continuing Neihart's legacy and creating the Neihart Center and through special events it's really also how we hope to bring people into our library and to really inspire them to find another interest and avenues into exploring our collective history. We've also were very lucky to celebrate the Neihart Day celebration this year the 50th anniversary which actually brought together the Neihart Black Oak families together for the first time and it was a surprise event. The photographs you see here are images of Neihart's grandson up top and Neihart's granddaughter presenting the bow and arrows that were given from Black Elk to Neihart and they were returned to the Black Elk family and that was Black Elk's great-great grandson Myron Poirier that was here for Neihart Day and it was happened to be my first event so here at the Neihart Center so it was a big big event and the photograph down below you can see the granddaughter and grandson of Neihart on either side of the great-grandson of Black Elk and there was also a traditional Lakota song that was written and presented during that event so we are also very much aware that we are perhaps making history here too and is another way for us to start collecting more information related to the tribes and the cultures of the region and just another note the site where Black Elk was taken from in his vision from the book Black Elk Speaks there's actually a proposal to change the name of that sacred site for the Lakota to Black Elk Peak and the Neihart Center again below is a photo of his grandson and the Neihart Center has been kind of a new light has been shown on our site because of our connection to both Ben Black Elk and Neihart. We really also hope to bring in more exhibits and events that are related to this cultural vibrancy that is in this area and that includes not only exhibits of that we currently have on display but also connecting those for the exhibits we permanently have on display in our museum and as well as inviting the public to take part firsthand and understanding what the symbolism in our museum means and what a lot of history has to offer for all ages and all cultures and so we're proud to be able to do that here and kind of expand to include be more all-inclusive to folks with interest in history and literature as well as art and and similar events. Also notably we've just received a large donation incredible donation rather of photographs you can see here they are in a little bit needing or a little bit they do need some repair but beautiful photograph graphic collection a number of photos of Omaha people of the region and because of Neihart's ties to the Omaha people and also it appears to be that these photographs were taken by one of the gentlemen that was a friend of Neihart so we have to find out more information and this is kind of a unique project in another way we can build events and invite people and to do research as well here at our library and museum so this is the Robinson Blackbird photographic collection and again another tie to this region with the tribal with in relation to tribal people and his connection and their connection with Neihart includes the sisters the Omaha sisters there's Dr. Susan LaFlesche Peacot and her sister Susan Brideyes LaFlesche Tibbles very well known and and actually they lived in and around this area but are buried out at the the Bancroft cemetery includes a number of tribal folks too so really just providing the information to the public I think as I've seen people come in here a lot of folks do have questions and don't realize the rich cultural history we have and that is related to Neihart. Some links here of importance our Neihart center.org website that's actually in the process of being updated and we have we will be working with Wayne State College students and bringing them in and updating our website and but at the time right now it currently has more photographs as well as inviting more people to contribute in in different ways. Our web presence is kind of new here at the center and so establishing a Facebook page has been very helpful and we do have one up so please go there and like us too and that is our way to be able to provide the most up-to-date information at this time. We also have a website through Nebraskahistory.org Nebraska State Historical Society that has photographs of our former library again our current one has been under construction throughout this last year but the construction includes expanding it to have ADA accessible restrooms and facilities so we're proud to be able to accommodate anybody that comes through our doors now and then finally the Neihart.unl.edu is a special project that was undertaken by Dr. Pamela Gossin and she and a number of students the University of Texas have done an incredible project and have digitized all of Neihart's correspondence as well as his essays and reviews and and other works and it's an incredible resource that we are very glad to have and is available to anyone at any time to do further research of Neihart. So I'm going to leave it open if I have any time for questions or and please feel free to contact me here we're open throughout the summer in the summer hours we're open every day and in the winter hours we are open only by appointment on weekends otherwise we're open Mondays through Friday. Great thank you very much Amy that's really interesting to hear about these historical sites I love these kind of things definitely.