May is budget month for the State of Nebraska in the Unicameral Legislature. The main budget for the year will add up to $10.7 billion. The Legislature has been busy debating four primary budget bills, so today I would like to tell you about a few items in the budget that will benefit Western Nebraska.
Fort Robinson is first on the list. Fort Robinson stands to receive $20 million dollars to be used for improvements to the fort. $2 million has been designated to memorialize the all-Black Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, who were stationed at Fort Robinson in 1885 and served there for the next 18 years.
Although a display for the Buffalo Soldiers currently stands at the History Nebraska Fort Robinson Museum, little else has been done to honor the Buffalo Soldiers. Among other things, the Buffalo Soldiers were charged with the task of controlling Native Americans in the plains during the Ghost Dance Era. The ghost dance was revived in 1890 among the Lakota Sioux, who believed that performing the dance with vestments known as ghost shirts and singing prophetic songs could wipe out the white man and restore the buffalo herds.
