As an employee of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), it is integral to understand our history and how it impacts our work today. This is a rich history and complicated history; including much Indigenous land being transferred to Universities as part of the Morrill Act. UNL recognizes and respects this history. Extension’s Land Acknowledgement Statement follows:
"We would like to begin by acknowledging that the University of Nebraska is a land-grant institution with campuses and programs on the past, present, and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Oto-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Kaw Peoples, as well as the relocated Ho-Chunk, Iowa, and Sac and Fox Peoples. Please take a moment to consider the legacies of more than 150 years of displacement, violence, settlement, and survival that bring us together here today. At the University of Nebraska, we respect and seek out inclusion of differences, realizing we can learn from each other, and we look forward to building long-lasting relationships with the Indigenous People of Nebraska."
Chuck Hibberd, Nebraska Extension Emeriti
UNL was chartered in 1869 as a Morrill Act land-grant institution. UNL is dedicated to the Jeffersonian ideal of a “generalize diffusion of knowledge.” Since its earliest days, it has been open to all people of any “age, sex, color, or nationality,” in the words of its founding documents. Now, as then, this university welcomes all.
Land-grant University (LGU)
In 1862, the Morrill Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln. This act granted unclaimed federal lands to establish colleges for the purpose of promoting education in “agriculture and the mechanic arts”.
In 1890, the Second Morrill Act was signed. As part of this federal law, LGUs were established for African Americans and all LGUs were forbidden to racially discriminate through their admissions policies. Today, 17 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) also hold the LGU status.
Click here for more in-depth learning about the land-grant history and the impact to Nebraskans.
Tribal Colleges and Universities
In 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act. This federal law provided 29 tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) land-grant university status; meaning these TCUs received federal resources to support higher education, research, and extension programming in agriculture. More information about the five Nebraska 1994 land grant institutions can be found here. An excerpt from a no longer active page on the website is included below to identify the importance of indigenous people, culture, and knowledge is to Extension.
Research suggests that agriculture in the Americas began between 7,000 and 5,000 BCE. Given that perspective, the 20 years since the tribal GUs were established doesn’t seem like such a long time. American Indians have been practicing observational science, its application, and its conservation long before our agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), funded research and education projects in Indian Country. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director
When the 1994 land-grants began to form the First American Land-Grant Consortium in 2002, they invited faculty from the 1862 and 1890 LGU institutions. They also brought in an organizational consultant who asked the group to create a timeline of their schools. The 1862 and 1890 GU faculties started with the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 that created them. The 1994 land-grant faculty, however, surprised everyone by beginning their timelines with their tribal history, starting long before the beginnings of the U.S. federal government. This was a hint that something different and special was underway. This new land-grant system would teach in a cultural context that empowered students by drawing on the strength of their peoples’ history, indigenous knowledge, and traditions.
Nebraska Extension’s relationship with Nebraska’s Tribal Colleges is imperative to the success of Extension and all Nebraskans; notably Peoples indigenous to these lands that were used in the original LGUs. Nebraska Extension is engaged with the TCUs to build and strengthen mutual partnerships, programming, and ensure successful transitions from the Tribal Colleges to the University of Nebraska. In Nebraska, there are two Tribal Colleges:
- Little Priest Tribal College: Campus located in Winnebago, NE
- Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC): Campuses located are in Macy, Niobrara, and South Sioux City, NE
Federal Funding
As part of the 1862 Morrill Act, each state received 30,000 acres of land for each senator and representative in Congress. The income from this land was to be used for operating expenses for the LGUs.
In 1887, the Hatch Act allowed for the provision of $15,000/year to qualifying states to conduct original research related to the agricultural industry. In the 1890 Second Morrill Act, the annual amount of $15,000 could increase annually by $1,000 up to $25,000.
In 1906, the Adams Act allowed qualifying states to receive an additional maximum of $15,000/year over the course of 5 years.
In 1907, the Nelson Amendment modified the 1890 Act to allow some of the funding to provide instruction and teaching elements of agriculture and mechanic arts. The funds doubled from the maximum of $25,000 to $50,000/year.
The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 created a Cooperative Extension Service within each land-grant institution. Cooperative Extension, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and agricultural colleges, helps to extend information produced by the research of scientists within each college’s experiment station.
While federal funding is important to the work we do within Extension, it is a small part of our funding. Every land-grant institution looks different in where offices are located and in funding. In the section below, details of Nebraska’s grant, state, and county funding is explained.