36 Nebraskaland • December 2021
ave you ever wondered how the
Republican River got its name?
Gov. Frank Morrison, a Democrat,
used to tease his Republican
friends by asking, "Is it because it's so
shallow or so crooked?"
Jokes aside, the connection to the
party seems obvious, doesn't it? With
few exceptions, Nebraska has been
majority Republican since the Civil
War.
But look at the center of this 1839
map detail from Mitchell's School and
Family Geography. The Republican
Fork had its name long before the
Republican Party was organized in the
1850s.
Might the name refer to Jeff erson
and Madison's followers? Opposing
Hamilton's Federalists, they usually
called themselves Republicans or
sometimes Democratic-Republicans.
But the name is older than that, too.
At least by the 1780s, the river was
known to French traders as "Fourche
des Republiques" — the Forks of
the Republicans. Who were the
Republicans? The people living there
at the time were a band of Pawnees
who called themselves "Kitkehahki,"
the Little Earth-Lodge people.
For reasons not entirely clear,
French traders began referring to
the Kitkehahkis as the Republicans.
At that time, a "republican" was
anyone who believed in government
without a king or aristocracy. Perhaps
the Kitkehahkis' ways impressed
the traders as an alternative to
their homeland's highly centralized
monarchy. Desire for a republic was
gaining strength in France — as King
Louis XVI was soon to fi nd out.
N
Visit History Nebraska's website at
history.nebraska.gov.
How the Republican
By David L. Bristow, History Nebraska
Map from 1839 showing the "Republican Fork." History Nebraska, Forke map #52
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