04/02/2026
DECATUR MUSEUM TO OPEN FOR THE 2026 SEASON
The Decatur Museum will open for the 2026 season with a special program by Nancy Gillis entitled “Straddling Worlds: Negotiating Indian Education” on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 2 p.m. at the newly located Decatur Museum at 703 4th Ave, Decatur, Nebraska.
Gillis’s program looks at the history of educational strategies in Native American education for assimilation and indoctrination from the 17th century through the boarding school era of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the 20th and 21st century changes toward self-determination in a view to the future.
Nancy S. Gillis is the former Executive Director of the John Neihardt State Historic Site from 1997-2019. She also served on faculty at Wayne State College, Northeast Community College, Nebraska Indian Community College, and Little Priest Tribal College from 1990 through 2017 teaching Native American History and Cultures, U.S. and World History, Cultural Anthropology and Sociology. She continues to present to schools and civic groups on Neihardt’s work and a variety of topics on Native history, cultures, literature, education, stereotyping and other contemporary issues for Humanities Nebraska and as an independent historian.
Of Cherokee and Choctaw heritage, Gillis moved to Nebraska in 1987 to work with the Winnebago and Omaha people for the Reformed Church in America and has served on its Council on Indigenous Ministries. She is active in various civic organizations, on the boards of the Neihardt Foundation, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Center, State of Nebraska Historical Preservation, Nebraska Folklife Network, Nebraska Arts Council, State Poet Panel, Atlas of Winnebago, Reformed Church Commission on Race and Ethnicity, the Walthill Village Planning Commission, and others.
She is a proud grandmother of four and great grandmother to twelve, enjoys traveling, and collecting Native American art, particularly stereotypical images of Native Americans in popular culture she uses in presentations.
After the presentation, the museum will be open for tours of the new exhibits with refreshments served in the Event Center directly west of the museum.
