About Pender

Pender is a village and the county seat of Thurston County. The 2020 census recorded 1,115 residents, up from 1,002 in 2010; the 2000 count was 1,148. The village covers 0.71 square miles. Local history describes the site as a plateau just west of Logan Creek.

History

Pender was founded in the mid-1880s on land opened for sale out of the Omaha Reservation, after Congress authorised the sale of 50,000 reservation acres in 1882. Sources differ on the exact year: the University of Nebraska community history files describe a land rush on 30 April 1884, started by a gunshot signal, while other accounts date the settlement to April 1885. The name honours John Pender, a director of the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway who was also known for his work on the transatlantic cable. Pender became the county seat when Thurston County was organized.

Nebraska v. Parker

Whether Pender stands inside the Omaha Reservation was disputed for decades. The Omaha Tribe holds that the village lies within the boundaries set by an 1865 treaty. A Nebraska court ruled in 1999 that the western boundary was a railroad right-of-way east of Pender. After the tribe applied liquor licensing fees and a 10 per cent sales tax to village merchants in 2006, the question went to litigation. On 22 March 2016, in Nebraska v. Parker, the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that the disputed land is within the reservation's boundaries.

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