Steinauer Nebraska

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A story of migration, settlement, banishment… the rise and fall of three Swiss brothers emigrated to the United States who gave their name to Steinauer, Nebraska. What on the surface seems to be a success story, on closer examination reveals the complexity of the historical process of “homesteading”, and its corollary home-losing. The story of the rise of the white settler is put into context here with the story of the fall of the land’s original inhabitants, the American Indian. In fact however, the prosperity of many white settlers was short-lived. Many descendants of city founders were unable to eke out a living, despite their large landholdings. Before long the land that was once worshipped as “Mother Earth”, and exploited until barren, once again is covered with its original prairie grass.