Pender Nebraska 68047

Pender, the county seat of Thurston County, was founded in April 1885 during the opening of the Omaha Reservation to settlement and named for Sir John Pender, a Scottish transatlantic-cable pioneer and railway director. It became the subject of the 2016 U.S. Supreme Court case Nebraska v. Parker, which confirmed the village lies within the boundaries of the Omaha Indian Reservation.

With roughly 1,100 residents, Pender is Thurston County's largest community and its administrative center, its history entwined with both the 1884 opening of the Omaha Reservation to settlers and a modern Supreme Court ruling reaffirming reservation boundaries that include the village itself.