Beside US-75 at Macy, on the Umóⁿhoⁿ reservation, the Blackbird Scenic Overlook looks out over the Missouri valley toward the hill where Wazhiⁿga' sabe, Blackbird, was buried in 1800. The hill itself, a promontory about 300 feet above the river, is private land and not open to the public, but it can be seen from the overlook and the roads nearby.
In the late 1700s Blackbird led the Umóⁿhoⁿ to a position of strength on the eastern plains. He built alliances with other nations to control access to the upper Missouri, and a French trader wrote in 1794 that traders could not reach the Omaha or the communities upriver without his consent. Spanish, French, British and then American traders all had to deal with him, and in 1796 the Spanish governor of Louisiana gave him a medal to mark his ties and trading obligations to Spain.
Smallpox came with white visitors in the winter of 1799 to 1800. It killed Blackbird and about 400 people of his village, nearly a third of his community, and his relatives buried him on the hill above the river, a place chosen for its view for miles along the water. In Omaha tradition he was buried seated on his horse, watching for the traders. The hill is also called Big Elk Hill, and Omaha accounts say the later leader Big Elk was buried there too. Lewis and Clark climbed it on August 11, 1804, and left a flag on the grave. The overlook has parking and interpretive exhibits.
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