NELIGH — Residents here still honor a promise they made 140 years ago.

The evidence is on a grassy hill overlooking this Antelope County community. The Laurel Hill cemetery isn’t much different from any other, but on any given day, there is always one headstone more decorated than the others.

Because when the people of Neligh promised to care for the grave, they meant it.

White Buffalo Girl has been buried in the cemetery since she died in 1877, and her story is told at the Antelope County Museum here.