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Standing Bear (1829-1908) was chief of the Ponca Indians in the mid-1800s when American Indian tribes all over the United States were suffering upheaval at the hands of the United States government.
In January of 1877, Edward Kemble, an Indian Inspector from Washington DC brought the orders that the Ponca must move to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. Several years earlier, the Ponca had reluctantly agreed to settle in a small area of land near the Niobrara branch of the Missouri River and give up most of their traditional lands. That treaty was forced upon them because white settlers wished to hunt in their rich lands. The U.S. government promised them schools and other enrichments in return.
But the land bordered their old enemies, the Sioux, and raids were staged frequently by the Sioux to steal their horses. In addition, the Sioux stationed soldiers throughout the hunting regions where the Ponca had traditionally hunted bison. Then in an 1889 treaty, the government granted the remaining Ponca land to the Sioux Indians. The result was repeated raids by the Sioux on the Ponca, and much bloodshed. And this was done by the white government to a group of Indians which had always befriended the new white settlers. To add insult to injury a series of natural disasters including drought, floods, and grasshoppers, destroyed their homes and crops for several years.
When Kemble came with his orders, Standing Bear spoke for his people when he said, "We do not wish to sell our land, and we think no man has a right to take it from us. Here we will live, and here we will die." But the government prevailed upon Standing Bear to travel by train with Kemble to survey the offered land and bring back a report to the people.
Standing Bear and nine Ponca delegates called the new place "the Warm Lands" and found that the weather conditions there unsuitable for their people. They told Kemble that they would not bring their people there only to have them die. Kemble retaliated for this refusal by leaving them deserted in the rugged land without food or other provisions. They were forced to return to Nebraska by foot- a trip of over five hundred miles. This is how Standing Bear told the story:
"We started for home on foot. At night we slept in haystacks. We hardly lived until morning, it was so cold. We had nothing but our blankets. We took the ears of corn that had dried in the fields. We ate it raw. The soles of our moccasins were out. We were barefoot in the snow. We were nearly dead when we reached the Otoe reservation in Nebraska. It had been fifty days. We stayed there ten days to get strong and the Otoes gave each of us a pony. The agent for the Otoes said he had a telegram [from the U.S. government] that the chiefs had run away, not to give us food or shelter or any help."
When they arrived back in Nebraska two months later, they were arrested by American soldiers who were waiting to return them to Indian Territory by force. On May 21, 1878, Standing Bear and all the Ponca tribe were herded like cattle in wagons and on foot before United States soldiers all the way to Oklahoma. Most of their personal belongings were taken from them. Elderly, sick and young suffered inexorably and many died. Prairie Flower, the daughter of Standing Bear and his wife, Shines White, died of consumption on the journey.
On July 9, they arrived in the Warm Lands. No provisions had been made for their settlement. They left log cabin homes and farmland to come to a place where there was nothing but harsh wilderness and their wagons and paltry provisions. One-hundred and fifty-eight of the seven hundred and sixty-eight Ponca, including this time Standing Bear's twelve year old son, died of pneumonia, malaria and other causes. All of their cattle and most of their horses died.
Standing Bear's son asked to be buried back in Nebraska, so Standing Bear and a contingent of thirty Ponca tribesmen returned with his body, a journey which took ten weeks, and often through blizzards. As soon as they reached Nebraska, they were arrested by General George Crook's soldiers.
However, Crook was not at all pleased and enlisted the help of Omaha Herald newspaper reporter Thomas Tibbles to get the story of the Indian's mistreatment out. Tibbles disseminated the story to various major papers and public outrage grew.
Attorneys John L. Webster and Andrew J. Poppleton defended them without pay. They believed that the Indians deserved the protection of the 14th Amendment, which states that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.
Unfortunately there were those who believed that Indians did not qualify as "persons" and therefore were not covered by the 14th Amendment. Ironically, it was against General Crook, as the representative for the Army, that Standing Bear's case was tried. The trial lasted two days and focused on the loss of home, life, health and property suffered by the Ponca.
Standing Bear ended his testimony with these words, "My hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man. The same God made us both."
Judge Dundy ruled that "… the question cannot be open to serious doubt. Webster describes a person as '… an individual of the human race.' This is comprehensive enough, it would seem, to include even an Indian." And so it was not until this time that native American peoples were considered "people" under the United States laws.
The Sioux and the Ponca tribes made peace in 1890, and the Sioux gave back to the Poncas part of their old homelands on the Niobrara. About a third of the Ponca returned to settle there, with the rest remaining in Oklahoma. In recent years the two groups of Poncas have gathered for pow-wows to celebrate their bond.
Standing Bear died in his home on the Niobrara on September 3, 1903. He spent many of his later years traveling the country to tell of his ordeal and to speak out for American Indians.
In 1993 a twenty two foot statue of Standing Bear was commissioned and it now stands just south of Ponca City in northern Oklahoma, at Standing Bear Park. It was designed by Oreland C. Joe, a leading United States sculptor. The Statue stands gazing over the Arkansas River Valley.
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