Standing Bear
Also Known As: Ma-chu-nah-zhay; Mochunozhin
Standing Bear was a respected leader of the small Ponca Indian tribe that resided for years in northern Nebraska. In the late 1870s, at a crucial point in the tribe's existence, he took heroic action to reverse the wrongs inflicted upon his people at the hands of the U.S. government and its Indian agents. He remains a heroic and symbolic figure in the long struggle for Native American rights.
Nothing is known of Standing Bear's early life, although he is generally assumed to have been born around 1829. He was a member and a chief of the Ponca Indians, a small tribe--apparently never more than 800 or 900 persons strong in the nineteenth century--closely related to the much larger Omaha tribe. Since at least the mid-seventeenth century, the tribe had lived near the region where the Niobrara River enters the Missouri River in what is now northeastern Nebraska.
THE
LOSS OF PONCA LAND
In a treaty between the U.S. government and the Ponca Indians signed on March 12, 1858, the tribe ceded to the United States all the land they held except for an extensive tract near the mouth of the Niobrara River, which was reserved for the Poncas as their permanent home. In a second treaty, signed on March 10, 1865, the Poncas ceded another 30,000 acres to the federal government, retaining a total of 96,000 acres as their permanent reservation. However, in a separate treaty negotiated with the Sioux Indian tribes three years later, U.S. government negotiators inadvertently included the Poncas' 96,000 acres as part of a much larger reservation granted to the Sioux nation. Since the Poncas had not been consulted in the matter, they continued to occupy the tract. However, the much larger and more warlike Sioux tribes carried out repeated attacks on the Poncas during the next few years, seeking to drive them off land that they regarded as part of Sioux territory. The Indian Bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior decided in 1876 that the only solution to the problem was to relocate the Ponca tribe to a new reservation in the Indian Territory, located in the present state of Oklahoma.
Standing
Bear Statue
& Standing Bear Native American Memorial Park
A monument tribute to all Native Americans, this 22-foot bronze statue is of Ponca Chief Standing Bear, created by Cowboy Artist of America, Oreland C. Joe. The surrounding Park features many symbols of Native American culture and specifically honors the six tribes around Ponca City. Two audio centers tell Standing Bear's story and describe the highlights of the Park.
STANDING
BEAR'S TRIAL
Despair over the situation of the Poncas in Indian Territory, together with the more personal desire to bury his son in the tribe's Nebraska homeland, led Standing Bear to make the move that made him famous--though it cost him the leadership of his tribe. In early January of 1879, he led a small band of Poncas on a return march to Nebraska, determined to resettle on the old land or die in the attempt. Most of the roughly 600 members of the tribe chose to remain in the Indian Territory, but Standing Bear and several dozen followers arrived at the Omaha Indian agency at Decatur, Nebraska, on March 4, 1879. The Omahas welcomed their kinsmen and invited them to settle there; temporarily at least, they did so.
The Indian Bureau had been informed of Standing Bear's flight from the Indian Territory soon after his departure. Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz ordered General George Crook, commander of the U.S. Army Department of the Platte, at Omaha, to arrest the chief and his followers and return them to the territory in Oklahoma. Schurz and his advisers feared that if Standing Bear and his band were allowed to remain in Nebraska, it would set a precedent for all Native Americans in the Indian Territory to demand a return to their respective homelands. Standing Bear and his followers were arrested.
The federal district attorney argued that Standing Bear was not entitled to the protection of a writ of habeas corpus because he was not a citizen or even a "person" under American law. Standing Bear spoke briefly but eloquently on his own behalf. Judge Elmer S. Dundy, in the decision he handed down several weeks later, held that an Indian was, indeed, a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States, though he avoided the larger question of what rights of citizenship an Indian might have. He also ruled that the federal government had no rightful authority to remove the Poncas to the Indian Territory by force; Native Americans, he stated, possessed an inherent right of expatriation--that is, a right to move from one area to another as they wished. Dundy therefore ordered the release of Standing Bear and his followers from custody.
A
SYMBOL OF HUMAN RIGHTS STRUGGLE
Thomas
Tibbles and other leaders of the movement for Indian rights hoped to carry the
case of Standing Bear to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to secure a more definitive
statement on Indian citizenship and rights. Tibbles himself made a tour to Chicago,
New York, and Boston in the summer of 1879 to publicize the case and to raise
money for the Supreme Court appeal. By October of that year, he had arranged
for Standing Bear to lecture in key cities in the eastern United States. As
interpreters for the chief, who spoke no English, Tibbles included in the party
two Omaha Indians: Susette La Flesche (better known by her Indian
name, "Bright Eyes") and her brother, Francis La Flesche, both of
whom had been educated in English-speaking schools.
The tour generated great enthusiasm in urban social and literary circles, especially in Boston. Standing Bear, an impressive figure in his full Indian regalia, including feather headdress, related his story and that of his people in simple but emotional terms, while Bright Eyes, also in Indian dress, translated it into poignant English. A good deal of money was raised for the court appeal and for relief of the Poncas, and reform leaders were moved to become active in the cause of Indian rights. Standing Bear and Bright Eyes also testified before committees of Congress in Washington. The tour finally ended in April of 1880.
As
it turned out, Secretary of the Interior Schurz was able to quash the proposed
appeal of the Ponca case to the Supreme Court. However, the agitation over the
affair did lead to both congressional and presidential investigations. On February
1, 1881, President Hayes recommended to Congress that the Poncas be allowed
to live where they chose and that they be compensated for lands relinquished
and losses sustained during the forced removal to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
Congress voted the necessary legislation and funds on March 3, 1881.
The majority of the Ponca tribe did in fact remain in the Indian Territory, but Standing Bear and his group lived quietly on the old Nebraska reservation near the mouth of the Niobrara River. Standing Bear died in September of 1908.
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