For Immediate Release
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Contact: Josh Moenning
(402) 438-1598
Washington, DC - The House of Representative today passed House Resolution 1043, legislation Congressman Jeff Fortenberry introduced last month to honor the life and legacy of Chief Standing Bear.
“Chief Standing Bear’s plea for justice and human decency challenged the heart of our nation, yet his poignant story as one of America’s earliest civil rights leaders remains largely unknown,” Fortenberry said. “2008 is the 100th anniversary of Chief Standing Bear’s death. It is fitting that we honor this anniversary, that generations of Americans will know his life and his legacy.”
Below are excerpts from Fortenberry’s floor speech:
“Standing Bear was born in the Niobrara River valley, in what is now Nebraska, in 1834. An individual of exceptional talent and ability, he became Chief of the Ponca Tribe at an early age. In 1877, the Ponca people were forced, by treaty, to relocate from their home in Nebraska to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. The hardship of this 500-mile journey on foot, illness, and the harsh living conditions in Oklahoma caused the death of many members of the tribe, including Chief Standing Bear’s son.
“Committed to a promise to return his son to their Niobrara homeland for burial, Chief Standing Bear left for Nebraska with all who would follow him. Upon their return, the Chief and thirty of his fellow Ponca tribe members were arrested by the Department of the Interior in Omaha.
“With the assistance of Omaha attorneys John Webster and A.J. Poppleton and frontier newsman Thomas Tibbles who worked for the predecessor to the current newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald, Chief Standing Bear petitioned the federal courts for relief from the unjust federal treatment of the Ponca tribe. In 1879, the case came before U.S. District Court Judge Elmer Dundy.
“At the conclusion of his testimony, Chief Standing Bear raised his hand and spoke: ‘That hand is not the color of yours,’ he said, ‘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. God made us both.’
“The wisdom and dignity in Standing Bear’s words were not lost on Judge Dundy, who ruled that Native Americans are, in fact, citizens endowed with all of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Through the steadfast efforts of Chief Standing Bear and caring Nebraskans, the Ponca won their freedom and their right to return to their Nebraska homeland on the Niobrara, where he declared, ‘Here we will live, and here we will die.’ Chief Standing Bear would spend the next four years touring the United States, advocating for Native American civil rights and inspiring a generation. Then he returned to his home near the mouth of the Niobrara, farmed his land, and died there a quarter century later in 1908.”
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