I am man. God made us both.’
Chief Standing Bear’s historic trail blazed a trail for civil rights.
December 3, 2013
By David Hendee
World-Herald staff writer
The forced removal of the Ponca from their homeland to Indian Territory led to a trailblazing civil rights trial in Omaha.
Ponca Chief Standing Bear was born on Ponca land in what is now Nebraska. Several Ponca died during the tribe’s march in 1877, and many more succumbed to disease and hunger after arriving in their new homeland.
Among the victims was Standing Bear’s son, Bear Shield. His dying wish was to be buried in the land of his ancestors near the confluence of the Missouri and Niobrara Rivers.
Standing Bear and others returned north to Nebraska in 1879 without U.S. government authorization to bury his son’s body. Under orders from Washington, D.C., troops from Fort Omaha arrested Standing Bear and the others at the Omaha Indian Reservation.
Gen. George Crook, the famed Indian fighter and Fort Omaha commander, sympathized with the Ponca and didn’t agree with the order. He also didn’t want to force Standing Bear to return south. Crook confided in Thomas Henry Tibbles of the Omaha Daily Herald, a predecessor of The World-Herald.
In news stories and talks with clergymen, Tibbles drummed up support for the Ponca’s plight and persuaded local attorneys John L. Webster and Andrew J. Poppleton to take the case. Tibbles’ stories blistered the commissioner of Indian Affairs and the secretary of the interior.
The Bill of Rights says no man is to be “deprived of life, liberty or property without due process or law.’’ American Indians were not considered men under U.S. law and had no rights.
The trial opened April 30, 1879, before U.S. District Judge Elmer Dundy. Poppleton argued that no law excluded the Ponca, as persons, from the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws.
After adjourning, Dundy allowed Standing Bear to address the courtroom. The Indian stood before the judge, extended his hand, and said in Ponca:
“That 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. God made us both.”
The chief’s dramatic words were translated to the court, and Tibbles recounted them in his book, “Buckskin and Blanket Days.’’
Dundy later ruled that the Ponca were held illegally and ordered their release. The decision was a landmark declaration that Indians had rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Standing Bear returned to his homeland on the Niobrara. He died there in 1908 at about age 74.
About the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska
Enrolled tribal members: About 3,500
Members in Nebraska, 1,320; Iowa, 266; and South Dakota, 237; the rest live elsewhere.
Headquarters: Niobrara, Neb.
Reservation: None, but the tribe provides health, social, educational and cultural programs in designated service delivery areas in 15 counties where members live. Service areas: Boyd, Burt, Douglas, Hall, Holt, Knox, Lancaster, Madison, Platte, Sarpy, Stanton and Wayne Counties in Nebraska; Charles Mix County in South Dakota; Pottawattamie and Woodbury Counties in Iowa.
Offices: Omaha, Lincoln, Norfolk and Niobrara, Neb.;
and Sioux City, Iowa
Source: Ponca Tribe of Nebraska
