Chief Standing Bear was one strong leader. Plus he had a goatee which is pretty unusual.
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
Today I wanted to tell the story of a Ponca Indian chief named Standing Bear. It's a story of courage, perseverance and determination in the face of tragedy and overwhelming odds.
The Ponca were one of the tribes who worked hard to get along and negotiate(compromise and give in)with the United States government in the 1850's.
To the Chief the name of the game was Survival
In other words, they could see the writing on the wall and chose to try and stay alive instead of fight and get wiped out.
So they did just that during the greedy and merciless onslaught of the white man's expansion West. In fact, they gave up all their traditional lands save about 58,000 acres. This was in what is now Northeast Nebraska.
All was good until the feds, in their ultimate wisdom(sarcasm) created a great big reservation for their enemies the Sioux.
Thanks for working with us Chief but...
The only problem was the big Sioux reservation included their 58,000 acres and the Ponca were supposed to give up their homeland and move to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
Chief Standing Bear told them that their deal sucked and he protested. The government's response was to send hundreds of troops in to force them out...they evicted them and sent them on the long march with winter coming.
By the time they arrived in Oklahoma they were exhausted and half starved. They'd lost one third of their members on the trail. In December the chief's 16 yr old son passed away.
Chief Standing Bear with his wife and child, don't know the year:
The Chief was determined to bury his son in the ground of their homeland so he and a few of his tribe started right back toward Nebraska in the middle of winter.
Well, it was against the white man's law for an Indian to leave the reservation so the small band was labeled "renegades," tracked down and arrested. Chief Standing Bear argued that they were citizens and were free to travel.
Chief Standing Bear:
Apparently this was a novel concept but a general agreed with him, General Crook.
In fact, General Crook greatly sympathized with the Chief and what he was trying to do so he contacted a newspaper journalist named Thomas Henry Tibbles(I love these names..General Crook and T.H. Tibbles!).
The general got Tibbles involved in writing all these stories about the plight of the Chief and started turning public opinion to support his position.
Tibbles then, hired two big name lawyers from Omaha to represent the chief and his people. The Chief sued the U.S. government.
The big argument
Was that the tribe couldn't be held prisoners because they were American citizens and entitled to legal rights. The government's argument was that the Native Americans did not constitute “persons” under the law. Can you believe that?
Amazingly the judge ruled by the letter of the law instead of hate and prejudice.
We know he was a racist because he said that in spite the Indians being weak, insignificant, unlettered, and generally a despised race he ruled in favor of Standing Bear!
The judge declared that the Chief and his tribe were, indeed, persons under the law, and as such were entitled to move around the country like any citizen.
Here's the Chief in another cool outfit:
A major legal victory
This was the first time that Native Americans had been legally declared to be people who had a legitimate right to all the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution.
The government appealed of course and the case went before the Supreme Court who upheld the lower court's decision.
Standing Bear was finally allowed to return to his homeland to bury his son and he was also buried there when he passed. His determination forced the law of the land to recognize all Indians to be lawful citizens from that point on.
And his story lives on
Because the Nebraska legislature just sent a bronze statue of him to Washington, D.C. to reside in the National Statuary Hall which has 100 statues from all the states commemorating important figures in history from each state.
Statuary Hall:
Some of the statues are in the Hall of Columns:
And here is Standing Bear's statue. I think the sculptor did a fantastic job:
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
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Very interesting history of the Red Indians! Wonderful story and a shining example of the fight for freedom and rights.
Howdy sir kaminchan and thanks for the kind words!
Happy Christmas to you and your family too!
Try not to get too tipsy!
Got to love the "Good 'Ol Days," back when only some people couinted as human beings. Combined with leeches and bloodletting for health care and today's world doesn't seem quite as bad. Well, at least not until the flying zombie-demons rise...
lol..we really have it pretty darn good until the zombie thing happens! What are you doing for Christmas sir fotosdenada?
The good fight will always have hero's my friend and history shows the folly of mankind. Great that they have erected a statute in his honor!
Blessings and a Merry Christmas to you guys!
I agree sir papilloncharity. I'd love to see that Statutory Hall sometime, it looks mighty impressive!
All of the statues of white people over here are being removed, due to claims that they only represent colonialists.
Blessings!Yeah and I bet that they have many of mankind's hero's in there Sir @janton.
Oh my gosh! That is such ignorance, the removing of white people statues. Makes one just shake your head.
Hahaha, many things here are head shaking incidents my friend,
Blessings!
Wow, great story that I wouldn’t have know without your sharing it! Thanks @janton. What a great hero.
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Howdy and thank you sir badger, I'm so glad you liked it!
What would have been good was if there were photos taken of him...Wait for it...Sitting! Now what a juxtaposition that would have been.
Seems like the old boy did some good work and his legacy lives on after his death. Good article here.
lol..yeah I saw quite a few photos of him but none of him sitting, I wonder if it was because of his name!
Wouldn't be a good look if he was photographed sitting would it? 😂
Why is it that so many people have to die before anything gets done in their favor. I am very happy that the Chief is recognized as an important person in history. Beautiful statue and great photos.
Wishing you and Mrs. J a Merry Christmas! : )
Howdy Butterfly! Yes isn't that sad? But it always seems to be the way. What are you doing this Christmas? It was 72 and sunny today, tomorrow is the same so I'm doing some work outside.
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Howdy esteemapp and thank you for the upvote!
Somehow, I missed the ending of Frankie's story.
That's because I snuck it in when you were out on one of your many vacations or world travels sir Vincent! lol..no, I'm only about half way through Frank's story but I've been so busy working offline, outside, that I haven't had time to do a proper job of research with his story.
Plus I decided to wait until Christmas is over since most of his stories involve crime, evil, and bloodshed. lol.
Ah. I see. 😊
My historian friend was doing a book signing in South Dakota and I went along. My great grandparents had homesteaded in Avon, SD and while we were out there we went to check out the town. I learned a lot from my friend about Chief Standing Bear while we were on that trip, and drove down to the Missouri River specifically to be able to drive across this bridge.
Oh how interesting Melinda, that's so cool! How long ago was that?
10 years ago. It was an interesting trip!
Oh, it sounds like you've known that historian forever.
Great red Indian story @janton. Have a blessed Christmas 🎄🙏
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Howdy clitadias! I agree and I'm glad you liked it. Thanks so much!
Hi, @janton!
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Howdy steem-plus and thank you for the upvote!
Interesting history Cowboy! I am saddened when I think of their plight.
That’s a wonderful statue of Standing Bear.
Howdy redheadpei! Thank you and I agree on both points. I'm glad the statue was put up so more people can know of the injustices done.
That's a great story. It's nice to hear about positive, uplifting stories like this.
Yes, someone honoring the right thing! Thanks sir wwwiebe, I bet you had a fun Christmas!
Looks more like his Nose got in the way when He was looking down at his reflection in the water to shave and kept missing a spot.....lmao
Look at this old fools gnarly beard...... Yikers
lol..maybe so about the goatee! Hey who you callin fool? You ain't no fool, you haven't been posting much have you? that proves it. lol.
For most people, to make this worth it.. this steemit stuff... you gotta work at it full time for a year and then you finally start building something and get some traction.
But when you got idiots abusing the downvoting policy for no discernable reason...then it puts a damper on things.
Hey nice starter beard! You're gonna keep growin it out right? lol.
Lets both start right now. Grab a few GeeTar lessons, By next year we can go as a cover band for the ZZ's
That Lil' Ol Band from Texas......
src https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/01/07/12/ZZ-Top-Glastonbury.jpg
lol..I was thinking of them when I said that about the long beard! Those guys have been playing forever. You might have to dye yours to fit in though.
Great story by the way. Great Job Jonboy..!!
thanks. Sometimes I try to do a decent post.