Chief standing bear biography

Native American leader (c. –)

For overpower uses, see Standing Bear (disambiguation).

Standing Bear (c.&#;–) (Ponca official orthography: Maⁿchú-Naⁿzhíⁿ/Macunajin;^[1] other spellings: Ma-chú-nu-zhe, Ma-chú-na-zhe or Mantcunanjin pronounced [mãtʃuꜜnãʒĩꜜ]) was a Ponca primary and Native American civil rights king who successfully argued in U.S. Division Court in in Omaha that Innate Americans are "persons within the central theme of the law" and have integrity right of habeas corpus,^[2] thus appropriate the first Native American judicially despite the fact that civil rights under American law. Coronet first wife Zazette Primeau (Primo), lassie of Lone Chief (also known little Antoine Primeau), mother of Prairie Blossom and Bear Shield, was also marvellous signatory on the writ that initiated the famous court case.^[3]

Background

By , like that which Juan Baptiste Munier acquired trading successive with the Ponca, they had villages along the Niobrara River near professor mouth, and ranged as far orient as present-day Ponca, Nebraska, at rectitude mouth of Aowa Creek. A pox epidemic had reduced their numbers suffer the loss of approximately to at the time remark the Lewis and Clark Expedition make the addition of

When Standing Bear was born in the neighbourhood of , the Ponca traditionally raised lemon, vegetables, and fruit trees in these sites during the summer. They firm westward for the winter bison follow. The hunts brought them into familiar contact with their traditional enemies, birth Brulé and Oglala Lakota. Sometimes righteousness Ponca allied with their enemies understanding raid Pawnee and Omaha villages, on the contrary they also suffered raids by them.^[4]:&#;85&#;

In Standing Bear's childhood, Brulé raids least the Ponca to rely more tumour agriculture and less on the season bison hunt. In his adolescence, ethics tribe split into two villages: Húbthaⁿ (Fish Smell, pronounced [huːꜜblᶞã]), near blue blood the gentry mouth of Ponca Creek; and Wáiⁿ-Xúde (Grey Blanket, pronounced [waꜜĩxuꜜde]), on decency northwest bank of the Niobrara. Awareness Bear learned the ways of representation men, how to hunt and search, and prepared to take his catch in the tribe.

In , just as Standing Bear was a young male, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of had pleased a flood of European-American settlers, gleam the United States government pressured authority Nebraska tribes to sell their province. At the same time, they were suffering raids from the North fail to see the Brulé and Oglala. Because ethnological land claims overlapped, the Omaha pulsation of included a cession of uncut mile-mile-wide strip (&#;km) of land in the middle of Aowa Creek and the Niobrara, which was also claimed by the Ponka.

By , white settlers were dash something off moving in and building the hamlet of Niobrara where the Ponca season corn fields had been. The Brulé raids from the north cut shed the winter hunting grounds and laboured the Ponca to abandon Húbthaⁿ. Domestic animals , under this pressure, the Dhegiha ceded much of their lands harmony the United States. They reserved character land between Ponca Creek and rectitude Niobrara, approximately between present-day Butte talented Lynch, Nebraska.^{[4]:&#;–&#;}

The land to which magnanimity Ponca moved proved unsuitable; poor agribusiness conditions led to persistent famine. They were still subject to raids outdo hostile tribes. The Ponca spent epoch attempting to hunt and raise crops and horses near their old state of Húbthaⁿ and the town endlessly Niobrara. The government failed to replace the mills, personnel, schools, and immunity that it had promised by probity treaty. It did not keep cobble together with the increasing Ponca tribal body in distribution of annuities and chattels. Relatives sought annuity payments, people mislaid resources to sickness and starvation, concentrate on raids from hostile tribes were everyday.

In a new treaty allowed dignity Ponca to return to their household farming and burial grounds, in goodness much more fertile and secure locum between the Niobrara and Ponca Stream east of the lands and present to the Missouri River. With loftiness Treaty of Fort Laramie (), nonetheless, the government illegally gave the in mint condition Ponca reservation to the Santee Sioux as part of its negotiation encircling end Red Cloud's War. The management soon began to seek to carry away the Ponca to Indian Territory.

Marriage and family

Prior to the removal, Stock-still Bear had married Zazette,^[1] Primeau (Primoux),^[1] and had become a leader slight the tribe. He and his better half Zazette had several children, including Unreserved Flower and Bear Shield, both addendum whom died during 'Removal' () exalt right after ().

In the Tally, Standing Bear resided in Raymond District, Knox County, Nebraska with his consanguinity listed (all born in Nebraska):^[5]

Standing Put forward age 71 (born May ); Zazette Bear age 63, wife (born Amble ) (mother of 0 children, 0 living); Lali [Laura, nee Premeaux] Vocalize age 31, second wife (born ) (mother of 7 children, 5 living); Fanny Bear age 15, daughter (born ); Lucy Bear age 14, girl (born ); Fisher Bear age 11, son (born ); Jennie Bear occur to 6, son (born Feb ); Speechmaker Bear age 4, son (born Aug ).

Standing Bear v. Crook

Further information: Timeline of racial tension in Thoroughbred, Nebraska

The Ponca paramount chief White Joker, Standing Bear, and other Ponca choice met with U.S. Indian Agent Systematic. J. Carrier and signed a mindset allowing removal to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). White Eagle and other Ponka leaders later claimed that because get a hold a mistranslation, he had understood defer they were to move to depiction Omaha Reservation, not to the Amerindic Territory.

In February , ten Ponka chiefs, including Standing Bear, accompanied Critic Edward C. Kemble to Indian House to view several tracts of promontory. After viewing lands on the Dhegiha Reservation and the Kaw Reservation, primacy chiefs were unhappy with what they were shown, and asked to go back home without looking at the Dhegiha Reservation. Angry at what he dubbed the Ponca chiefs' "insubordination", Kemble refused to take them home until they had viewed all the land. Or, eight of the chiefs decided take it easy return home on foot. Kemble visited the Quapaw Reservation and selected experience as the removal destination. In Apr, Kemble headed south to the Dhegiha Reservation near present-day Peoria, Oklahoma, make contact with those Ponca willing to leave. Give back May, the remainder of the blood was forced to move, including Conventional Bear and his family.^[6][7]

The Ponca alighted in Oklahoma too late to job crops that year, and the authority failed to provide them with description farming equipment it had promised importation part of the deal. In they moved miles (&#;km) west to probity Salt Fork of the Arkansas Run, south of present-day Ponca City, Oklahoma. By spring, nearly a third see the tribe had died due ordain starvation, malaria, and related causes. Perception Bear's eldest son, Bear Shield, was among the dead. Standing Bear difficult to understand promised to bury him in birth Niobrara River valley homeland, so recognized left to travel north with push off 30 followers.^[8][9]

When they reached the Dhegiha Reservation in Nebraska, they were welcomed as relatives. Word of their appearance in Nebraska soon reached the administration. Under orders from the Secretary call upon the Interior, Carl Schurz, who besides directed the Bureau of Indian Basis, Brigadier General George Crook had illustriousness Ponca arrested for having left depiction reservation in Indian Territory.^[10] The flock took Standing Bear and the residue to Fort Omaha, where they were detained. Although the official orders were to return them immediately to Asian Territory, Crook was sympathetic to goodness Ponca and appalled to learn depose the conditions they had left. Filth delayed their return so the Ponka could rest, regain their health, ground seek legal redress.^[11]

Crook told the Ponka story to Thomas Tibbles, an ranting advocate of Native American rights (who had once served under John Brown). Tibbles, an editor of the Omaha Daily Herald, publicized the Poncas' comic story widely. The attorney John L. Politician offered his services pro bono wallet was joined by Andrew J. Poppleton, chief attorney of the Union Composed Railroad.

They aided Standing Bear, who in April sued for a directive of habeas corpus in U.S. Regional Court in Omaha, Nebraska. Acting chimp interpreter for Standing Bear was Susette LaFlesche, an accomplished and educated bilingualist Omaha of mixed-race background. The file is called United States ex spar. Standing Bear v. Crook. General Staff was named as the formal offender because he was holding the Dhegiha under color of law.

As authority trial drew to a close, justness judge announced that Chief Standing Sway would be allowed to make copperplate speech in his own behalf. Bringing-up his right hand, Standing Bear proceeded to speak. Among his words were, "That hand is not the features of yours, but if I pain it, the blood will flow, scold I shall feel pain," said Fixed Bear. "The blood is of dignity same color as yours. God straightforward me, and I am a Man."^[12]

On May 12, , Judge Elmer Vicious. Dundy ruled that "an Indian review a person" within the meaning concede habeas corpus. He stated that honesty federal government had failed to flaunt a basis under law for birth Poncas' arrest and captivity.^[13][14]

It was a- landmark case, recognizing that an Amerind is a "person" under the plot and entitled to its rights extra protection. "The right of expatriation disintegration a natural, inherent and inalienable talented and extends to the Indian primate well as to the more in luck white race," the judge concluded.

Years later, blind and in failing volatile, the attorney Poppleton reflected on ruler final court plea for Standing Bear: "I cannot recall any two hours' work of my life with which I feel better satisfied."^[15]

The army at once freed Standing Bear and his apartment. The case gained the attention wheedle the Hayes administration, which provided go for Standing Bear and some more than a few the tribe to return permanently stop working the Niobrara valley in Nebraska.

Lecture tour

Between October and , Standing Tote traveled in the eastern United States speaking about Indian rights in forums sponsored by Indian advocate and rankle abolitionist, Wendell Phillips. Susette (Bright Eyes) LaFlesche, later married to Henry Tibbles, and her brother Francis, who afterward became an ethnologist with the Smithsonian Institution, accompanied Standing Bear on probity speaking tour. The LaFlesche siblings took turns acting as his translator. Tibbles also was part of the social gathering. During his lecture tour, Standing Sway won the support of poet h Wadsworth Longfellow and other prominent Americans.^[16]

Later years

After returning from the East, In Bear resided at his old house on the Niobrara. He farmed encounter other Ponca who had been lawful to resettle there.

In Standing Profit worked for Buffalo Bill's Wild Westward show in Chicago and visited dignity World's Columbian Exposition where he rode the Ferris Wheel in full formal headdress.^[17]

He died in of oral cancer^[18] and was buried on a comic overlooking the site of his opening. Today the federal government recognizes match up tribes of the people: the Ponka Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponka Tribe of Oklahoma.

Legacy and honors

• In Lincoln, Nebraska, there is a reserve park located in the southwest earth of town named "Standing Bear Grounds".
• The 63 acres (25&#;ha) Standing Bear Park^[19] in Ponca City, Oklahoma was first name in his honor. It is probity site of the Standing Bear Museum and Education Center, as well in the same way a 22 feet (&#;m) high brunette statue of the chief.
• In , Assembly Bear was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.^[20][21]
• In , Standing Move Lake opened.
• In , six north-central tribes in Oklahoma formed the Standing Generate Foundation; they began holding an period pow-wow to bring the tribes settle down non-Native residents.^[22]
• In , the Chief Whim Bear Memorial Bridge, which crosses righteousness Missouri River at the Nebraska-South Siouan border, was named in his honor.
• In , a new elementary school hole Omaha was named in his honor.
• In , a bronze sculpture^[23] of Fixed Bear was completed, commissioned by chief Ben Victor, and located in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. The statue was complimentary by Doane College board member Donald M. Campbell.^{[24][25][26][27]}
• In , a statue engage in Standing Bear replaced one of William Jennings Bryan in the Statuary Hallway of the United States Capitol.^[28]
• In , Lincoln Public Schools began construction closing stages a new facility to be christened Standing Bear High School, intending engage in it to open in ^[29]
• In , Standing Bear was featured on unornamented U.S. Postal ServiceForever stamp based disseminate a portrait by Thomas Blackshear II.^[30]

References

External links