Who is standing bear

Little is known about his early life, but by the s he had become a tribe leader. During the s his people faced a desperate situation. Sandwiched between the expanding United States and the hostile Brule Lakota, the Ponca were removed by the federal government to the Indian Territory, present Oklahoma, in The rigors and emotional trauma of their removal ravaged the Ponca.

Perhaps as many as one-third of the tribe, including Standing Bear's son, soon perished. Wanting to bury his son in their ancestral homeland, Standing Bear and about thirty followers abandoned Indian Territory in January Captured by the army, they were incarcerated at Fort Omaha, Nebraska.

Standing Bear in his formal attire National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution On their journey westward in , Lewis and Clark learned about the Ponca, a small tribe living on the west bank of the Missouri River and along what are now the lower Niobrara River and Ponca Creek in northeast Nebraska.

Death And Commemoration Standing Bear died in and was buried alongside his ancestors in the Ponca homeland.

At the eastern end of the mile reach of the Missouri National Recreational River is a relatively new bridge. NPS Photo. Thomas Tibbles, possibly ca. Standing Bear vs. Date created: Audio Transcript. Speaker: Before the law, all men are equal. Ladies and gentlemen, that is one of the basic principles upon which the great nation of ours was founded. And its an idea that seems to have gotten stuck in my head from a very young age. My name is Thomas Tibbles.

I was born on the frontier, I have no proper raising, and I do not pretend to be civilized. For example, just 20 years ago, in some states, one person could own another. Was that legal? It certainly was in those states. But was it right? Well in answer to that I would like to quote the great negro abolitionist, Mr.

I suppose I started in what we called the Bleeding Kansas wars where I met up with a gentleman by the name of Mr. And I did realize later that there was something about Mr. Brown that was just not quite right. Now I certainly agreed with his idea of ending slavery. I suppose the first time I found myself defending Indians was back in , it was in the Nebraska Territory, right on the Missouri River.

At one of the steamboat landings there was an Indian woman selling roasted corn. She had a basket of corn and next to it was a bowl for people to make a payment. Well as I was watching, I saw a man take a dozen ears, put in 25 cents and take out 50 cents. Well, I felt obligated to point out this indiscretion to him.

Well he chose to become testy at that, and whereupon I felt further obligated to knock him down and pound on him until he put a dollar in the bowl and left the corn. Shortly after that I found myself living with a band of Omaha and Oto Indians, for about a year. I feasted and starved with them, I burned and froze with them, I hunted game and enemies with them but I saw the pride that they had even though they had a hard life, they were content and proud people.

I went to Mount Union College in Ohio, studying law and religion. It was there I met my first wife and became a journalist. But in I felt another calling and I became a preacher. Writing a circuit, bringing the word to remote settlements and outposts in Missouri, at that time an area teeming with outlaws and unreconstructed rebels. I carried a bible in my saddle bag, telling me to turn the other cheek. I also carried a pair of six shooters on my hips, if per chance I should run out of cheeks.

But finally, I swore off the guns and became pastor of a congregation in Omaha and began working for The Herald as an associate editor. It was during that time that I made the acquaintance of an interesting gentleman, General George Crook.

Knowing that old Spot and General Crook were both avid poker players, I suggest to Spottedtail that he bluff. And bluff he did. He told the Indian agents that if his people were not on wheels, and their entire camp was not on wheels, and moving within ten days to their home territory, he would no longer be able to control his young men and they would lay waste to the entire eastern half of the territory.

Well it took considerably less than the ten days for the agents to get the entire outfit moving. Now I understand that there are some folks who just consider Indians to be uncivilized savages, something less than human. But let me tell you, I have seen white men, black men and red men at their best and at their worst. And I have seen no race qualified to call itself civilized nor to judge another race as savages.

And over the years I have acquired many friends among the Indians, which is what led to my involvement in the story I am about to tell you today. The story of Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca tribe. My friends, the Poncas, have never made war against the United States. But in , they were forcibly removed from the land that they owned, and thieved simple the very same way that you hold title to your farm or to your house. Who were the tribal members? Or, have your been to Standing Bear Lake near Omaha?

Well, even if you have never visited either area, you now know the name of the tribe and its famous leader. The Ponca Indians and Standing Bear will become key participants in a landmark Federal court case held in Omaha in Crook" will be a small first step by Indians to achieve limited justice under the U.

When Big Snake resisted he was shot and killed. Following a U. Standing Bear traveled the country telling his story through the Omaha interpreter Susette La Flesche. He died in his homeland along the Niobrara River in Shop Now ». Join our Circle of Friends - make a monthly gift! Success Stories. How to Help.