Post by Historian on May 18, 2009 8:53:53 GMT -5
Standing Bear - Ponca - 1877
The Trial of Standing Bear
by NebraskaStudies.org
Imagine yourself living in 1875. You're living on a small, but beautiful part of the country between the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers. Just to the south, the new state of Nebraska is less than 10 years old.
For years, you have moved and been moved from one place to another. Then a United State government Indian inspector informs you that you have to move again... and you have to move over 500 miles south to Indian Territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. You will then travel for several months to an area where the national government has promised you will find shelter, food, and housing. When you arrive, you find nothing but hot August winds. No land has been set aside upon which you can permanently settle down. This journey will become known as the Ponca tribe's "Trail of Tears."
This is the story of a remarkable Native American man and the tribe he was a member and leader of. It is a story that challenged and changed the U. S. legal system. It's a story that created massive national and international interest at the time, but that may be only remembered now in the names given to locations in Nebraska years ago.
Who was this man? Who were the tribal members? Well, have you ever visited Ponca State Park located in northeast Nebraska on the banks of the Missouri River? 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 1879. "Standing Bear vs. Crook" will be a small first step by Indians to achieve limited justice under the U.S. Constitution.
The state of Nebraska was home to many Indian tribes, and the names of many places in the state come from Native American names.
The Story of the Ponca
The large Siouan tribal language group was made up of many smaller tribes such as the Ponca, Omaha, Osage, Kansa, and Quaqaw tribes. These five tribes once lived in an area east of the Mississippi River, but just prior to Columbus' arrival, they had begun moving westward. The Poncas and Omahas split from the other tribes sometime prior to 1500. According to tradition, the Omahas and Poncas followed the Des Moines River to its headwaters and then moved northeast.
Eventually they crossed the Missouri River and drove out the Arikara Tribe that lived on the west bank of the Missouri River in an area that would later be included in the state of Nebraska. Sometime after the encounter with the Arikara, the Ponca and Omaha separated. The separation date has been placed as early as 1390 and as late as 1750. Certainly by 1789 the Ponca were living on lands where the Niobrara flows into the Missouri. The Ponca Tribe was never very large. Between 1800 and 1900, they probably never numbered more than 800.
They appear on P. C. LeSeur's map of 1701 and were "discovered" again by the trader Juan Baptiste Munier in 1789. By that time there were living near the mouth of the Niobrara River. About that time they suffered heavily from a smallpox epidemic. Lewis and Clark esitmated that they numbered only 200 people in 1804. By 1874, they were back up to 733 individuals, all living near the Niobrara.
Standing Bear was known to the Ponca Indian tribe as Ma-chu-nah-zah. He was born on the Ponca reservation around 1834, although some sources say he was born in 1829. Because he showed unusual abilities, he became a chief at an early age.
Broken Promises in Treaties
The complicated relationship between the Native American tribes and the U. S. government is outlined in this quote:
“Indian Nations had always been considered as distinct, independent political communities, retaining their original natural right, as the undisputed possessors of the soil . . . The very term ‘nation,’ so generally applied to them, means ‘a people distinct from others.’"
— John Marshall, 1832
Worcester v. Georgia,
31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515,561.
The Ponca Tribe signed several treaties with the federal government from 1817 to 1865. Like numerous other tribes in Nebraska, they were forced to witness the shrinking of their homelands until most were moved to the Indian Territory in the present day state of Oklahoma.
The United States government signed four treaties with the Poncas before ending the treaty-making procedure to formalize relations between them and the Indians. Treaties were signed with the Ponca in 1817, 1825, 1858, and 1865. The third and fourth treaties are the most significant with reference to the 1879 Standing Bear v. Crook court case.
In 1858, the Ponca ceded a large section of land to the U.S. Government, but they did reserve a much smaller area for the tribe to occupy. They agreed to move to the reserved area within one year after ratification of the treaty. The new area would become their permanent home. In return for making the land cession, they were to receive the following from the U.S. Government:
1. Annuities — that is, cash payments — for 30 years.
2. Educational institutions for ten years.
3. A mill to grind grain and one to saw timber.
4. An interpreter, a miller, a mill engineer, and a farmer.
As the Commissioner for Indian Affairs explained in his 1858 Report, the objective was to "colonize and domesticate" the Poncas.
The Ponca planned to give up hunting for an agricultural economy. However, they faced a variety of problems that included: failure of the government to live up to its promises, drought, locust, and conflicts with the Sioux. Yet, the Ponca kept their promises and never stole from nor attacked the white man.
Another treaty was concluded in 1865 with the Ponca agreeing to relocate their reservation to the east and south of its earlier location. The tribe gave up most of its 1858 reservation in exchange for lands surrounding them south of the Niobarara River and Ponca Creek. They were also given islands in the Niobrara lying "in front" of the new reservation lands. This treaty provided for a reservation of 96,000 acres in the present day Nebraska counties of Knox and Boyd. The treaty stated that the reasons for this move were to return to the Poncas their old burial grounds and to return their traditional agricultural lands. A third reason was to move the Ponca away from the Sioux who were attacking from the West.
Unfortunately for the Ponca, in 1868 the U.S. Government signed a treaty with the various bands of the Sioux Nation. This treaty, often called the Fort Laramie Treaty, created a large Sioux reservation that included most of South Dakota west of the Missouri River. Unfortunately, the southern boundary of the South Dakota area also included parts of the land reserved for the Ponca in the 1865 treaty. Consequently, about 96,000 acres of the tribe’s land (the bulk of their land) was given to the Sioux.
How could this happen? Most likely because the Fort Laramie Treaty commissioners (Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, etc.) had forgotten about the provisions of the 1865 treaty with the Ponca. Thus, two different tribes were granted the same land.
That set the stage for the Ponca tribe's "Trail of Tears."
The Ponca Trail of Tears
After decades of broken treaties, the Ponca continued to suffer from attacks by the Sioux, terrible weather conditions, and lack of financial support from the U.S. Government. In 1875, A.J. Carrier, the Ponca agent, visited President Grant in Washington about moving the Ponca to the Indian Territory. Grant agreed to the move if the Ponca were willing to move. Carrier stated that the Ponca would be better off moving and he returned to the Ponca reservation to confer with the tribe members. As a result of these discussions, Standing Bear and other tribal members signed a paper in which they agreed to move to the Indian Territory.
On September 11 and 23, 1875, Ponca Indian agent A.J. Carrier held meetings with the Poncas. A paper was signed after the last meeting, and Standing Bear and some members of the Ponca Tribe agreed to move to Indian Territory. A request was also included that a delegation of Ponca chiefs should be allowed to visit the Indian Territory to select a new reservation. Carrier later claimed that the agreement represented the unanimous opinion of the Indians present at the meetings. Standing Bear, however, later claimed that there was a misunderstanding, as the Ponca language had no separate word for land in the Indian Territory. He further stated he reasonably thought he was agreeing to move to the Omaha Reservation.
Nevertheless, in 1877 Indian Inspector E.C. Kemble was told by Washington to meet with the Ponca leaders and make arrangement for them to visit the Indian Territory and select a site for a new reservation.
The Trail of Tears began with a scouting mission. On February 2, 1877, Inspector E.C. Kemble, Ponca agent J. Lawrence, Standing Bear, and nine other Ponca leaders left for the Osage Reservation in Indian Territory to select a site for the new Ponca Reservation. Adequate preparations had not been made for the visit to the Osages and many of the Osage chiefs were absent when the Ponca arrived. Consequently, no serious business could be conducted and the land shown to the Ponca as possible sites for their reservation were not satisfactory.
Standing Bear and the other tribal leaders informed Kemble they wanted to return home. Kemble was furious with their refusal to survey any other lands. He called their actions "insubordination." He refused to honor their request to return home. On February 21, 1877, Standing Bear and seven of his fellow chiefs decided to return on their own. It was midwinter, they had to sleep much on the time on the open prairie, and they went for days without rations. An agent for the Otoe Reservation in Gage County remarked that the Ponca leaders left bloody footprints in the snow. After a strenuous journey, the Ponca leaders arrived at the Ponca Reservation on April 2, 1877.
Unfortunately for Standing Bear and the Ponca, Kemble was already back, and he had new orders from Washington — the Ponca were to be moved, using force if necessary, to Indian Territory.
The Ponca were divided in their willingness to leave. Those willing to journey south left with Kemble on April 16. In May, Standing Bear and the remainder of the Ponca Tribe started the long journey to Indian Territory, prodded along by the U.S. military. They encountered bad weather almost from the beginning of the trip, and by the time the tribe reached their destination, the summer heat had become oppressive and they were constantly plagued with insects and extreme weather conditions. Nine people died on the journey, including Stand Bear's daughter, Prairie Flower, who died of consumption and was buried at Milford, Nebraska. White Buffalo Girl, daughter of Black Elk and Moon Hawk, also died and was buried near Neligh, Nebraska. The people of Neiligh provided a Christian burial for the girl with an oak cross over the gravesite. Black Elk asked that the grave of his daughter be honored, and in 1913 Neligh erected a marble monument. It is still there.
Standing Bear Returns and is Arrested
The Ponca were very unhappy with the land and living conditions on the Quapaw Reservation. Much of the land was not suitable for cultivation; sanitation conditions were deplorable. Government agents refused to provide adequate farming equipment, and many of the people died from malaria. Since leaving Nebraska, nearly one-third of the tribe had died. In January 1879, Standing Bear's son, Bear Shield, died. The distraught chief decided to return to his tribal lands in Nebraska to bury his son. It was another terrible trip, but on March 4, 1879, Standing Bear and his followers arrived at the Omaha Reservation. Standing Bear and his followers left the Indian Territory without permission from the national government, and they were to be arrested and returned to Indian Territory. The arrest order trickled down the line of communications from General Sherman in Washington, to General Sheridan in Chicago, to General Crook in Omaha.
Under Crook's orders, Lieutenant Carpenter and four of his men arrested Standing Bear and his followers and escorted them to Fort Omaha, where they were to be held prior to returning to Indian Territory.
Standing Bear and other members of the tribe were placed in detainment at Fort Omaha on March 27, 1879. Post Commander, Colonel John H. King, reported the serious illness among the Ponca and the weak condition of their horses made it impossible for the Indians to return to Indian Territory at this time.
The delay worked in favor of the Ponca as the Standing Bear situation came to the attention of Thomas Henry Tibbles, the assistant editor of the Omaha Daily Herald. He was an ardent crusader who sympathized with the Indians.
There is some question concerning how Tibbles found out about the case. In 1880, Tibbles said he was informed about the case by the city editor of his newspaper, the Omaha Daily Herald.
But, years later — after Crook's death — Tibbles indicated that the true account of how he became involved in the Standing Bear affair was through General Crook's intervention. He reported a conversation with Crook.
Crook is supposed to have said,
"I've been forced many times by orders from Washington to do most inhuman things in dealing with the Indians, but now I'm ordered to do a more cruel thing than ever before."
The Military and Legal Response
If we look back at the history of the American west, the popular view is that the Army was brutal and wanted to exterminate Indians. This is a view made popular by a progression of novels, movies and television programs.
There was brutality, but not every Army officer in the West was bloodthirsty. Many were sympathetic with the plight of Indians and opposed policies of the government that seemed intent on moving all Indians to Indian Territory.
As late as 1871, Gen. Crook had written to President Grant and officially expressed his opposition to aspects of government Indian policy. But his feelings never became public because Crook decided it would be inappropriate for him to take a public stand. After taking command of the Department of the Platte, he came to the conclusion that his official reports were not very productive. Consequently, by 1879 he became much more vocal in his criticism of federal Indian policies. General Crook interviewed Standing Bear and several of his tribesmen on March 31, 1879, at Fort Omaha. Journalist Thomas Tibbles was invited by Crook to attend the meeting. General Crook asked Standing Bear why he had left the Indian Territory, and Standing Bear replied,
"At last I had only one son left; then he sickened. When he was dying he asked me to promise him one thing. He begged me to take him, when he was dead, back to our old burying ground by the Swift running Waters, the Niobrara. I promised. When he died, I and those with me put his body into a box and then in a wagon, and we started North."
After Standing Bear had spoken, Crook expressed his sympathy with the Ponca, but stated that he had a direct order and would have to obey it. "It is . . . a very disagreeable duty."
The plight of the Ponca convinced General Crook that he had to become more aggressive in expressing his views. Crook's position brought him into open conflict with government policies, but it also brought him into a closer alliance with the group of civilian reformers he had earlier mistrusted. Thomas Tibbles quotes Crook as saying he would resign his commission if he thought it would help keep the government from forcing the Ponca to return to Indian Territory. He also was quoted as saying he would appeal directly to Washington, except that the government typically issued orders that were the exact opposite of what he recommended.
The Trial
While Crook watched over the Ponca at Fort Omaha, Tibbles worked feverishly to tell Standing Bear's story and enlist support for the Ponca cause. He telegraphed the story of the Crook's interview with Standing Bear to eastern newspapers and wrote a very passionate editorial for the Omaha Herald on April 1, 1879. Tibbles enlisted the support of the ministers of the leading churches in Omaha and sent a telegram to Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, pleading with him to reverse his removal order.
Thomas Tibbles wrote,
"Therefore in spite of my double night tasks for the Herald, I stole my forenoons from sleep to spend them in a law library. I had to devise a case and a method which could release these abused Poncas — and then could recast our nation's whole Indian Policy."
Tibbles then roughed out a court case, based on the newly approved Fourteenth Amendment, and took it to his friend John L. Webster, a young lawyer in Omaha, and to A. J. Poppleton, the chief attorney of the Union Pacific Railroad. Both men agreed to represent Standing Bear and the Ponca without a fee.
The two attorneys then petitioned Judge Elmer S. Dundy of the United States District Court for a writ of habeas corpus to compel General Crook to justify his arrest of the Ponca. Dundy, known to be sympathetic to the downtrodden, issued the writ and ordered the opposing parties to appear before him.
The trial opened in Omaha on April 30, 1879, and lasted for two days. G. M. Lambertson represented the U.S. Government and their argument was simply that the Indian was neither a person nor a citizen within the meaning of the law, and therefore could not bring suit of any kind against the government. Lambertson further contended that the Poncas adhered to their traditional ways, were dependent on the government, and as Indians, were not entitled to the rights and privileges of citizens.
The attorneys for the Indians stressed that the Poncas had renounced tribal authority, were engaged in farming, had made great advances in assimilation, and were entitled under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to be treated like other people. The lawyers also argued that the U.S. Government had no right to take the Poncas' land or move them to Indian Territory.
After the attorneys presented their arguments, Judge Dundy allowed Standing Bear to address the court. Standing Bear did not speak English, but he was able to make an eloquent plea to the court through his interpreter, Susette ("Bright Eyes") La Flesche.
Standing Bear rose, extending his hand toward the judge's bench:
"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."
Susette "Bright Eyes" La Flesche Tibbles
Who was "Bright Eyes?" What was her role during the Standing Bear vs. Crook Trial?
Susette was born in Bellevue in 1854, the year the Omaha gave up their Nebraska hunting grounds and agreed to move to a northeastern Nebraska reservation. She was the oldest daughter of Joseph La Flesche, the last recognized chief of the Omaha. Joseph was known as "Iron Eyes." Susette was raised on the Omaha Reservation and from 1862 to 1869 attended the Presbyterian Mission Boarding Day School on the reservation. The Mission School had been started at Bellevue in 1845 and was moved to the reservation in 1857. Susette learned to read, write, and speak English and to cook and sew.
After Susette expressed her desire to further her education, arrangements were made in 1869 for her to attend the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies, a private school at Elizabeth, New Jersey. She became known for her writing ability, and an essay written during her senior year, was published by the New York Tribune. Following her graduation, Susette returned to the reservation. Three years later, Susette was accepted as a teacher at the government school on the reservation and she taught there for several years.
In 1877, the Ponca tribe was dislocated to Indian Territory. Iron Eye's mother was Ponca, and so he went to Indian Territory to investigate conditions under which the Ponca were living. Susette went along. When they returned, Susette worked with Thomas H. Tibbles of the Omaha Herald to publicize the Ponca's plight. Susette was Standing Bear's interpreter during the trial in May 1879.
After the trial, Susette became known as "Bright Eyes." Tibbles organized a speaking tour of the eastern United States for Standing Bear, Bright Eyes, and her brother, Francis La Flesche. They were entertained by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at his home at Cambridge, Massachusetts. When he saw Bright Eyes, Longfellow said, "This could be Minnehaha," the Indian maiden in his poem "The Song of Hiawatha." Along with Tibbles, Bright Eyes appeared before a congressional committee, presenting her concerns about Native American rights.
In 1882 Bright Eyes and Thomas Tibbles were married. They continued their lecture tours in the East, and during 1886 traveled to England and Scotland for a ten-month tour. Here Bright Eyes was received by nobility and by literary circles. When they returned to Omaha in 1890, Tibbles went back to work at the Omaha World-Herald.
In 1891 they traveled to Pine Ridge in southwestern South Dakota to inquire about the Battle of Wounded Knee and problems of Native Americans at the reservation there. From 1893-1895 the Tibbles lived in Washington D.C. where he worked as a newspaper correspondent. After returning to Nebraska Tibbles edited The Independent, a weekly Populist newspaper in Lincoln until 1915.
Bright Eyes continued to write, lecture, and to advocate Indian concerns before government committees. Thomas Tibbles and Bright Eyes moved to Bancroft in 1902 to live among the Omaha. She died there on May 26, 1903 at her home near Bancroft at the age of 49. She was eulogized in the U.S. Senate and is remembered as the first woman to speak out for the cause of Native Americans.
The Decision
After a short trial, Judge Elmer Dundy issued a ruling that surprised many observers and caused comment across the country. The judge found that "an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law" and that Standing Bear was being held illegally. He issued a "writ of habeas corpus" — which is an "order to produce a body" or release someone held illegally. Here are the five key points of the ruling:
"First. That an Indian is a person with the meaning of the laws of the United States, and has therefore the right to sue out a writ of habeas corpus in a federal court and before a federal judge, in all cases where he may be confined, or in custody under color of authority of the United States, or where he is restrained of liberty in violation of the constitution or laws of the United States.
Second. That General George Cook, the respondent, being the commander of the military department of the Platte, has the custody of the relators [the Poncas] under color of authority of the United States, and in violation of the laws thereof.
Third. That no rightful authority exists for removing by force any of the relators to the Indian Territory, as the respondent has been directed to do.
Fourth. That the Indians possess the inherent right of expatriation as well as the more fortunate white race, and have the inalienable right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' so long as they obey the laws and do not trespass on forbidden ground. And
Fifth. Being restrained of liberty under color of authority of the United States, and in violation of the laws thereof, the relators must be discharged from custody, and it is so ordered."
The Reaction
Within days of the decision, the Omaha Herald noted that,
"Judge Dundy's decision in the Ponca case goes a thundering through the press and awakening the people to a new sense of its importance."
The paper went on to quote from other newspapers from across the country.
The paper noted the,
"Many comments of eastern papers on Judge Dundy's decision indicating that its effects upon tribes living under treaties on reservations ... were misunderstood."
Apparently, the eastern papers were afraid that all Indians would be free to leave their reservations, and that was a cause for fear. The Cincinnati Gazette denounced the decision, calling it "impertinence." The Omaha paper went to great lengths to argue against those views.
But other papers, like the St. Louis Republican took up the cause:
"Now let the courts grapple with the great problem whether an Indian is a citizen or an alien. Since the abolition of slavery, all human beings except the Indians have been classed as one thing or the other. But as our Indian policy is executed, the Indians are sometimes both and sometimes neither. We make treaties with them as we do with foreign nations, and we rule them as if they were citizens, yet it is ridiculous to say they are both citizens and aliens."
For his part, Standing Bear reacted to the decision by going home. But before he left Omaha, he and his party went to the home of his attorney John Webster. The newspaper reported Standing Bear's farewell:
"You and I are here. Our skins are of different color but God made us both. A little while ago when I was young I was wild. I knew nothing of the ways of the white people. I see you have a nice house here. I look at these beautiful rooms, I would like to have a house too, and it may be after a while that I can get one, but not so good a house as this. That is what I want to do."
"For a great many years, a hundred years or more, the white men have been driving us about. They are shrewd, sharp and know how to cheat. But since I have been here I have found them different. They have all treated me different. They have all treated me very kindly. I am very thankful for it. Hitherto when we have been wronged we went to war. To assert our rights and avenge our wrongs we took the tomahawk. We had no law to punish those who did wrong, so we took our tomahawks and went to kill..."
“But you have found a better way. You have gone into court for us and I find our wrongs can be righted there. Now I have no more use for the tomahawk. I want to lay it down forever. (Here he stooped down, laid the tomahawk on the floor, and then stood erect and folded his arms.) I lay it down, I have no more use for it. I have found a better way."
What Does It Mean?
Judge Dundy's decision in the case Standing Bear vs. Crook was an important development in the history of Indian-white relations. It established for the first time that Indians were something more than just "Uncle Sam’s stepchildren" to be regulated by the Interior Department as they pleased. Standing Bear and his followers were now free. But, the unanswered questions were: Free to do what? Free to go where? They had no place to live, no food to eat, nor clothing to wear. No opinion by a federal judge could supply these things.
One of the undesirable results of the trial was that the United States government was permitted to arrest any Indians who, without permission from the government, were present on reservations not their own. Consequently, Standing Bear and his followers could be arrested if they set foot on any reservation without government permission. It appeared Standing Bear was only free to return to Indian Territory.
Big Snake, Standing Bear's brother, was denied permission to leave Ponca lands in Indian Territory to visit the nearby Cheyenne, but he went anyway. He argued that his brother's court case gave him the right to do so. The Ponca Indian Agent convinced the federal authorities to authorize the arrest of Big Snake when he returned. When the army personnel attempted to arrest him, Big Snake physically resisted and was shot and killed in the altercation. His failure to successfully defy federal authority based on Standing Bear's court victory, greatly dampened the enthusiasm of other Indians to attempt it.
Fortunately, Judge Dundy decided in a separate case a year after the Standing Bear trial that the Ponca still held title to their Dakota lands. Congress finally agreed that a great wrong had been done to the Ponca in the Fort Laramie Treaty. In 1881, Congress appropriated money to compensate them for their losses. Five months later the Sioux gave up their claims to the Niobrara country. Eventually, in 1890, the Ponca were given individual land allotments either in Indian Territory or along the Niobrara. A majority of the Ponca chose to live in the Indian Territory where they were now receiving better treatment, and they had become reconciled to living there. However, Standing Bear and his followers chose to live on land that was located on their old reservation. The Ponca choosing to remain in the Indian Territory, became known as either the Southern or Hot-Country Ponca. Standing Bear and his followers were known by various names: the Northern, Cold-Country, and Nebraska Ponca.
Unfortunately for the Ponca, Judge Dundy did not address the issue of citizenship for Indians. It would not be until 1924 that Congress adopts the Citizenship Act, which confers citizenship on all Indians.
The Standing Bear vs. Crook court decision obviously only applied directly to a small band of Ponca Indians. However, it was destined to be a catalyst for far reaching changes in federal Indian policy affecting thousands of Indians throughout the United States.
Before the end of the nineteenth century, a new federal Indian policy would be developed, known as the Dawes Act.
Taken from:
www.nebraskastudies.org/0600/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0600/stories/0601_0100.html
The Trial of Standing Bear
by NebraskaStudies.org
Imagine yourself living in 1875. You're living on a small, but beautiful part of the country between the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers. Just to the south, the new state of Nebraska is less than 10 years old.
For years, you have moved and been moved from one place to another. Then a United State government Indian inspector informs you that you have to move again... and you have to move over 500 miles south to Indian Territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. You will then travel for several months to an area where the national government has promised you will find shelter, food, and housing. When you arrive, you find nothing but hot August winds. No land has been set aside upon which you can permanently settle down. This journey will become known as the Ponca tribe's "Trail of Tears."
This is the story of a remarkable Native American man and the tribe he was a member and leader of. It is a story that challenged and changed the U. S. legal system. It's a story that created massive national and international interest at the time, but that may be only remembered now in the names given to locations in Nebraska years ago.
Who was this man? Who were the tribal members? Well, have you ever visited Ponca State Park located in northeast Nebraska on the banks of the Missouri River? 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 1879. "Standing Bear vs. Crook" will be a small first step by Indians to achieve limited justice under the U.S. Constitution.
The state of Nebraska was home to many Indian tribes, and the names of many places in the state come from Native American names.
The Story of the Ponca
The large Siouan tribal language group was made up of many smaller tribes such as the Ponca, Omaha, Osage, Kansa, and Quaqaw tribes. These five tribes once lived in an area east of the Mississippi River, but just prior to Columbus' arrival, they had begun moving westward. The Poncas and Omahas split from the other tribes sometime prior to 1500. According to tradition, the Omahas and Poncas followed the Des Moines River to its headwaters and then moved northeast.
Eventually they crossed the Missouri River and drove out the Arikara Tribe that lived on the west bank of the Missouri River in an area that would later be included in the state of Nebraska. Sometime after the encounter with the Arikara, the Ponca and Omaha separated. The separation date has been placed as early as 1390 and as late as 1750. Certainly by 1789 the Ponca were living on lands where the Niobrara flows into the Missouri. The Ponca Tribe was never very large. Between 1800 and 1900, they probably never numbered more than 800.
They appear on P. C. LeSeur's map of 1701 and were "discovered" again by the trader Juan Baptiste Munier in 1789. By that time there were living near the mouth of the Niobrara River. About that time they suffered heavily from a smallpox epidemic. Lewis and Clark esitmated that they numbered only 200 people in 1804. By 1874, they were back up to 733 individuals, all living near the Niobrara.
Standing Bear was known to the Ponca Indian tribe as Ma-chu-nah-zah. He was born on the Ponca reservation around 1834, although some sources say he was born in 1829. Because he showed unusual abilities, he became a chief at an early age.
Broken Promises in Treaties
The complicated relationship between the Native American tribes and the U. S. government is outlined in this quote:
“Indian Nations had always been considered as distinct, independent political communities, retaining their original natural right, as the undisputed possessors of the soil . . . The very term ‘nation,’ so generally applied to them, means ‘a people distinct from others.’"
— John Marshall, 1832
Worcester v. Georgia,
31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515,561.
The Ponca Tribe signed several treaties with the federal government from 1817 to 1865. Like numerous other tribes in Nebraska, they were forced to witness the shrinking of their homelands until most were moved to the Indian Territory in the present day state of Oklahoma.
The United States government signed four treaties with the Poncas before ending the treaty-making procedure to formalize relations between them and the Indians. Treaties were signed with the Ponca in 1817, 1825, 1858, and 1865. The third and fourth treaties are the most significant with reference to the 1879 Standing Bear v. Crook court case.
In 1858, the Ponca ceded a large section of land to the U.S. Government, but they did reserve a much smaller area for the tribe to occupy. They agreed to move to the reserved area within one year after ratification of the treaty. The new area would become their permanent home. In return for making the land cession, they were to receive the following from the U.S. Government:
1. Annuities — that is, cash payments — for 30 years.
2. Educational institutions for ten years.
3. A mill to grind grain and one to saw timber.
4. An interpreter, a miller, a mill engineer, and a farmer.
As the Commissioner for Indian Affairs explained in his 1858 Report, the objective was to "colonize and domesticate" the Poncas.
The Ponca planned to give up hunting for an agricultural economy. However, they faced a variety of problems that included: failure of the government to live up to its promises, drought, locust, and conflicts with the Sioux. Yet, the Ponca kept their promises and never stole from nor attacked the white man.
Another treaty was concluded in 1865 with the Ponca agreeing to relocate their reservation to the east and south of its earlier location. The tribe gave up most of its 1858 reservation in exchange for lands surrounding them south of the Niobarara River and Ponca Creek. They were also given islands in the Niobrara lying "in front" of the new reservation lands. This treaty provided for a reservation of 96,000 acres in the present day Nebraska counties of Knox and Boyd. The treaty stated that the reasons for this move were to return to the Poncas their old burial grounds and to return their traditional agricultural lands. A third reason was to move the Ponca away from the Sioux who were attacking from the West.
Unfortunately for the Ponca, in 1868 the U.S. Government signed a treaty with the various bands of the Sioux Nation. This treaty, often called the Fort Laramie Treaty, created a large Sioux reservation that included most of South Dakota west of the Missouri River. Unfortunately, the southern boundary of the South Dakota area also included parts of the land reserved for the Ponca in the 1865 treaty. Consequently, about 96,000 acres of the tribe’s land (the bulk of their land) was given to the Sioux.
How could this happen? Most likely because the Fort Laramie Treaty commissioners (Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, etc.) had forgotten about the provisions of the 1865 treaty with the Ponca. Thus, two different tribes were granted the same land.
That set the stage for the Ponca tribe's "Trail of Tears."
The Ponca Trail of Tears
After decades of broken treaties, the Ponca continued to suffer from attacks by the Sioux, terrible weather conditions, and lack of financial support from the U.S. Government. In 1875, A.J. Carrier, the Ponca agent, visited President Grant in Washington about moving the Ponca to the Indian Territory. Grant agreed to the move if the Ponca were willing to move. Carrier stated that the Ponca would be better off moving and he returned to the Ponca reservation to confer with the tribe members. As a result of these discussions, Standing Bear and other tribal members signed a paper in which they agreed to move to the Indian Territory.
On September 11 and 23, 1875, Ponca Indian agent A.J. Carrier held meetings with the Poncas. A paper was signed after the last meeting, and Standing Bear and some members of the Ponca Tribe agreed to move to Indian Territory. A request was also included that a delegation of Ponca chiefs should be allowed to visit the Indian Territory to select a new reservation. Carrier later claimed that the agreement represented the unanimous opinion of the Indians present at the meetings. Standing Bear, however, later claimed that there was a misunderstanding, as the Ponca language had no separate word for land in the Indian Territory. He further stated he reasonably thought he was agreeing to move to the Omaha Reservation.
Nevertheless, in 1877 Indian Inspector E.C. Kemble was told by Washington to meet with the Ponca leaders and make arrangement for them to visit the Indian Territory and select a site for a new reservation.
The Trail of Tears began with a scouting mission. On February 2, 1877, Inspector E.C. Kemble, Ponca agent J. Lawrence, Standing Bear, and nine other Ponca leaders left for the Osage Reservation in Indian Territory to select a site for the new Ponca Reservation. Adequate preparations had not been made for the visit to the Osages and many of the Osage chiefs were absent when the Ponca arrived. Consequently, no serious business could be conducted and the land shown to the Ponca as possible sites for their reservation were not satisfactory.
Standing Bear and the other tribal leaders informed Kemble they wanted to return home. Kemble was furious with their refusal to survey any other lands. He called their actions "insubordination." He refused to honor their request to return home. On February 21, 1877, Standing Bear and seven of his fellow chiefs decided to return on their own. It was midwinter, they had to sleep much on the time on the open prairie, and they went for days without rations. An agent for the Otoe Reservation in Gage County remarked that the Ponca leaders left bloody footprints in the snow. After a strenuous journey, the Ponca leaders arrived at the Ponca Reservation on April 2, 1877.
Unfortunately for Standing Bear and the Ponca, Kemble was already back, and he had new orders from Washington — the Ponca were to be moved, using force if necessary, to Indian Territory.
The Ponca were divided in their willingness to leave. Those willing to journey south left with Kemble on April 16. In May, Standing Bear and the remainder of the Ponca Tribe started the long journey to Indian Territory, prodded along by the U.S. military. They encountered bad weather almost from the beginning of the trip, and by the time the tribe reached their destination, the summer heat had become oppressive and they were constantly plagued with insects and extreme weather conditions. Nine people died on the journey, including Stand Bear's daughter, Prairie Flower, who died of consumption and was buried at Milford, Nebraska. White Buffalo Girl, daughter of Black Elk and Moon Hawk, also died and was buried near Neligh, Nebraska. The people of Neiligh provided a Christian burial for the girl with an oak cross over the gravesite. Black Elk asked that the grave of his daughter be honored, and in 1913 Neligh erected a marble monument. It is still there.
Standing Bear Returns and is Arrested
The Ponca were very unhappy with the land and living conditions on the Quapaw Reservation. Much of the land was not suitable for cultivation; sanitation conditions were deplorable. Government agents refused to provide adequate farming equipment, and many of the people died from malaria. Since leaving Nebraska, nearly one-third of the tribe had died. In January 1879, Standing Bear's son, Bear Shield, died. The distraught chief decided to return to his tribal lands in Nebraska to bury his son. It was another terrible trip, but on March 4, 1879, Standing Bear and his followers arrived at the Omaha Reservation. Standing Bear and his followers left the Indian Territory without permission from the national government, and they were to be arrested and returned to Indian Territory. The arrest order trickled down the line of communications from General Sherman in Washington, to General Sheridan in Chicago, to General Crook in Omaha.
Under Crook's orders, Lieutenant Carpenter and four of his men arrested Standing Bear and his followers and escorted them to Fort Omaha, where they were to be held prior to returning to Indian Territory.
Standing Bear and other members of the tribe were placed in detainment at Fort Omaha on March 27, 1879. Post Commander, Colonel John H. King, reported the serious illness among the Ponca and the weak condition of their horses made it impossible for the Indians to return to Indian Territory at this time.
The delay worked in favor of the Ponca as the Standing Bear situation came to the attention of Thomas Henry Tibbles, the assistant editor of the Omaha Daily Herald. He was an ardent crusader who sympathized with the Indians.
There is some question concerning how Tibbles found out about the case. In 1880, Tibbles said he was informed about the case by the city editor of his newspaper, the Omaha Daily Herald.
But, years later — after Crook's death — Tibbles indicated that the true account of how he became involved in the Standing Bear affair was through General Crook's intervention. He reported a conversation with Crook.
Crook is supposed to have said,
"I've been forced many times by orders from Washington to do most inhuman things in dealing with the Indians, but now I'm ordered to do a more cruel thing than ever before."
The Military and Legal Response
If we look back at the history of the American west, the popular view is that the Army was brutal and wanted to exterminate Indians. This is a view made popular by a progression of novels, movies and television programs.
There was brutality, but not every Army officer in the West was bloodthirsty. Many were sympathetic with the plight of Indians and opposed policies of the government that seemed intent on moving all Indians to Indian Territory.
As late as 1871, Gen. Crook had written to President Grant and officially expressed his opposition to aspects of government Indian policy. But his feelings never became public because Crook decided it would be inappropriate for him to take a public stand. After taking command of the Department of the Platte, he came to the conclusion that his official reports were not very productive. Consequently, by 1879 he became much more vocal in his criticism of federal Indian policies. General Crook interviewed Standing Bear and several of his tribesmen on March 31, 1879, at Fort Omaha. Journalist Thomas Tibbles was invited by Crook to attend the meeting. General Crook asked Standing Bear why he had left the Indian Territory, and Standing Bear replied,
"At last I had only one son left; then he sickened. When he was dying he asked me to promise him one thing. He begged me to take him, when he was dead, back to our old burying ground by the Swift running Waters, the Niobrara. I promised. When he died, I and those with me put his body into a box and then in a wagon, and we started North."
After Standing Bear had spoken, Crook expressed his sympathy with the Ponca, but stated that he had a direct order and would have to obey it. "It is . . . a very disagreeable duty."
The plight of the Ponca convinced General Crook that he had to become more aggressive in expressing his views. Crook's position brought him into open conflict with government policies, but it also brought him into a closer alliance with the group of civilian reformers he had earlier mistrusted. Thomas Tibbles quotes Crook as saying he would resign his commission if he thought it would help keep the government from forcing the Ponca to return to Indian Territory. He also was quoted as saying he would appeal directly to Washington, except that the government typically issued orders that were the exact opposite of what he recommended.
The Trial
While Crook watched over the Ponca at Fort Omaha, Tibbles worked feverishly to tell Standing Bear's story and enlist support for the Ponca cause. He telegraphed the story of the Crook's interview with Standing Bear to eastern newspapers and wrote a very passionate editorial for the Omaha Herald on April 1, 1879. Tibbles enlisted the support of the ministers of the leading churches in Omaha and sent a telegram to Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, pleading with him to reverse his removal order.
Thomas Tibbles wrote,
"Therefore in spite of my double night tasks for the Herald, I stole my forenoons from sleep to spend them in a law library. I had to devise a case and a method which could release these abused Poncas — and then could recast our nation's whole Indian Policy."
Tibbles then roughed out a court case, based on the newly approved Fourteenth Amendment, and took it to his friend John L. Webster, a young lawyer in Omaha, and to A. J. Poppleton, the chief attorney of the Union Pacific Railroad. Both men agreed to represent Standing Bear and the Ponca without a fee.
The two attorneys then petitioned Judge Elmer S. Dundy of the United States District Court for a writ of habeas corpus to compel General Crook to justify his arrest of the Ponca. Dundy, known to be sympathetic to the downtrodden, issued the writ and ordered the opposing parties to appear before him.
The trial opened in Omaha on April 30, 1879, and lasted for two days. G. M. Lambertson represented the U.S. Government and their argument was simply that the Indian was neither a person nor a citizen within the meaning of the law, and therefore could not bring suit of any kind against the government. Lambertson further contended that the Poncas adhered to their traditional ways, were dependent on the government, and as Indians, were not entitled to the rights and privileges of citizens.
The attorneys for the Indians stressed that the Poncas had renounced tribal authority, were engaged in farming, had made great advances in assimilation, and were entitled under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to be treated like other people. The lawyers also argued that the U.S. Government had no right to take the Poncas' land or move them to Indian Territory.
After the attorneys presented their arguments, Judge Dundy allowed Standing Bear to address the court. Standing Bear did not speak English, but he was able to make an eloquent plea to the court through his interpreter, Susette ("Bright Eyes") La Flesche.
Standing Bear rose, extending his hand toward the judge's bench:
"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."
Susette "Bright Eyes" La Flesche Tibbles
Who was "Bright Eyes?" What was her role during the Standing Bear vs. Crook Trial?
Susette was born in Bellevue in 1854, the year the Omaha gave up their Nebraska hunting grounds and agreed to move to a northeastern Nebraska reservation. She was the oldest daughter of Joseph La Flesche, the last recognized chief of the Omaha. Joseph was known as "Iron Eyes." Susette was raised on the Omaha Reservation and from 1862 to 1869 attended the Presbyterian Mission Boarding Day School on the reservation. The Mission School had been started at Bellevue in 1845 and was moved to the reservation in 1857. Susette learned to read, write, and speak English and to cook and sew.
After Susette expressed her desire to further her education, arrangements were made in 1869 for her to attend the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies, a private school at Elizabeth, New Jersey. She became known for her writing ability, and an essay written during her senior year, was published by the New York Tribune. Following her graduation, Susette returned to the reservation. Three years later, Susette was accepted as a teacher at the government school on the reservation and she taught there for several years.
In 1877, the Ponca tribe was dislocated to Indian Territory. Iron Eye's mother was Ponca, and so he went to Indian Territory to investigate conditions under which the Ponca were living. Susette went along. When they returned, Susette worked with Thomas H. Tibbles of the Omaha Herald to publicize the Ponca's plight. Susette was Standing Bear's interpreter during the trial in May 1879.
After the trial, Susette became known as "Bright Eyes." Tibbles organized a speaking tour of the eastern United States for Standing Bear, Bright Eyes, and her brother, Francis La Flesche. They were entertained by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at his home at Cambridge, Massachusetts. When he saw Bright Eyes, Longfellow said, "This could be Minnehaha," the Indian maiden in his poem "The Song of Hiawatha." Along with Tibbles, Bright Eyes appeared before a congressional committee, presenting her concerns about Native American rights.
In 1882 Bright Eyes and Thomas Tibbles were married. They continued their lecture tours in the East, and during 1886 traveled to England and Scotland for a ten-month tour. Here Bright Eyes was received by nobility and by literary circles. When they returned to Omaha in 1890, Tibbles went back to work at the Omaha World-Herald.
In 1891 they traveled to Pine Ridge in southwestern South Dakota to inquire about the Battle of Wounded Knee and problems of Native Americans at the reservation there. From 1893-1895 the Tibbles lived in Washington D.C. where he worked as a newspaper correspondent. After returning to Nebraska Tibbles edited The Independent, a weekly Populist newspaper in Lincoln until 1915.
Bright Eyes continued to write, lecture, and to advocate Indian concerns before government committees. Thomas Tibbles and Bright Eyes moved to Bancroft in 1902 to live among the Omaha. She died there on May 26, 1903 at her home near Bancroft at the age of 49. She was eulogized in the U.S. Senate and is remembered as the first woman to speak out for the cause of Native Americans.
The Decision
After a short trial, Judge Elmer Dundy issued a ruling that surprised many observers and caused comment across the country. The judge found that "an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law" and that Standing Bear was being held illegally. He issued a "writ of habeas corpus" — which is an "order to produce a body" or release someone held illegally. Here are the five key points of the ruling:
"First. That an Indian is a person with the meaning of the laws of the United States, and has therefore the right to sue out a writ of habeas corpus in a federal court and before a federal judge, in all cases where he may be confined, or in custody under color of authority of the United States, or where he is restrained of liberty in violation of the constitution or laws of the United States.
Second. That General George Cook, the respondent, being the commander of the military department of the Platte, has the custody of the relators [the Poncas] under color of authority of the United States, and in violation of the laws thereof.
Third. That no rightful authority exists for removing by force any of the relators to the Indian Territory, as the respondent has been directed to do.
Fourth. That the Indians possess the inherent right of expatriation as well as the more fortunate white race, and have the inalienable right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' so long as they obey the laws and do not trespass on forbidden ground. And
Fifth. Being restrained of liberty under color of authority of the United States, and in violation of the laws thereof, the relators must be discharged from custody, and it is so ordered."
The Reaction
Within days of the decision, the Omaha Herald noted that,
"Judge Dundy's decision in the Ponca case goes a thundering through the press and awakening the people to a new sense of its importance."
The paper went on to quote from other newspapers from across the country.
The paper noted the,
"Many comments of eastern papers on Judge Dundy's decision indicating that its effects upon tribes living under treaties on reservations ... were misunderstood."
Apparently, the eastern papers were afraid that all Indians would be free to leave their reservations, and that was a cause for fear. The Cincinnati Gazette denounced the decision, calling it "impertinence." The Omaha paper went to great lengths to argue against those views.
But other papers, like the St. Louis Republican took up the cause:
"Now let the courts grapple with the great problem whether an Indian is a citizen or an alien. Since the abolition of slavery, all human beings except the Indians have been classed as one thing or the other. But as our Indian policy is executed, the Indians are sometimes both and sometimes neither. We make treaties with them as we do with foreign nations, and we rule them as if they were citizens, yet it is ridiculous to say they are both citizens and aliens."
For his part, Standing Bear reacted to the decision by going home. But before he left Omaha, he and his party went to the home of his attorney John Webster. The newspaper reported Standing Bear's farewell:
"You and I are here. Our skins are of different color but God made us both. A little while ago when I was young I was wild. I knew nothing of the ways of the white people. I see you have a nice house here. I look at these beautiful rooms, I would like to have a house too, and it may be after a while that I can get one, but not so good a house as this. That is what I want to do."
"For a great many years, a hundred years or more, the white men have been driving us about. They are shrewd, sharp and know how to cheat. But since I have been here I have found them different. They have all treated me different. They have all treated me very kindly. I am very thankful for it. Hitherto when we have been wronged we went to war. To assert our rights and avenge our wrongs we took the tomahawk. We had no law to punish those who did wrong, so we took our tomahawks and went to kill..."
“But you have found a better way. You have gone into court for us and I find our wrongs can be righted there. Now I have no more use for the tomahawk. I want to lay it down forever. (Here he stooped down, laid the tomahawk on the floor, and then stood erect and folded his arms.) I lay it down, I have no more use for it. I have found a better way."
What Does It Mean?
Judge Dundy's decision in the case Standing Bear vs. Crook was an important development in the history of Indian-white relations. It established for the first time that Indians were something more than just "Uncle Sam’s stepchildren" to be regulated by the Interior Department as they pleased. Standing Bear and his followers were now free. But, the unanswered questions were: Free to do what? Free to go where? They had no place to live, no food to eat, nor clothing to wear. No opinion by a federal judge could supply these things.
One of the undesirable results of the trial was that the United States government was permitted to arrest any Indians who, without permission from the government, were present on reservations not their own. Consequently, Standing Bear and his followers could be arrested if they set foot on any reservation without government permission. It appeared Standing Bear was only free to return to Indian Territory.
Big Snake, Standing Bear's brother, was denied permission to leave Ponca lands in Indian Territory to visit the nearby Cheyenne, but he went anyway. He argued that his brother's court case gave him the right to do so. The Ponca Indian Agent convinced the federal authorities to authorize the arrest of Big Snake when he returned. When the army personnel attempted to arrest him, Big Snake physically resisted and was shot and killed in the altercation. His failure to successfully defy federal authority based on Standing Bear's court victory, greatly dampened the enthusiasm of other Indians to attempt it.
Fortunately, Judge Dundy decided in a separate case a year after the Standing Bear trial that the Ponca still held title to their Dakota lands. Congress finally agreed that a great wrong had been done to the Ponca in the Fort Laramie Treaty. In 1881, Congress appropriated money to compensate them for their losses. Five months later the Sioux gave up their claims to the Niobrara country. Eventually, in 1890, the Ponca were given individual land allotments either in Indian Territory or along the Niobrara. A majority of the Ponca chose to live in the Indian Territory where they were now receiving better treatment, and they had become reconciled to living there. However, Standing Bear and his followers chose to live on land that was located on their old reservation. The Ponca choosing to remain in the Indian Territory, became known as either the Southern or Hot-Country Ponca. Standing Bear and his followers were known by various names: the Northern, Cold-Country, and Nebraska Ponca.
Unfortunately for the Ponca, Judge Dundy did not address the issue of citizenship for Indians. It would not be until 1924 that Congress adopts the Citizenship Act, which confers citizenship on all Indians.
The Standing Bear vs. Crook court decision obviously only applied directly to a small band of Ponca Indians. However, it was destined to be a catalyst for far reaching changes in federal Indian policy affecting thousands of Indians throughout the United States.
Before the end of the nineteenth century, a new federal Indian policy would be developed, known as the Dawes Act.
Taken from:
www.nebraskastudies.org/0600/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0600/stories/0601_0100.html
