Chief Standing Bear

Notable Natives: Chief Standing Bear

Chief Standing Bear (Ponca) sought to return to his homelands in Nebraska to bury his son. After being denied this right—and arrested—he successfully argued, in Standing Bear v. Crook, that an Indian was a “person” and entitled to protection under the law. He was released to return to his original homeland to bury his son. 

Chief Standing Bear became the first Indian granted civil rights under American law. His court testimony became an important document in tribal and US testimony. While providing testimony about the forced removal of his tribe, Standing Bear stated:  

"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 of the same color as yours. I am a man. The same God made us both."

Then he turned and faced the audience, pausing for a moment, staring in silence out a courtroom window, describing after a time what he saw when he looked outside. 

"I seem to stand on the bank of a river. My wife and little girl are beside me. In front the river is wide and impassable.’ He sees there are steep cliffs all around, the waters rapidly rising. In desperation, he scans the cliffs and finally spots a steep, rocky path to safety."

"I turn to my wife and child with a shout that we are saved. We will return to the Swift Running Water that pours down between the green islands. There are the graves of my fathers. So, they hurriedly climb the path, getting closer and closer to safety, the waters rushing in behind them. “

"But a man bars the passage … If he says that I cannot pass, I cannot. The long struggle will have been in vain."

"My wife and child and I must return and sink beneath the flood. We are weak and faint and sick. I cannot fight."

He stopped and turned, facing the judge, speaking softly: "You are that man."