Chief Standing Bear Stood For Justice

Last week, I traveled to Washington, DC, to celebrate the unveiling of a statue of Chief Standing Bear at the United States Capitol.  The statue will be on display for years to come, and I encourage Nebraskans to look for it when they next visit the U.S. Capitol.

Standing Bear was born in the northern part of our state, where the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers come together.  He was a chief of the Ponca tribe, a peaceable nation of hunters and farmers.

The Ponca tribe signed treaties with the U.S. Government in 1858 and 1865.  The treaties ceded much of the Poncas’ land in northern Nebraska, but reserved 96,000 acres for the tribe in present-day Knox and Boyd counties.  However, in 1868, federal negotiators gave much of this same land to the Sioux Nation as part of a separate treaty.  The overlapping land claims resulted in ongoing conflict between the Ponca and Sioux.

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