Standing Bear

Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

"I am a man,"  Chief Standing Bear said at his trials.  "The same God made us both." 



The chief stood before the court to prove that an Indian was a person under the law. 

The story quickly made newspaper headlines--attracting powerful allies, as well as enemies.

In 1877, the Ponca people were exiled from their Nebraska homeland to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma.

Chief Standing Bear set off on a grueling, six-hundred-mile journey home to honor his dying son's last wish to be buried in his homeland.  

Captured en-route,  Standing Bear  sued a famous U.S. army general for his freedom--choosing to fight injustice not with weapons, but with words. 

Standing Bear (1829-1908) was a respected leader of the small Ponca Indian tribe that resided for years in northern Nebraska. He took heroic action in the late 1870's to reverse the wrongs inflicted upon his people at the hands of the U.S. government and its Indian agents.

Here's a link to a portion of a documentary that "weaves interviews, re-creations and present-day scenes to tell a story about human rights--one that resonates powerfully in the present."

http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/X9ueuthL154-standing-bears-footsteps-trailer.aspx

Standing Bear is a heroic figure in the long struggle for Native American rights.  I wanted to learn more about Standing Bear partly because of my own Indian heritage.  My father, Jewell Bush, talked of his grandmother, who was an American Indian.  

 I featured a quote from Standing Bear,  in one of my STORYTELLER greeting cards.  He endured much heartache.  His heart was softened by nature.

Photograph of the snowball bush in my side yard.  The snowball bush was a gift from my friend, Janice.

 

 

"Man's heart away from nature become hard."

 

Standing Bear

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Come often, and bring a friend!

 

Marcia Norwood

America's STORYTELLER

Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

 

Email:  marcia.norwood@sbcglobal.net