Standing Bear and the Ponca Tribe

In 1877 the Ponca Tribe and Chief Standing Bear were forced from their Nebraska homeland along the Niobrara River to an Oklahoma reservation, suffering hardships during the more than 500-mile trek south through Seward County following the Big Blue River. Standing Bear’s daughter Prairie Flower died June 5, and a tornado struck the camp June 6 and fatally injured a granddaughter; Milford citizens buried them in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery one-half mile north of here. Nearly one quarter of the tribe died in Oklahoma, including Standing Bear’s son Bear Shield, whose dying wish was to be buried along the Niobrara River. In 1879, after their desperate return to Nebraska, Fort Omaha soldiers captured and imprisoned Standing Bear and 25 others. Represented by Omaha attorneys, Standing Bear sued for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court, and on May 12, 1879, Judge Elmer S. Dundy ordered the Poncas’ release, ruling for the first time in U.S. history that an Indian was a person within the meaning of the law, a landmark in the struggle for Native rights.

Nebraska · United States