Chief Standing Bear, whose 1879 lawsuit and celebrated “I Am a Man” courtroom speech led to the popularity of Native American authorized rights, was honored on Friday with a Forever stamp that includes his portrait.
A frontrunner of the small Ponca tribe in northeastern Nebraska, Chief Standing Bear efficiently fought in courtroom for Native Americans to be thought of individuals within the United States with the identical rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as different Americans — and never as wards of the federal government.
The illustrated portrait of Chief Standing Bear on the stamp was based mostly on a black-and-white {photograph} taken in 1877. He is depicted within the stamp sporting a daring blue shirt and a golden medallion with a background of sentimental orange hues faintly striated like a sundown.
In the spring of 1877, because the wars between the United States and several other Plains tribes over their lands have been ending and Native Americans have been being pushed onto reservations, the U.S. Army forcibly eliminated Chief Standing Bear and about 700 Ponca members from the Niobrara River Valley in what’s now northeastern Nebraska.
In the roughly 600-mile journey to what’s now Oklahoma, greater than 100 folks died, most from illness and starvation, together with Chief Standing Bear’s solely son.
Devastated by the lack of his youngster, Chief Standing Bear sought to bury his son of their homeland. In 1879, he and 29 different Ponca members traveled again to Nebraska, the place they have been arrested by the Army and imprisoned in Fort Omaha.
His imprisonment was the catalyst for his lawsuit, Standing Bear v. Crook, which argued for his freedom. George Crook was the overall who had ordered that Chief Standing Bear and his followers be arrested.
Allies of Chief Standing Bear had filed a writ of habeas corpus asking that he be launched, however authorities prosecutors argued that beneath federal regulation, Native Americans weren’t “persons” and never eligible to hunt a writ of habeas corpus, in line with United States Courts.
After a two-day trial, Judge Joseph F. Bataillon of the U.S. District Court in Nebraska allowed Chief Standing Bear to talk.
The chief slowly rose from his seat, held out his hand and mentioned via an interpreter: “My 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. The same god made us both.”
He stood within the courtroom, a necklace of bear claws wrapped round his neck, an eagle feather in his braided hair, and concluded his speech with 4 hanging phrases: “I am a man.”
The decide agreed with that assertion and issued a landmark ruling: {that a} Native American was an individual with inherent rights beneath the regulation. Chief Standing Bear’s speech was printed in newspapers throughout the nation, producing assist for the notion that Native Americans deserved the identical authorized protections as different Americans.
Chief Standing Bear was finally in a position to bury his son subsequent to his ancestors close to the Niobrara River.
Candace Schmidt, the chairwoman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, mentioned in an announcement that the tribe was “elated that this stamp will help illustrate his story of justice and triumph, which is also our story.”
She added that the stamp served as a “symbol of the pride and perseverance for all of our members past, present and future.”
Since 2007, Forever stamps, which stay legitimate no matter worth will increase, have honored essential figures within the nation whose significance has ranged from the scientific and inventive to the political and historic.
Past honorees have included former President Ronald Reagan, former Representative Barbara Jordan, the actor Gregory Peck, the singer Selena and, extra not too long ago, Toni Morrison, the acclaimed creator who grew to become the primary African American girl to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Chief Standing Bear’s profile has grown lately, as a number of statues of him have been erected, together with one in 2019 in Statuary Hall in Washington.
Judi M. gaiashkibos, govt director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, mentioned in an announcement that the chief’s wrestle and triumph “is truly and necessarily an American story.”
“This stamp further etches his legacy in our national consciousness,” she mentioned, “and provokes necessary conversations about race, sovereignty and equality in the United States.”
Source: www.nytimes.com