05/06/2025
We thought this would be a good time to share this historic reminisce (below) from our Board Member Lawrence Dwyer. This historic event is what inspires the Chief Standing Bear Project to continue to honor those courageous Native American's who have followed in Chief Standing Bear's trailblazing footsteps. We look forward to soon announcing this year's outstanding recipient and opening our ordering portal for our supporters to make their table and seat purchases.
Dear Friends:
On this day, 146 years ago, the bailiff for the Federal District Court for the District of Nebraska called the court to rise as Judge Elmer S. Dundy entered the courtroom in downtown Omaha and gaveled the court into session. It was 10:00 a.m.,Thursday May 1, 1879.
Attorneys for both sides identified themselves and their clients: John L. Webster and Andrew J. Poppleton on behalf of the Ponca prisoners, and Genio Lamberston on behalf of the U.S. government. Judge Dundy presented a statement of the facts of the case before the court and directed the lawyers to proceed.
Of the 26 Ponca prisoners held at Fort Omaha, only Standing Bear, his wife Susette, his grandson, the child of his deceased daughter Prairie Flower, his brother Yellow Horse, and Buffalo Chip, chief of the medicine clan, were present in the courtroom.
John L. Webster called three witnesses to the stand that day, Standing Bear was the third. At 2:00 p.m. he took the stand and with his interpreter Willie Hamilton, was sworn under oath. U.S. District Attorney Genio Lambertson immediately objected to Standing Bear being called as a witness citing the 1831 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Native Americans were "wards of the government" not persons and therefore they had no right or standing to testify in an American courtroom. Judge Dundy overruled Lanbertson's objection and Webster proceeded to question his witness.
This was the first time in American history that a Native American was allowed to testify as a witness in a federal court proceeding.
The final recorded statement made on the witness stand by Standing Bear in answer to Webster's inquiry was this: "We would all die there and that I was going away to save the lives of my family and make a living. I wanted to go on to my own land, land that I had never sold. There is where I wanted to go. My son asked me when he was dying to take him back and bury him there, and I have his bones in a box with me now. I want to live there the rest of my life and to be buried there."
Court adjourned late that afternoon and the prisoners were returned to Fort Omaha for the night.
A year ago, my wife and I went to Europe for a two week vacation to celebrate my 50th anniversary as an attorney. The highlight of the trip was a day excursion to a small isle outside of Windsor (about an hour or so outside of London) called Runnymeade. There we stood at the very site where the great charter of personal liberty was signed by King John in 1215, known as The Magna Carta. At the base of the monument are inscribed two of the 63 articles from the Charter: the right to a trial by a jury of your peers, and the right to habeas corpus.
664 years after Magna Carta was signed, the writ of habeas corpus was being applied to Native Americans in a federal court for the first time in American History. Let us not forget the historic significance of this day 146 years ago. Ground was broken. Doors were opened. Precedent was set. Standing Bear's courageous leadership had triumphed.
Larry
