2.1c Ma-chú-nu-zhe (Standing Bear) 1896 Landmark Civil Rights Case Testimony

Ma-chú-nu-zhe, Standing Bear (Ponca)

Online Readings

• Timeless Truths. “Standing Bear’s Speech from The Indian Journal.”
• United States Courts. “Standing Bear’s Courtroom Speech – Native American Heritage Month.”
• Brockell, Gillian. “The civil rights leader ‘almost nobody knows about’ gets a statue in the U.S. Capitol.” The Washington Post. September 20, 2019.  
• NebraskaStudies.org. “The Trial of Standing Bear.”

Films/Videos

• Lesiak, Christine and Princella Parker. Standing Bear’s Footsteps. Vision Maker Media, 2011.
  • Description: Standing Bear’s Footsteps is the story of an Indian chief who went to court to prove he was a person—and in the process redefined what it means to be an American. In 1877, the Ponca people were exiled from their Nebraska homeland to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. To honor his dying son’s last wish to be buried in his homeland, Chief Standing Bear set off on a grueling, six-hundred-mile journey home. 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. 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.

Books

• Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.
• Dando-Collins, Stephen. Standing Bear Is a Person. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005.