Chief Standing Bear
Posted by: 
beagle39z
N 36° 40.904 W 097° 04.439
14S E 672090 N 4061295
Chief Standing Bear - Ma-chu-nah-zha - 1826-1908
Dedicated October 26, 1996
Sculptor: Oreland C. Joe, C.A.
Ponca City Native American Foundation, Inc
Waymark Code: WM2EMY
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 10/21/2007
Views: 51
"My hand is not the color of your hand, 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. I am a man. The same God made us both"
With these words Chief Standing Bear convinced a federal judge that American Indians were persons under U.S. law, entitled to the same freedoms as other peoples. We honor him as one of our first civil rights leaders, who won a major battle for all Native Americans not on the battlefield but in the courtroom.
Forced by federal troops in 1877 to leave their Nebraska homeland for Indian Territory, the Ponca Tribe lost one third of its members during the forced march and difficult adjustments to a strange land. First moved to the Quapaw Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, the Ponca's were moved again in 1878 to the land between the Salt Fork and Arkansas Rivers. Many died from inadequate food and housing in the "Warm Lands". Standing Bear kept a promise to his dying son by returning the boy to Nebraska for burial, in defiance of a government order against movement from the Tribe's assigned lands. Standing Bear's eloquent self-defense led to Judge Dundy's historic decision.
When the 22 foot bronze statue of Ponca Chief Standing Bear was unveiled in October of 1996, the first objective of the Standing Bear Native American Foundation was realized. The second objective was to dedicate a portion of the park to the six tribes who have participated in the project.
Six tribal viewing courts were designed and developed with the help of tribal representatives from the Kaw, Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee, Ponca, Tonkawa nations.
Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.