Chief Standing Bear (Smithsonian Institution) In 1877, the Ponca
tribe was ordered to leave the reservation in Nebraska to which
it had been assigned, and go to new territory in Oklahoma, a
journey that cost more than a third of its members their lives.
It’s an old story, one repeated over and over throughout Indian
Country. But this one had a twist. The tribe’s chief, Standing
Bear, fought back – in court. University of Nebraska journalism
professor Joe Starita tells his story in “I Am a Man: Chief
Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice,” published by St. Martin’s
Press. “Undoubtedly, Standing Bear would have been considered an
enemy combatant of his time,” Starita tells Miami Herald
reporter Jaweed Kaleem, here. “And yet he successfully used a
writ of habeas corpus – the only liberty included in the
original text of the Constitution – to gain access to an
American courtroom, where he sued the U.S. government on behalf
of his weak, starving, homesick people.” A judge ruled in his
favor. Standing Bear’s story is