M antcunanjin, Standing Bear’s name in the Ponca tribe language, was a chief of the Ponca people and a Native American civil rights leader who sued the federal government for a writ of Habeas Corpus—legal recourse for unlawful detention or imprisonment—and won.

When Standing Bear was born c. 1829 (d. 1908), the Ponca people had villages near the Niobrara River—near present-day Ponca, Nebraska. They raised maize, vegetables, and fruit trees during the summer and hunted bison to the west in the winter. These hunts saw frequent conflicts with Brulé and Oglala Lakota, Pawnee, and Omaha tribes. Raids by the Brulé forced the Ponca to rely more on agriculture.

In 1854, the U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and spurring an influx of white settlers to the regions. Standing Bear declared, “We do not wish to sell our land, and we think that no man has a right to take it from us. Here we will live, and here we will die.” But with settlers building on the Ponca’s agricultural lands, continuous Brulé raids, and the U.S. government’s intimidation on the Ponca to sell their lands, the Ponca left their land on the bank of the Niobrara River, ceding much of their lands to the United States, though retaining some lands between the Ponca Creek and the Niobrara River. The new lands to where they moved proved unsuitable to their agricultural lifestyle; and at the same time, the U.S. Government failed to uphold its end of the treaty to provide mills, personnel, schools, and protection. In 1865, a new treaty allowed the Ponca to return to their former fertile lands, though the U.S. Government illegally gave the new Ponca reservation to the Santee Dakota people in 1868 and contrived to move the Ponca tribe to the Oklahoma reservation.

Following their 1878 move to Oklahoma, Ponca leaders claimed that a mistranslation of the document they signed with U.S. Indian Agent A.J. Carrier led them to believe they’d be moving to the Omaha Reservation—only a few counties away. The Oklahoma Reservation did not support their agricultural lifestyle and a third of the tribe died due to starvation, malaria and other related causes. Among the dead was Chief Standing Bear’s eldest son, Bear Shield. In keeping with his son’s request to be buried in his Niobrara River valley home, Standing Bear and 30 followers set out for the Omaha Reservation. When Brigadier General George Crook heard of the Ponca’s journey, he had the Ponca arrested for leaving the Oklahoma Reservation and had them detained. But upon learning of their deplorable living conditions in Oklahoma, he ordered them to stay in Nebraska while they recovered. He also conveyed the Ponca’s story to Thomas Tibbles, editor of the Omaha Daily Herald and an outspoken advocate of Native American rights. Tibbles widely publicized the story.

In 1879, aided by the pro bono legal services of John L. Webster and United Pacific Railroad’s attorney Andrew J. Poppleton, Chief Standing Bear sued the U.S. government for illegal detention. In this was a landmark case—Standing Bear v. Crook, the U.S. government argued, “that [Standing Bear] was neither a citizen, nor a person, so he could not sue the government.” When Standing Bear won, proving that Native Americans are indeed person’s with legal rights, Judge Elmer S. Dundy stated, “the rights of expatriation is a natural, inherent and inalienable right and extends to the Indian as well as to the more fortunate white race.”  The Poncas were allowed to resettle back to their home near the Niobrara River.