Ponça Chief Standing Bear: Catalyst for Indian Policy Reform

Home , Andrew Jackson Poppleton, A Century of Dishonor, Chief White Eagle, Helen Hunt Jackson, Standing Bear, Thomas Tibbles

Valerie Sherer Mathes

On 31 March 1879, Ponca chief Standing Bear, resplendent in a red blanket trimmed with blue stripes, blue flannel leggings, beaded belt, and grizzly bear-claw necklace, stood before Brigadier General George Crook in Crook's Fort Omaha office. Also in attendance were other military officers. Ponca Indians, and Thomas Henry Tibbies, assistant editor of the Omaha Daily Herald. Standing Bear told the assembled group of his tribe's forced retnoval from their reservation on the South Dakota-Nebraska border to the Quapaw Indian Reservation in northeastern Indian Territory and of the many deaths that occurred along the way, including that of his son, who had begged to be buried in the land of his birth.' "I could not refuse the dying request of my boy," confessed the chief. "I have attempted to keep my word. His bones are in that trunk."- The promise of the bereaved father ultimately led to a prece- dent-setting legal case, a lecture tour of eastern cities, and the formation of various groups to aid the Indians. It also changed the lives and careers of the principal actors in the drama of Ponca removal: Susette La Flesche, the Omaha Indian woman

The aiLiiior would like to tiiank tlie American Philusopliical Association for a grant from the Phillips Native American Fund. This article is part of a work in progress coauthored by Valerie Sherer Mathe.s and Richard Lowitt. 1. James T. King, "'A Better Way': General George Crook and the Ponca Indian.s," .Wehras- ka Hi'iloiy SO (Fall 1969): 245; James A, Lake, Sr., •'St;inding Bear! Wlio?," Nebraska Law

2. Standinfí Bear, cjuoied in Tilomas Henry Tibbies, The Poitca Chiefs: An Account of the Trial ofSiandin^ Bear, ed. Kay Gral.ier (Lincoln: university of Nebra.ska Pre.s.s, 1972X p. 25. See also Thomas Henry Tibbies, Buckskin and Blanket Days: Memoirs oja Friend of ¡he Indi- ans (Linciúrw [iniversit> of Nebra.ska Press, 1969). p. 197. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

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who served as Standing Bear's interpreter; Tibbies, who took on tlie Ponca's cause and organized the tours; Massachusetts senator Henry L. Dawes, who found his calling in Indian policy reform; Helen Hunt Jackson, who went on to expose the government's mistreatment of the Ponca and other tribes; and Interior Secretary Carl Schurz, whose refusal to stop the Pon- cas' removal unleashed a flood of criticism for his Indian policy. Beyond the personal tragedies and triumphs involved, the forced removal of the Ponca Indians engaged the sympathies of the American public and galvanized reformers into power- ful lobby groups intent on changing Indian policy.' By the early 1700s, the Ponças had established themselves in the drainage area of the Niobrara River in present-day southern South Dakota and noitliern Nebraska. Their extensive territory was bounded on the north by the White River, on the east by the Missouri River, on the south by the Platte River, and on the west by the Black Hills. Near the junction of the Niobrara and Missouri rivers, they built earthen lodges protected by stockades of cottonwood logs. Here they grew corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins, hunted buffalo, fished, and traded with the neighboring Omahas and, later, with Europeans and Americans.' Although the Ponças signed treaties of peace and friendship

3. For studies of Ponca removal, see Earl W. Hayter, "The Pont-a Removal," North Dakota Historical Qiiarterty 6 (July 1932): 202-75; Stanley Clark, "Ponca Pulilicity," Mississifpi Valley Historical Rei'ieu' 29 (Mar. 1943); 495016; Robert W. Mardock. Tbt' Reformers and tbe Amer- ican Indian (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1971), pp. I(i8-91; Roben W. MardOklahoma s First Statesmen, ed. H. Gienn Jordan und Thomas M. llolm (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 1979), pp. 102-3; and Kennt-ih R. Jacob.s, "A HLsior>' of the Ponca Indians to 1882" (Ph.D. diss., Texas Tech University. 1977», pp. 117-52. For discus.sion of Indian policy reform, see Helen Maria lîannan. -Refonners and tiie 'Indian Problem,' 1878-1887, 1922-34" (Ph.D. diss., Syracuse Uni- versity, 1976). pp. 12-80; Gregory Coyne Thompson, "The Origins and Impiementaiion of the American Indian Reform Movement. 1867-1912" (Ph.D. diss., University of Utah, 1981), pp. 131-47; and Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Reformen and the Indian. 1865-1900 iNarm-¿n: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976). pp. 113-19. 4. Along with [he Omahas, Osages, Kansas, and Quapaws, the Ponças make up the Dhegiha division of the Siouan lingui.stic family. According to tradition, all five tribes came from the Southeast, possibly Soutli Carolina and Virginia. Migrating north and west, the tribes spiit. with the Ponca and Omaha separating last, Joseph H. Cash and Gerald W. Wolff, 'fbe Ponca People (Phoenix, Ariz.: Indian Trihal Series, 1975), pp. 1-3. For more on Ponca ethnology. st?c'James H. Howard. The Ponca Tribe, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin no. 195 (Wa.shington, D.C.: Govermneni Printing Office, 1965), pp. !-6. 10-12; Jo.seph Jablow, Ponca Indians; HthnohLitorv of the Ponca (New York: Garland Pubiishing, 1974), pp. 8-49; and Jacobs, '"Hi.siorv- of die Ponca Indians," pp. 1-10, Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 251 with the United States in 1817 and 1825, their own villages were not peaceful havens but were often the targets of raids by their more aggressive neighbors, the Teton Lakota, or western Sioux, especially the Brûlé. By mid-century, the Ponças' prosperity had declined along with the numbers of buffalo, and in March 1858, in return for schools, mills, houses, and thirty years of annuities, they ceded their lands to the government and accepted a reservation along the Missouri River north of the Niobrara River in what would become Dakota Territory. In 18Ó5, they signed another treaty, giving up an additional thirty thousand acres in return for their old burial grounds and some farmlands.^ The nine Ponca bands settled down on their ninety-six-thousand-acre reservation, built log houses, sent their children to the three reservation schools, and attended church in the Epis- copal mission chapel. Meanwhile, continued Sioux raids, locust plagues, floods, and, most importantly, the accidental inclusion of their land in the Great Sioux Reservation in 1868 threatened their very existence. The Brûlé initially demanded the Ponças" removal from the area, and the Ponças themselves had agreed to join their kinsmen on the Omaha reservation. When the commissioner of Indian affairs took no further action, the Pon- cas initiated a peace council with the Brûlé in February 1876, and the two tribes agreed to coexist peacefully. Neverthe]es.s, in August 1876 Congress appropriated twenty-five thousand dollars to remove the Ponças to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma, a solution proposed by Interior Secretary Zachari- ah Chandler and compatil'jle with President Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy, which called for concentrating western tribes on a few large resei'vations.'' When Special Indian Inspector Edward C. Kemble informed the Ponças in late January 1877 that they had to leave their home, the Indians resisted. Under pressure, head chief White Eagle, second-ranking chief Standing Bear, and eight other leaders accompanied Kemble, Reverend Samuel D. Hinman, Episco- pal minister at the neighboring Santee Sioux agency in Nebras-

5, Jacobs. "HLsinry of ihe Ponta Indians," pp. 79-«(>. H5-85. 97-101, 11(1-11. 6. I.IS,, Departmenl of the interior, Ofñce of Indian Affain., Aiiiiiicil Refxirl of ¡he Com- missioner of Indkin .Affairs to the Secreiari- of the Interior foriLie Vcrtr/S/Ci (Wasliingion, D.C.; Government Printing Office, 1Ö76), p. xvii; Jacobs, "History' of the Ponca Indians,' pp. 101-16. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

252 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

ka, and Ponca agent James Lawrence to Indian Territory in early Febmary. Kemble showed the Ponca leaders three tracts of land, the last one near Arkansas City, Kansas, demanding that they accept one or he would abandon them. Dissatisfied with the land and disgusted with Kemble's refusal to honor an earlier promise to take them either home or to Washington, D.C., to confer with President Rutherford B. Hayes, Standing Bear and seven others balked, setting out from Arkansas City with eight dollars among them. Michel Cerre, or Cera, and Antoine, or Lone Chief, were eiderly and unable to endure the bng walk home. They remained behind and accompanied the officials as they looked at other possible relocation sites.' "He left us right there," Standing Bear later said of Kemble. "It was winter. We started for home on foot. At night we slept in hay-stacks. We barely lived till morning, it was so cold."" When the chiefs account appeared in print in late 1879, the inspector described it as fictitious, "invented to cover [the Ponças'] bad faith and shortcomings."" In rebuttal. Standing Bear accused Kemble of attempting to force them to sign a treaty giving up their Dakota lands.'" After a grueling fifty-day journey, the Ponças finally arrived at the Otoe Indian Reservation in southern Nebraska. Follow- ing railroad tracks whenever possible, they had endured bit- terly cold weather with only thin blankets for protection and raw com for sustenance. "The last few days we were very weak, and could walk only a few miles," Standing Bear relat- ed. "When the [Otoe] Agent saw how nearly starved we were, and looked at our bleeding feet, for our moccasins wore out [during! the first ten days, he took pity on us, and first gave us sornething to eat."" A week later the men arrived at the Omaha

7. LT.S., Con^^ss. Senate, Removal of tbe Poneos, S, Rep. 670, 46th Cong., 2d se.ss., 1880 (hereafter cited as S. Rep. 670), pp. 3-8, 13-16, 105; Niobrara Pioneer. 8 Mar. 1877, p. 1; AuniutI Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs < 18771, p. 21, 8. Standing Bear, quoted in Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of tbe United States Coivrtimenfs IX'allngs uñtb Some of the Indian Tribes (New York: Harper & Brothers, 188]). p. 20!. See also New York Independent. 20 Nov. 1879, pp. 1-2. and Tibbies, Ponca Cbiefs. pp, 6-l(i. 9. New York Independent. IB Dec, 1879, pp. 4-5, See also Boston Daily Advertiser. 1 Jan 1880, p. 3. 10, New York IndepencktU. 1 Jan, 1880, p. 3. 11. Standing Bear, quoted in Tibbies, Ponca Chiefs, p. 8, See also Netu York Daily Tribune 8 Dec. 1879, p. 3. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 253

Standing Bear dftermined !<> work for Ihe return of the Ponças' homelaiui.'i.

Agency in northeastern Nebraska and on 27 March 1877 sent President Hayes a telegram infortning him tliat they were "hun- gry, tired, shoeless, footsore, and sad at heart" and imploring hitii to answer at once for they were "in trouble." They received no answer.'^ Three days later, Standing Bear personally deliv- ered a letter signed by all eight Ponca headmen to the Sioux City fournal, which called it a "'plain unimpassioned statement from the sufferers of a great wrong." Although the Ponca leaders were victims of "deceit and subterfuge." they had "conducted themselves peaceably and honestly," concluded the editorial" Returning to the Ponca agency. Standing Bear and his brother, Big Snake, were arrested at the order of Special Agent Kem-

12. While Kagle, e[ al.. to the Pre.sideni uf the tJnitfd States, 27 Mar. 1877, reprinted in S. Rep. 67«, p. 23. 13. Niohrara Pioneer, 5 Apr. 1877, p. 1. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

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ble, who called the pair defiant and disobedient and charged them with "inciting disturbances" that prevented those Ponca who were willing to remove from leaving for a new reservation.'^ The men appeared before a military tribunal at Fort Ran- dall, whose sympathetic commander freed them and telegraphed President Hayes requesting that the removal plan be aban- doned. Others supported the tribesmen, including religious leaders in Yankton, Niobrara, Sioux City, and Omaha. Solomon Draper, editor of the Niobrara Pioneer and a lawyer, visited the Ponca Agency and protested to Kemble, but to little effect. When authorities later summoned the inspector to Washington, D.C., to present his side of the story, the Ponças sold some of their horses in order to hire Draper to represent them at the inquiry. Despite the groundswell of local support, Indian Com- missioner Ezra A, Hayt and Interior Secretary Carl Schurz remained unyielding, and removal proceeded.^"^ In mid-April 1877, a party of 170 Ponças endured a fifty- nine-day, six-hundred-mile journey through continuous rain and snow to the northeastern corner of Indian Territory. Upon arrival, they selected individual farm and home sites on a por- tion of the Quapaw reserve. Kemble was impressed with tlie attitude of this group, which had been willing to move, traveled with "cheerful alacrity," and gave him no trouble."^ Fol- lowing the departure of the first party, soldiers from Fort Ran- dall organized the less-willing Ponças for removal. While Kem- ble emphatically denied that any force was used, Standing Bear later testified that when soldiers with poised bayonets came toward their homes, "we locked our doors, and the women and children hid in the woods."'^ Authorities ordered the remaining Ponças to gather up their possessions, evacuate their homes, and store their belongings in agency buildings. "I have never seen any of them since," Standing Bear noted, although "our wagons and ponies they

14. S. Rep. 670, pp. 113-14. For Standing Bear's account, see pp. 8-9, and Tibbies, Ponca Chiefs, pp. 9-11. 15. S. Rep. 670, pp. 177-79, 305-21, 429-30, 433-34; Niobrara Pioneer. 26 Apr. 1877. p. 4, 3 May 1877, p. 1. 16. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs C1877), pp. 21-23. See also S. Rep. 670, pp. 450-56. 17. Standing Bear, quoted in New York Independent, 20 Nov. 1879, p. 2. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 255 did not take away."" The chief had been deprived of his livestock, five wagonloads of com, plows, washtubs, washboards, Iaddens, cookstove, rakes, hoes, hatchets, and two new bed- steads, but he was most distressed with the loss of his home. Two years later at a reception in New York City. Standing Bear informed his audience that he had built his house with his own hands. "It was not as fine as this one," be noted, referring to the Fifth Avenue home of prominent merchant Josiah M. Fiske, "but it was mine. No man had a right to take it." He informed his audience that he now lived in a tent.''' Standing Bear and his followers reluctantly set out in mid- May 1877 for Indian Territory, escorted by a small detachment of soldiers and E. A. Howard, tlie newly appointed Ponca agent. Their fifty-two-day march was marred by heavy rain, a tornado, and numerous deaths, including Standing Bear's daughter. Prairie Flower, who was given a Christian burial in the cemetery at Milford, Nebraska. The sui^vivors joined their kinsmen on the Quapaw reserve in July 1877.-" Faced with inadequate housing and the continual threat of malaria, the Indians intensely disliked their new reservation. In November 1877, Standing Bear and other headmen traveled to Washington, D.C., where they met witli President Hayes and Secretaiy Schur;: to request either a return to their old reservation in Dakota Territory or removal to Nebraska to live with the Omahas, their closest kinsmen. Hayes and Schurz informed them tliat such a niove would undermine federal policy, but the officials did allow the Ponças to choose another location on any unoccupied federal land within Indian Territory. The following month, the Ponca chiefs selected land near the junction of the Salt Fork and Arkansas rivers in nortli-central Indian Territory/'

18. Standing Bear, quoted in Tibbies. Ponca Cbiefs. p. 13- 19. Standing Bear, quoied in Boxtan Daily Adivrliser, 10 Dec. 1879, p. 1. 20. Ibid., 15 Nov. 1879, p. 2; New York ¡miefx'ndi-nt. S Feb. 1880. pp. 9-10i S. Rep. 670, pp. 19, 446-50; U.S.. Department of ihe Interior. Annual Repor! of the Secretar}- of the Interi- or (Washington, D.C.: Government Printini; Office. 1877), pp. 492-98. Helen Hunt Jackson used the Neu> York Independent unitlc and exfcrpts from Howards dJar>' entries for 21 May to 9 July in Centur)' oj Dishonor (p[>. 207-17). 21. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian AJJairs (.\Ä19'), p. xiii; S. Rep. 670, pp. 472, 475-76; Thomas Brown, "In Pursuit of Justice: The Ponca Indians in Indian Territory, 1877-1905," in Oklahoma's Forgolleti Indians, ed. Roben E. Smith (Oklahoma Cicy: Okla- homa Historical Society, 1981), pp. 57-58. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

256 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

SANTEE DAKOTA YANKTON DAKOTA

Sprinjs

Territory utiliied by Poncd prior to t

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 257

A new agent for the Ponças, William H. Whiteman, took charge on 3 July 1878 and began to organize removal to the new location 185 miles away. Less than three weeks later, Whiteman and the Ponças began the eight-day journey west, traveling in temperatures that soared to one hundred degrees. In his annual report, the agent noted "a restless, discontented feeling pervading the whole tribe." He was, however, impressed with his charges, finding them "in mental endow- ment, moral character, physical strength, and cleanliness of person , . , superior to any tribe." He also called for "prompt and generous consideration" from the government, "whose

258 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

fast and warm friends they have ever been."" His pleadings fell on deaf ears. The repeated moves had taken a terrible toll. "There were dead in every family," Standing Bear told Thomas Tibbies, "I lost all my children but one little girl. ... I was in an awful place, and I was a prisoner there. I was not a free man. I had been taken by force from my own country to a strange land, and was a captive."^' After his sixteen-year-old son died of malaria. Standing Bear, his wife, and thirty followers, including eleven children, slipped away on 2 January 1879 and headed north to bury the boy in the land of his birth. The non-Indians they met along the way treated the group kindly, giving them bread, coffee, and flour. In March, they arrived at the Omaha Agency where Chief Joseph La Flesche furnished them with food, land, and seeds.-' Because Standing Bear and his followers had left Indian Territory without permission. Interior Secretary Schurz requested the nearest military commander to detail a guard to escort them back. From his headquarters at Fort Omaha in late March, General Crook ordered Lieutenant W. L. Carpen- ter of the Ninth Infantry to arrest the group. More than half of the adults were sick, and the Ponças were temporarily detained at Fort Omaha after the post commander determined that they were incapable of enduring the long trek to Indian Territory." During the Indians' confinement, Omaha Daily Herald assistant editor Thomas Tibbies and General Crook inter- viewed the prisoners, whose stories deeply moved both men. Even before this incident, Crook had publicly criticized the government's Indian policy, and he continued to do so on the Ponças' behalf. Tibbies took the Ponças' cause to the public in his newspaper editorials and hired two Omaha lawyers, John Lee Webster and Andrew Jackson Poppleton,

22. Antiuat Report oJ the Commissioner of Inäian Affairs (1878), p. 65. See also }&cohs, "History of the Ponca Indians." pp. 149-52, 23. .Standing Bear, qufitt'd in Tihbles, Ponca Chiefs, p. 15. Sec ako Boston Daify Adver- tiser, 23 Aug. 1879, p. 2. and Brown, "In Pursuit of Justice." pp. 53-61. 24. Boston l~kitly Adfertiser. 23 Aug. 1879. p. 2; Tibbies, Ponca Chiefs, p. !6; Tibbies. Buckskin and Blanket Days. pp. 197-98. 25. Tibbies, Potica Chiefs, pp. 16, 40-45, 65. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 259 to draw up a writ of habeas corpus in order to prevent the Ponças from being forced to return to Indian Territory. A former evangelical circuit preacher, Tibbies also appealed to fel- low ministers and prominent Christian laymen, who organized the Omaha Ponca Relief Committee to reunite the Pon- cas in Indian Territory with Standing Bear's group on their ancestral Dakota lands/" The case of Standing Bear vs. Crook went to trial on 1 May 1879. The subsequent decision of federal district court judge Elmer S. Dundy that an Indian was a "person" in the eyes of the law with a right to sue for a writ of habeas corpus resulted in

26. New York Daily Tribune, 10 Oct. 1H79, p. 1; King, "'A Better Way,'" pp. 241, 246; Omaha Weekly Herald. 4 Apr. 1879, pp. 1, 4; Tibbies, Buckskin ami Blanket Days. pp. 198> 99; Jacobs, "HLstory of the Ponca Indians," pp. 158-60.

Thomas Henry Tibbies took on the Ponças' cause with a crusader's zeal. raising funds and helping to organize the Indians' legal defense. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

260 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

freedom for Standing Bear and his followers.^' Penniless but grateful, the chief gave each of his defenders a cherished personal possession: Tibbies received a pair of beaded buckskin leggings, Webster his tomahawk, and Poppleton an old war bonnet.^ Although Standing Bear and his supporters were pleased with Dundy's decision, federal officials were not. Gen- eral William Tecumseh Sherman, for example, wrote the Secre- tary of War on 20 May 1879 that the Ponças, formerly "fed and maintained by the Indian Bureau" were now "paupers turned loose on the community" l>y Dundy, who, Sherman believed, should assume the expense of their care himself"' The United States district attorney immediately appealed to the federal circuit court; on 5 January 1880, the appeal was dismissed.-" Once Standing Bear and his followers were no longer wards of the government and not eligible to live on any reservation, they sought refuge on an island in the Niobrara River, two miles from the town of Niobrara. Originally a part of their old reservation, the island had been overlooked when the government gave the land to the Sioux. Because of the lateness of the sea- son, the Ponças were unable to plant crops and became depen- dent upon the charity of the Omaha Committee and guidance from Tibbies. To further their cause, Tibbies undertook a short speaking tour of Chicago, Boston, and New York in the sum- mer of 1879. Shortly thereafter, the Omaha Committee encouraged him to organize a longer tour to introduce Standing Bear to the public. The committee also hoped to raise money for tlie chiefs homeless band, for legal expenses involved in pursuing restoration of their Dakota homeland, and for additional litiga- tion to test the status of American Indians before the Supreme Court. In the spring of 1880, Poppleton and Webster would al.so

27. Standing Bearv. Crook. 25 F. Cas. 695 (C.C.D. Neb. 1879), No. 14,891. The case is detailed in Tibbies, Ponca Chiefs: Lake, "Standing Bear! Who?." pp. 451-503; and John M. Coward, "Creating the Ideal Indian: The Case ufthe Ponca^." Journalism Mi.ttory Zl (Autumn 1995): 112-21. For contemporary newspaper comment, see Rvhen G. Hays, A Hace at Bav: New York Times Editorials on "the Indian Problem." 1860-1900 (Southern Illinois Universi- ty Press, 1997), pp. 35-40. 221-23. 248-50; Chicago Daily Tríhtme. 6 May 1879. p. 4; Rocky Mountain News, 15 May 1879, p. 1; and Omaha Weekly Herald. 9 May 1879, p. I. 16 May 1879. p. 3. See also ]o\\Ti M. Coward. The Netvs¡)al>er Indian: Native American Identity in the Press. 1820-90 (VThatiä. university of Illinois Frcs.s. 1999). pp. 196-223. 28. Tibbies, Ponca Chiefs, pp. 113-17; Tibbies. Buckskin and Blanket Days. pp. 202-3. 29. Sherman to Secretary of War, 20 May 1879, repdnted in S. Rep. 670, p. 480. 30. Jackson, Century of Dishonor, p. 373. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 261

file several suits against the Sioux in Nebraska and South Dako- ta courts for the reairn of Ponca lands.*' The proposed tour included nineteen-year-old Francis La Flesche, or Woodworker, and liis twenty-five-year-old sister, Susette. or Bright Eyes, as interpreter. The daughter of Omaha chief Joseph La Flesche, Susette La Flesche was already well acquainted with the Ponca cause, having accompanied her father as he conferred with Ponca chiefs before and after their removal. In May 1879, the Omaha Committee had underwritten a trip to Indian Territory so that Susette and Joseph La Flesche could visit Ponca chief White Swan, Joseph's half-brother, to learn for themselves whether the Poncas were happy there. Her selection as Standing Bear's interpreter for the eastern tour was well calculated; not only was she fluent in English and well versed on the Poncas' condition, but her graceful appearance alongside the stoic, noble chief was a combination sure to elic- it support from eastern philanthropi.sts,'^ The tour, which began in Chicago in late Octo!:)er, proved over- whelmingly successful in Boston, where residents contributed three thousand dollai-s within the finst two weeks. Influential citizens and religious leaders rallied to the cause, including Boston mayor Frederick O. Prince, who hosted a private reception for the Indians on 29 October at their hotel, the Tremont House. Follow- ing Prince's brief remarks, Standing Bear informed the more than one hundred guests that he had come to a place he could call home and was no longer sad or alone," Standing Bear's delega-

31. S. Rep. 670, p. 313; Jackson, Century oJDishnnor. pp, 369, 372-74; Chicago Daily Trib- une, ] July 1879. p. \-. Bostim DailyAdwrtiser. 29 July 1879, p. 2, 31 .July 1879, p. I. New York Daily Tribune, il Atig. 1879, p, 4. 23 Aug. 1879, p. I; Lake, "Standing Ikar! Who?," p. 482. 32. Valerie Slicitr Mailics. "Iron Eye's DaughterH: Sli.seite and Susan LaFlesche, Nineteenth- Century Indian lieli irniers," in ByGrit&Crace: Eletvri Women Who Shaped the American Wist. ed. Glenda Riiey ynd Richard W. Etulain (Golden. Colo.: Fulcrum Publishing. 19971. pp. 135- •^2; Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Bright Eyes: We Story of Susette La Fk-sche. an Otnaha Imlicin (New York; McGraw-Hill. 1974); Margaret Crary, Si.isene La Flesche.- Voice of the Omaha indiam ( New York: Hawthorn Book.s, 1973); Norma Kidd Green, ¡ron Eye's Family: 'Ihe Children offoseph IM Flesche (.Lincoln; Nebraska State Histórica! Swiety Foundation, 1969), pp. 56-81, 97-121; Norma Kidd Green. "Four Si.ster.s: Daughters of Joseph La Flesche." Nehraska History 45 (June 1964); 165-76, 33. Chicago Daity Trihj.ine. 21 Oci. 1R79, p. 4; Bosloji Daily Adi.'erti.ser, 30 Oct. 1879. p, 1, 11 Nov. 1879, p. 1. Oil the evening of 29 Octcil^er, Tibtiles recei\'ed a telegram informing him ihat his wife luid died three days earlier of periionitis, while Standing Bear learned that his bnjther. Big Snake, had been killed by soldiers attempting to arrest him. Tlie circumstances of Big Snakes death are controversial. .See Boston Daily Adtvrtiser. 3 Nov. !879, p. 4; Netv York Daily Trihune. 12 Mar. I88Ü. p. 1; and S, Rep. 670, pp. 28. 67, 112-14. 206-7, 245-52, 480-84. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

262 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

Raised on the Omaha reser- valion and educated in New Jersey, a poised Stiselte La Flesche translated for Stand- ing Bear on the eastern tour.

tion also appeared at various churches, toured a Cunard steamer, attended die theater, and were honored guests at a benefit con- cert given by the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, an Atrican-Amer- ican group, at the Berkeley Street Church. Most of the Indians' time, however, was taken up with carefully orchestrated talks that generally included introductions and speeches by various officials, clergymen, influential citizens, and Tibbies, followed by Standing Bears remarks and Susette La Flesche's translations.^ On 25 November, hundreds of Boston businesspeople gath- ered to hear the delegation at the Merchant's Exchange. After- ward, they resolved that ''immediate measures should be taken to secure for ... [die Ponças] tlieir legal rights and protection in their

34. Boston Daily Advertiser. 29 Oct. 1879, p- 4; 30 Oct. 1879, p. 1; 3 Nov. 1879. pp. 1. 4; 4 Nov. 1H79, p. 4; 17 Nov. 1879, p. 1. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 263 persons and property" and promptly established an investigative committee of five to be appointed by Lieutenant Governor John D. Long." Their report, published the following year, concluded that Ponca removal was not only unlawful but disastrous and that tlie government was duty-bound to restore their lands. They further recommended the appointment of a.congressional committee to investigate expenditures for Ponca removal.""' This group, which became known as the Boston Indian Citizeaship Commit- tee, went on to push for caLises that affected other American Indi- ans as well, including the fulfillment of treaty obligations, citi- zenship, land allotment, and tlie granting of reservation lands in fee simple.^' Secretary Schurz descrited its memloers as a "committee of intelligent and competent citizens" but considered them misinformed and extended them an invitation to visit the capital, where he would supply them with accurate infonruition.^ Beyond the Boston business community, other committee supporters included literary figures Helen Hunt Jackson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, both of whom were drawn emotionally to the Ponças' cause. Jackson's depth of feeling is reflected in a December 1879 letter to Charies Dudley Warner, editor of tlie Hartford Courant: "I shall be found with 'Indians" engraved on my brain when I am dead. — A fire has been kindled within me which will never go out."^" Indeed, her concern for the Indians" welfare ended only with her death in August 1883. Longfellow was taken with Susette La Flesche. whom he called "Minnehaha" after the heroine of his famous Song of Hiawatha, pul:>lished in 1855."'

35. Ibid., 26 Nov. 1879, p. 4. 36. The Indian Question: Report of the Committee ApfxmUed hy Hon John D Long (Boston: Frank Wood, 1880), pp. 1, 12: Boston Daily Adi eniser 3 Feb. 1«8Ü. p. 2, H Feb. 1880, p. 2. Committee memtxTS were Ma.ssachusetts governor Thomits Talbot, Boston mayor Fred- erick O. Prince, Keverend Rufus Ellis, Jolin W, Candler, and William H. Lincoln. 37. The Indian Question, pp. l6-ití. For more on ilie commictee'.s artivitÍL*s, see Frederick E. Hoxie, A Final Promise: 'Ihe Campaign to Assimitiite the Indiam, 1880-1920 (Lincoln: Uni- versity of Nebraska Press, I984>, pp. 9, 11, 32. 7^. 227; I'liicha, American Indian Policy in Cri- sis, pp. W^, 132-34, 146, 251, 339; Loring Beason Priest, Uncle Sam's Stepchiktrvn: TT-x^ Refor- mation of United States Indian Policy, Ífí¿5-/íííí7(Lincoln; l^niversity of Nebraska Press. 1975), pp. 78. 83, 213; and Mardec. 1879, p. 3; Boston Daify Adfertiser. 11 Nov. 1«79. p. 1. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

264 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

Boston's support for Standing Bear and the Ponca cause was due in part to the personal attention of Delano Goddard, editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser. In early November, tour members had taken tea at the Goddard home and from then on, the newspaper covered their activities in sympathetic detail." The Advertiser depicted Standing Bear as realizing "in noble appearance the Indian of Cooper's tales,'"*^ a direct con- trast to Secretary Schurz's description of him as "'a man of morose disposition, . . . sullen and indolent among his fellows after their final removal.'"'^ Moving on to New York City, Standing Bear's entourage arrived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on the morning of 5 Decem- ber 1879. That evening, they attended a reception at the home of Josiah M. Fiske.*" Other receptions and meetings followed, with the goal of raising ten thousand dollars to bring three suits before the Supreme Court to "right as far as possible the wrongs inflicted upon them by the Indian agents."'^ New York- ers, however, turned out to be far less generous than Bostoni- ans, despite the valiant editorial efforts of the New York Daily Tribune's Whitelaw Reid. In addition to devoting columns to the activities of the Ponças, Reid also published Helen Hunt Jackson's lengthy letters to the editor and highlighted them in his own editorials. Although these efforts moved few readers to donate to the cause. Secretary Schurz was stung by the repeated criticism of his administration's policy toward the Ponças and began a more public defense of his actions.''' Schurz and Indian Commissioner Hayt had recognized that the Ponca removal, ordered by the previous administration, was a grave error well before Tibbles's tour publicized its trag- ic consequences. They had proposed a reparations bill that was presented to Congress on 3 February 1879 but failed to pass.

4\. Boston Daily Adivrtiser, 3 Nov. 1879. p. 4. 42. Ibid., 3Ü Oâ. 1879, p. 1. 43. Schurz, qumed ibid., 23 Aug. 1879. p. 1. 44. New York Daily Tiihune. 6 Dec. 1879, p. 2, 8 Dec. 1879, p. 3, 9 Dec. 1879, p. 'i; New York Times. 9 Dec. 1S79, p. 2; Boston Daily Advertiser. 10 Dec. 1879. p. 1. 45. New York Daily Tribune. 8 Dec. 1879, p. 3. 46. Ibid.. 6 Dec, 1879, p. 2. 8 Dec. 1879. p. 3, 9 Dec. 1879, p. 5, 15 Dec. 1879, pp. 4, 5; Valerie Sherer Maihes. Helen Hunt Jackson and Her Indian Reform Legacy (Norman: Uni- versity of Oklahoma Press. 1997X pp. 25-28. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 265

ThepliRhtofthL'Poih.< moved Helen Hum Jackson to take up ¡he Indians' cause anil challenge the shapers of federal Indian policy.

When both Commissioner Hayt and Ponca agent William H. Whiteman reported later in the year that the Indians' condition had improved, the Interior Department decided they should remain in Indian Territory. Schurz believed he had acted in good faith in his dealings with the Ponças and was determined to defend his policies. In Helen Hunt Jackson, he found a wor- thy opponent.^^ The emotionalism of the Ponças' removal had driven Jack- son's initial writings, but by early December 1879, she had begun conducting extensive research, and her letters quoted official documents mined from New York City's Astor Library. After consulting the annual reports of the commissioner of Indian affairs, she posed ten questions in a letter to the Neiv

47. Schurz to Edward Atkinson. 28 Nov. 1879, reprinted in Speeches. Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, ed. Frederic Bancroft, 6 vuls. (New York: G. P. Putmim's Sons, 1913). 3: 485; Annual Re¡>ort of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs < 1879). pp. xiii-xiv, 72- 75; New York Daily Tribune. 1 Dec. 1H8(), p. 1, 6 Pec. 1880, p. 4; Claude M. Fue.ss. Cari Schurz. Refomter (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1932), pp. 252-77. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

266 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

Although his predecessor bad ordered the Puncas' ivmoval. Interior Secretary' Carl Schtirz bore the brunt of critics' protests over the action.

York Daily Tribune, asking, among other things, how many Americans knew "anything of the present condition and present feelings of the Ponca Indians!?!" Jackson contended that the Poncas were not, as Secretary Schurz reported, "content and acclimated in their new home in the Indian Territory." Instead, they were "waiting with the straining fear and hope of exiles for the re.sult of the effort now being made !:)y their Chief Standing Bear to secure legal redress for their wrongs."*" This letter prompted a pLil^üc reply from Schurz. Jackson respond- ed in kind, continuing her criticism of the secretary in the Trih- une. Finally, on 9 January 1880, she wrote directly to Schurz. The Chicago Daily Trihune summarized their correspondence, which the Boston Daily Advertiser reprinted in its entirety. The

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 267 exchange generated so much interest that the Neu) York Times reviewed it in a lengthy editorial on 21 February 1880.''' Jackson had been an admirer of Secretary Schurz until her research into Indian affairs at the Astor Library, when she began to question tlie reasons for his Indian policy decisions. She was not alone in this distrust, for Schurz had displeased many parties who had a stake in Interior Department opera- tions. Some westerners were upset with his reluctance to use force against unruly tribes; army officials were displeased with his preference for civilian control of Indian affairs; and various churches disliked his decision to open reservations to all religious denominations, thus suspending their control over the appointment of agency officials. Added to these voices were those of eastern humanitarians searching for a new cause to embrace now that slavery had been abolished. Finally, the Boston and New York philanthropists who had raised money for the Ponca legal fund opposed Schurz, who had stated bluntly that their money could be better spent elsewhere."^" His detractors' criticisms compelled Schurz to publish several open letters in his own defense. In one lengthy letter to newly elected Massachusetts governor John D. Long, who espoused the Ponças' cause, Schurz requested that a "measure of justice" be accorded "to the officers of the Government" as well as the Indians.'' When Special Indian Inspector Kemble's version of the Ponca removal appeared in the press in Decem- ber 1879,^^ Schurz wrote to complain of the inspector's "seri- ous misapprehension of the facts,'"^^ Kemble, in turn, accused Schurz of shirking responsibility for the Ponca removal, charg- ing that it had been conducted under orders from the secre-

49. New York Daily Tribune. 19 Dec. 1879, p. 1, 12 Feb. 1880. p. 2: Btxiton Daily Adtvr- Hser, 1 Feb. 1880. p. li Chicago Daily Tribune. 11 Ffl>. 188U, p. 4; New York Time.-', 21 Feb. 1880, p. 4. reprinted in Jackson. Century ofDuibouor. p, 3(>8; Hays, A Race at Bay. pp. 37-40, 50.1'mcha, American Indian I'olicy in Crisis, pp, 57-61, SÍ9-102; Hoxie, Final Promise, p. 9; Jackson, Century of fUsbonor, pp. .Í61-Ó3, 365-66, 51. Boston Daily Advertiser. 13 Dec. 1880, pp, 1, 4, repdnled in Speecbes. Correspondence and Political Pa/jers. 4: 50, 78. See also New York Daily Tribune, 13 Dec. I8«0, p. 1, 21 Dec. 1880, p, 1, 24 Dec. 1880, p. 4; and Netv York Times, 13 Dec. 1880, p. 1. 17 Dec. 1880, p. 4. 52. Netj; York independent, IH Dec. 1879. pp. 4-5. 53. Ibid., 1 Jan. 1880. p. 1. For the Omaha Committee's response to Kemble, see ibid,, 29 Jan. 1880, pp. 5-6. and Niobrara Pioneer. 6 Jan. 1880, p. 1. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

26S South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

tary, who "could have stopped the whole business, had he been so disposed.'"^" While Schurz was busy defending himself, Tibbies kept the Ponca cause in the spotlight, organizing a public meeting on 16 January 1880 at Chickering Hall in New York. His activities, combined with Judge Dundy's decision and public support, prompted the creation of a Senate select committee to investigate the Ponca removal. Established through the efforts of Massachusetts senator Henry L. Dawes and chaired by Iowa senator Samuel J. Kirkwood, the committee began formal hearings while the Ponca tour was in Pennsylvania.'' On 10 February 1880, Standing Bear and his group arrived in Washington, D.C, where the chief testified on Capitol Hill the following day. During questioning before the Senate committee three days later, Susette La Flesche was shown a petition dated 23 September 1875 and addressed to the president. The document, which requested the Ponças' removal to Indian Ter- ritory, bore the signatures of head chief White Eagle and more than fifty other chiefs and family heads. Calling the petition "outrageous," La Flesche testified emphatically that White Fagle had told her numerous times that he had signed no papers concerning removal to Indian Territory.'^ Standing Bear and the other Ponças present concurred but noted that they had agreed in 1873 to move to the Omaha reservation. La Flesche's expla- nation for the signatures was simple. Because the Ponca lan- guage had no term comparable to Indian "territory," the interpreter could use only "country" or, to be more exact, "the native people's land." Thus the signatories had mistakenly believed they were committing themselves to move to "the country of the Omaha Indians," not to "Indian Territory.'"^" Testimony before the Senate committee continued into the next week. On 16 February, Bishop William H. Hare, Episcopal

54. New York Independent. 15 Jan. 1880, p. 5. See also Niohrara Pioneer, ó Jan, 1880, p. 1. 55- Neu> York Daily Tribune, 17 Jan. 1880, p. 2, 3Ü Jan. 1880, p. 1, 5 Feb. 1880, p. 4, Tes- timony began on 11 February 1880. For [he entire texl, see S. Rep. 670, pp. 3-502, 56. S. Rep, 670, p. 37. For the petition text, see pp. 405-6. See also New York Daily Trih- une, 14 Feb. 1880, p. 1. 57. S. Rep. 670, pp. I6O-6I. The day after her testimony, La Flesche joined Senator Dawes and his wife in a visit to President Hayes and the first lady, both of whom expressed a deep sympathy for the Ponca cause. Boston Daify Advertiser, 14 Feb. 1880, p, 1. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 269 missionary to the Ponças, informed the senators that he had assumed the Indians had consented to move. Negotiations had already been concluded and arrangements made by the time he learned they had not. Nevertheless, he had believed that revers- ing the decision would undermine the governments autliority in other Indian policy matters. Thus, he and Inspector Kemble had telegraphed the Interior Department to stand firm.^'* The bishop's testimony brought a sharp rebuke from the New York Daily Trib- une, which had consistently supported the Ponças. The blame, according to an editorial in the 29 February 1880 issue, did not lie with Kemble or Hare, but with any law that gave two men, even if the "most honest and godly on earth," the power "to eject, at their will, seven hundred men, women and children from the farms they owned and the houses they had built, and banish them from them for life." As long as the Indians remained without legal protection, "our Government is as autocratic to-day as that of Russia or Persia," the Tribune editorial concluded.'' The controversy remained before the public as the Senate hearings continued into March. Indian agents, clergymen. Ponças, and their various supporters testified, with Senator Dawes con- dLicting most of the questioning. Several days of hearings were held again in mid-April, and on 15 May 1880 Interior Secretary Schurz took the stand to defend his department's policies. Later that month, the majority of committee members agreed that the forced removal had created great suffering and recommended not only the restoration of fonner Ponca lands but monetary resti- tution, as well. In his minority report, however, Senator Kirkwood expressed concern that the Ponças would again fall prey to the Sioux and recommended they remain in Indian Territory but be compensated for their losses. Secretary Schurz concurred.'* In June 1880, attorney John Lee Webster and the Omaha and Boston committees encouraged Tibbies to undertake a daring visit to Indian Territory. Entering without official permission, Tibbies conferred surreptitiously with Ponca leaders, offering assistance for tliose Ponças who wished to return to Dakota.

58. S. Rep. 670, pp. Il6-33i New York Daily Tribune, 17 Feb. 1880, p. 1, 29 Feb. 1880, p. 6. 59. New York Daity Tribune, 29 Feb. 1880, p. 6. 60. S. Rep. 670. pp. i-xix, xxi-xxviii, 358-78; New York Times, 8 Dec. 1880, p.l. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

270 South Dakota History Vol. 30. no. 3

Agent William Whiting, who had succeeded Whiteman in March, had the newspaperman arrested and detained until Indian police could escort him to the Kansas line. Undeterred, Tibbies continued to capitalize on public interest in the Ponças and organized yet another lecture tour in late autumn. Accom- panied by Susette La Flesche and members of the Boston Com- mittee, he visited various eastern cities with the usual round of teas, receptions, lectures, and luncheons. They were in Boston when Judge Dundy decided one of the suits Webster and Pop- pleton had brought against the Sioux earlier in the year.'^' In a

61. Clark, "Ponca Publicity," pp. 510-12; New York Daily Tribune, 29 June 1880, p. 2; Omaha Weekly Herald, 23 July 1880, p. 4; Speeches, Correspfmdence and Political Papers. 4: 71-72; Boston Daily Advertiser, 4 Dec, 1880, pp. 1, 2,

Senator Henry L. Datves brought the Ponças' cause to the attention of Congress through bis work on tbe Senate immtigative committee. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 271 decision handed down on 3 December 1880, Dundy ruled that the Sioux had unlawfully kept the Poncas "'out of the possession" of their land, ordered their former lands restored, and awarded them a token amount in damages.'-^ The New York Daily Trihune hailed Dundy s decision, remind- ing readers that it had been the first newspaper to "protest against the illegality and dishonesty" of the Poncas' removal. At that time, "simple legal justice to the Indian was ... a totally new idea to the American mind." Lauding the progress that had been made since then, the Tnhiine prophesied that within two years it would be considered incredible that Indians sht)uld have l?een held "legally as serfs" and "liable to be transported, starved or shot at the irresponsi!:)le will of one or two officials."''^ As tlie number of Ponca defenders in the press and the public grew, President Hayes came to suppoit üiem, as well. In a diary entry for 8 December 1880, he wrote, "A great and griev- ous wrong has been done to the Poncas.'"" len days later, he appointed generals George Crook and Nelson A. Miles, William Stickney of the Board of Indian Commissioners, and Walter Al!en of the Boston Committee to a special commission to confer witli the Poncas living in both Indian Territory and the Dakotas.*^"* Wrongly assuming that Secretaiy Schurz had played a role in determining the membership of this commission, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote to warn Senator Dawes that "not a man in it can be absolutely trusted not to be either hoodwinked or influenced, except Gen. Crook.""' She feared that the interior .secretary intend- ed to "bully, or intrigue, or bayonet" a bill through Congress that

62. Boston Daily Adfertisei\ 4 Dec. 1880. p. 1. See also New York Daily Tribune. 6 Dec, 1880, p, 4; "The OulliKik," Christian Union 22 (H Dec. 1880): 489; and Lake, "Suinding Bear! Who?' pp. 4«l-82. 63. New York Daily Tribune, 6 Dec. 1880, p. 4. See also Hartford Courant. 6 Dec, 1880, p. 2, and "The Oiitltxik," Christian Union 22 (8 Dec. 1880); 489. 64. Charles R. WillUiiis, t-d,, Diaiy atid Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes. Nineteenth President of the United Stales. 5 vols. (Columbus; Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. 1924), 3: 629. 65. Schurz to Dawes. 7 Feb. 1881, reprinted in Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers, A: 104-11; Boston Daily Adt'ertiser. 11 Dec- 1880, p. 1, 20 Dec. 188Ü, p. 1. The final report of the Ponca Commission can he found in U.S., Congress, Senate, Removal of the Ponca Indiii7is, S. Ex. Doc. 30, 46th Cong,. 3d sess., 1881 (hereafter cited as S. Ex. Doc. 30). 6('3. Jackson to Dawes, 10 Dec. 1880, reprinted in Indian Reform Letters, p. 148. See also Jack.son to Dawes, 23, 30 Dec. 1880, tlcnry L. Dawes Papers, Library of Congress. Washing- ton, D.C. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

272 South Dakota History Vol 30, no. 3

would deny the Ponças the right to choose either Indian Terri- tory or Dakota as their pemianent home.*^ Just as the presidential commission began its work, White Eagle and ten other Ponca headmen arrived in Washington, D.C., on 21 December 1880 from Indian Territory. They declared it the "unanimous sentiment of all their people" to sell their Dakota land and obtain title to their new reservation.'* Three days later, Secretar)' Schurz presented the group with the draft of a treaty providing funds for the purchase of land and livestock in Indian Territory. The remainder would be invested in government bonds. When General Crook pointedly asked White Eagle if any threats or promises had induced tliem to remain, the chief assured Crook they were "acting of their own free will,"*"' Senators Dawes and Kirkwood voiced similar con- cerns when they met as a subcommittee of the Senate select committee in late December with White Fagles delegation, Indian Inspector J. M, Haworth, and agent William Whiting, Haworth, who had spent ten days in November conferring with the principal Ponca chiefs in Indian Territory, assured the committee he was satisfied that the Indians had not been coerced. White Eagle openly admitted that he was simply tired of trying to secure permission to return to Dakota. After conferring with White Eagle and the Ponças in Indian Territory again in early January, the presidential commission met with Standing Bear's band at Niobrara, Nebraska.'" There, the chief underscored his group's unwillingness to leave their Dakota homeland, "7 wish to die in this land,'" Standing Bear emphatically told commission members. "'I wish to be an old man here.""' The Ponca Commission submitted its final report to the president on 26January, concluding that the Ponças in Dakota had 'the

67. Jackson to Charles Dudley Wamer, 12 Feb. I88I, reprinted in Indian Reform Letters, p. 178. 68. N^v YorkLiaily Tribune. 23 Dec. 1880, p. 1. For White Eagle's testimony before the presidential Ponca Coinmission, see S. Ex. Doc. 30. pp. 13-30, 52. 69. New York Daily Tribune. 25 Dec. 1880, p. I. See also Boston Daily Adi/ertiser, 25 Dec. 1880, p. 1, and New York Ei/enirig Post. 29 Dec. 1880, p. 3. 70. U.S., Congress. Senate, Testimony. ..as to the Removal and Situation of tbe Fonca Lndi- ans. S, Mise, Doc'. 49. 46th Cong,, 3d .sess., 1880, pp. 1-102: Boston Daily Advertiser, 29 Dec. 1880, p, 1: New York Daily 7'ribune. 29 Dec. 1880. p, 1, 71. Standing Bear, quoted in S. Ex, Doc. 30. p. 31- For the testimony from Indian Terri- lory, see pp, 17-27. See also Niobrara Pioneer, 14 Jan. 1881, p. 4, Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 273 strongest possible attachment to their lands" and that removal was "not only unfortunate . . . but was injudicious and without suffi- cient cause.""^ The commission recommended allowing every Ponca man, woman, and child to select an allotment of 16O acres from either the old Dakota reservatic:tn or Indian Territory. Presi- dent Hayes endorsed the recommendations, which were presented to Congress and part of which were incorporated into legisla- tion passed in March 1881. Congress also appropriated $165,000 for losses sustained during removal, and in May, commissioner of

72. 5. Ex. Doc. 30, pp. 5-6.

Pictured here with his remaining family members. Standing Bear and the Northern Poneos regained their hortiold'iil /rilh !he ¡>(is.-;

274 South Dakota History Vol. 30, no. 3

Indian affairs Hiram Price authorized an additional $10,000 for the extra suffering Standing Bear's group had endured.'' The acrimonious debate over the emotionally charged Ponca controversy had galvanized the Indians' advocates. The Omaha and Boston committees came to the forefront in the arena of Indian policy reform and went on to share the stage with national organizations such as the Women's National Indian Association, the Indian Rights Association, and Lake Mohonk conferences."' The Ponca removal and its aftermath had also affected the personal lives and careers of Dawes, Tibbies, La Flesche, Jackson, Schurz, and, of course. Standing Bear. Senator Henry Dawes, according to historian Frederick E. Hoxie, was an unlikely candidate to dominate Indian policy making. Chosen by Republican party leaders to serve in the Sen- ate following Charles Sumner's death in 1874, Dawes faced a tough election challenge in 1879. The Indian issue, writes Hoxie, "bathed his political activities in the glow of a popular cause," making him nationally known and saving his career."^ As chair- man of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Dawes became the best-known congressional spokesman for American Indians. He sponsored the General Allotment Act (Dawes ActJ in 1887 and, after retiring from the Senate, headed the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, which allotted their reservations."'' The impact of the Ponca controversy on Thomas Tibbles's life was more personal. With the conclusion of the Ponca tours, Tib- bies manied Su.sette La Flesche on 23 July 1881. Alonzo Bell, assistant secretaiy of tlie interior under Carl Schurz, wrote his former associate that altliough he feared La Flesche had made a mis-

73. Neu! York Daily Tribune. 27 Jan. 1881, pp. 1. 4: Boston Daily Adiertiser, 27 Jan. 1881, p. 1; Hartford Courant, 28 Jan. 1881. p. 2i Chicago Daily Tribune. 30 Jan. !881. p. 2; Tib.- bles, Ponca Chiefs, p. 134; "The Outlouk," Christian Union 23 (2 Feb. 18H1): 101; James D. Richardson, ed.. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 11 vols. fWashingion, D.C.: Govern- ment Printing Office. 1898), 6; 4582-«6; "Tlie Week," The Nation (10 Mar. 1881): 159; Hiram Price to Delano A. Goddard, 31 May 1881. Box 25, Dawes Papers. 74. For more infonnation (in these organiïations, see Helen M. Wanken, "Woman's Sphere and Indian Reform: The Women's National Indian A.S.Mxriation. 1879-1901" (Ph.D. dLss.. Mar- quetie l.inivfi-sity. 1981); William T. Hagan, ¡he Indian Rights Association: 'Ihe Herbert Welsh Years 1882-1904 (Tucson: l.inlvtTsily ol' Arizona Press. 1985); and Larry F. Burge.ss. "The Uke Mohonk Conierences on tlie Indian, 1883-191(i" (Ph.D. dLss., Claremont Graduate Sc-hool. 1972). 75. Hoxie, Final Promise, pp. 29-30. 76. Ibid.. pp. 29-39; Priest. Vnde Sam's Stepchildixm. pp. 195-97; Henry E. Fritz. The Movement for Iridian Assimilation, 7Ä6t;-7S9CJ (Westport, Qjnn.: Greenwíxxl Press. 1963), pp. 192, 202, 208, 211. 213; Mardoc-k, Reformers and the American Indian, pp. 186-87, 198-99, 216-17, 223, 228. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

Fall 2000 Standing Bear 275 take, "I am willing to forgive her if the act has effecn_ially disposed of Tibbies."" La Flesche, who had been educated at the Elizabeth Institute for Young Ladies in New Jersey, had been teaching school at the Omaha Agency when she was chosen to serve as Standing Bear's inteipreter. The eastern tours, which made her an instant celebrity, also enabled her to hone her literary skills, for she wrote all of her own speeches. During the early years of their marriage. La Flesche and Tibbies continued to lecture on behalf of American Indians. They settled temporarily on her Omalia land allotment, but Tibbies disliked fanning, and his various cru- sades prompted the couple io accept numerous editorial assign- ments, including work in Washington for a syndicate of weeklies published by the Farmers Alliance. With encouragement from Helen Hunt Jackson, La Flesche wrote children's stories and various journalistic pieces. In 1894, the couple returned to Nebraska permanently, where Tibbies edited a Populist newspaper in Lin- coln and La Flesche wrote articles and editorials for him.""'' Wliile Tibbies and La Fle.sche had set die plight of the Ponças squarely before the public in the cities they visited, it was the writings of Helen Hunt Jackson that acquainted the country as a whole to their condition.'"^ In taking up the caisade, she made strong demands of editorial friends such as Whitelaw Reid of the New York Daily Tribune, Charies Dudley Warner of the Hartford Courant, and William Hayes Ward of the New York Independent. who pviblished her articles and letters to the editors. In a Decem- ber 1879 letter to her husband, Jackson wrote that she could not shake off an impulse to autlior "a small book," telling "'sharply & succinctly, the whole story of the century's record of our dealings with tlie Indians.^"^' On 5 May 1880, she completed A Centiuy of Dishonor, which included a chapter on the Ponca removal. The

77. Bell to Schurz, S Aug. 188!. repdnted in Speeches, Çorre^xmdence and Political ñipers. 4: l48. 78. Mathes, "Iron Eyt-s Daughters," pp. 137-43. 79. For Jackson's Ponca work, see Mathes. Indian Reform Letters, pp. 3-199; Mathes, Helen Ilitnl Jackson and Her Indian Reform Legacy, pp. 21-37; .Malhes, "Ht'len Hunt Jackson as Power Braker," in Between Indian and Wlyite Wnrkls: The Cultural Broker, ed. Margaret Connell S^asz (Nonnan: University of" Oklahoma Press, 19941, pp. 142-47: Mathes. "'Helen Hunt Jackson and the Punta Controversy," MonUina. the Magazine of Western lILstory 39 (Winter 1989); 42-53; Mathes, "Helen Hum Jackson and the Campaign for Ponca Resiitution, \m.)'\'^\:' South Dakota History 17 (Spring 1987): 23-42; and Mathes, "Helen Hunt Jackson: A Legacy of Intiian Rt-tbrcn." Essays in Colorado History 4 (1986): 25-37. 8(]. Jackson to Wiiliani Siiarples.s Jackson, 19 Dec. 1879, reprinted in Indian Reform Let- ters, pp. 49-50. I Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

276 South Dakota History Vol. 30. no. 3

book did not become a bestseller, but it laid the groundwork for her crusade on behalf of tlie Mission Indians of Southern Cali- fornia and the publication of her 1884 nove!, Ramona."' Although the Ponca removal and subsequent crusade had enhanced these reformers' careers, Secretary Schurz had become the object of their wrath by failing to prevent removal in the first place. A liberal Republican, he had taken office seek- ing to end incompetence and corruption in his department, not to debate the government s Indian policy. The secretary's cred- ibility was damaged further when Commissioner Hayt was accused of mismanagement, investigated by Congress, and removed from office on 29 January 1880."-^ Biographer Hans L. Trefousse describes Schurz's Indian policies, though well meant, as "less than a complete success." His actions in the Ponca affair were "inept"; he failed to be ' fiilly cognizant of the Poncas" suf- ferings"; and his hand!ing of the relief committee in Boston "did not show great administrative or political finesse."''' On 4 March 1881, his tenure at an end, Schurz assumed an editorial position with the New York Evening Post. As for tiie Poncas themselves, the tribe remained permanently split. The Southern Poncas, who stayed in Indian Territory, grad- ually adjusted to their new reservation, while Standing Bear's smaller group, the Northern Poncas, remained on their former reservation along the Niobrara River. There, Standing Bear died in September 1908. According to a tribute from the Women's National Indian Association, which had joined in his cmsade neariy thiity years earlier, he was "buried on the hills overlook- ing the home of his ancestors.'"" Thus a small, peaceiiil agricul- tural tribe and one determined chief had succeeded in winning an impressive victoiy for American Indians and sparking a national reform movement. By the end of the nineteenth century, the men and women who fllled the ranks of these reform organizations woii!d be directing the government's Indian policy

81. Mallies, Helen Hunt fackson and Her Indian Reform Legacy, pp. 33, 77. 82. Roy W, Meyer, "iizra A. Hayi, 1877-18B0."' in The Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 1824-1977. ed. Robert M. Kvasnicka and Herman J. Viola (Lincoln; Universit>' of Nebraska Press. 1979), pp. 159-63; New York Daity Tribune, 30 Jan. 1880. p. 4. 31 Jan, 1880, p. 1; Chica- go Daily Tribune, 31 Jan. 18B0, p. 4; Boston Daity Adi-ertiser, 31 Jan. 1880, p. 1. 83. Hans L, Trefousse. Cad Schurz. A Biography {Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982), p. 247. 84. "Indian Personages of Distinction." We Indian's Friend 21 (May 19O9>; 2. Copyright © 2000 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.

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