Show THE celebrates CASE THAT WON CIVIL RIGHTS FOR INDIANS order issued ty carl Schurz While secretary of the interior brought lon trouble to a crisis SPLENDID ORATION MADE BY INDIAN CHIEF eloquence of standing bear pleading for his own and his peoples rights the cause of an ovation in crowded nebraska court room judge famous decision amaba the late carl schurz Is best remembered in omaha as the cause of the american indians being admitted to lull citizenship in this country not through his taking the side of the red men in the long struggle but because be as secretary of the interior issued order which so aroused the west to the wrongs of the indian that a cru ade was started in omaha which reached to all portions of the united states lasted seven years and ended ay iy supreme court decisions and lve enactments making the indian as ree as a white man if he choose to be 10 and to accept the conditions of schurz had the order issued to gen then stationed at omaha and commanding this department of the rm and immediately the cause of the indian was taken up by thomas H tabbies late vice presidential can on the populist ticket den crook john L webster judge dundy lied a score of other men prominent in the west previous to the fight spoken of here mery indian in the united states was subject to the orders of the secretary 0 the interior the government was an absolute autocrat over the destiny ot the red man in the entire country pitiful funeral procession back in 1879 a pitiful procession wended its slow way northward from indian territory bound tor the prairies ot nebraska there were 30 indians on foot and one old wagon drawn by two workout horses in the wagon was the dead body of a child an in dian boy the leader of the little par ty was the father of the dead child the famous ponca indian chief stand ing bear a few years later to be the best known indian in the entire world and to speak in every city in the country in behalf of his people standing bears party was en route to the niobrara Nio brara country in northern nebraska to bury the child in the an aleut burying grounds of the tribe they had started on the long trip al though permission to leave the reser at ion in indian territory on which chev had been settled against their will had been refused formerly the doncas lived in north an 1 meat in plenty come live with us said iron eye but the government through schurz said no crook arrested arre eted the old chief and bro ight him and his followers down to omaha and with them came the wagon bearing the dead child standing bear told crook his andl vidual story the great indian fighter knew the general history of the in deans and was already indignant at their treatment but the treatment ac chided standing bear was too much and even the stern warrior rebelled campaign mapped out ahat night crook came into omaha and had an all nights conference with tabbies then an editorial writer on a newspaper A campaign of indians rights was mapped out and both men skirted out the next day to airry out their parts crook was to delay returning the in deans to indian territory until a writ 0 habeas corpus could be asked foi from the united states court on the gund that the constitution in the fourteenth amendment guaranteed to all persons born in the united state equal protection of the law tabbies looked out tor the legal end of the deal he went to john L aebi str then a struggling unknown youn lawyer laid his case before him and asked him to defend the rights of ehg indian there Is no money in it but ther Is fame honor and glory said tib bles webster took the case and aikeo judge A J poppleton then general counsel tor the union pacific to assist him and make the argument popple ton agreed and then a writ was ap piled for in the united states court at omaha over which judge dundy pre sided made thousands of citizens th case came to trial it was the most notable trial ever brought in the west and in tact the scope was as wide as any ever tried in the united states tor by its decision peo pie were made citizens thomas H tabbies attended every session ot that court in bis own word he describes it this way general crook intercepted and arrested standing bear ern nebraska along the ltv er they had fought the sioux in be bait of the white men for years and bad lost braves in the white man s behalf for this a previous secretary of the interior had given them in fee simple full title to their reservation and lands lands taken from doncas aten mr schurz was made seere tary and at the point of the bayonet had driven the doncas down into in dian territory depriving them of the lands tor which they held government deeds the doncas were left months without rations in the new country end more than one third of them died while there and among thosa who died was the son of the old chief standing bear the chief refused to have the little boda burled in the strange country but instead gathering a few members of his tribe he started tor the ancient hunting grounds ot his tribe intend ing to bury the child where genera alons of ponca chiefs lay schurz heard of the runaways and through the war department tele graphed gen crook in omaha to ar rest the indians and return them to indian territory but the chief of the iron eye went to meet the doncas and of them a haven of refuge on the omaha reservation we have all the land standing bear and his people wi h tor v have corn the courtroom was crowded witti fashionably dressed women and th clergy which had been greatly bj the incident was there in force lilyers every one in nebraska an miny from the big eastern cities busl ness men gen creole and his full staff in their dress uniforms this was on oc the few times in his life that crool wore his full dress in public and th indians themselves in their gaudy col ors the courtroom was a galaxy 01 brill lanc on on side stood the army officers the brillia antly dressed women and th baite people on the other was stand bear in his official robes as achl of the pom as and with him were hi leading men far back in the audience shrink ing from observation was an indian girl who afterward became camous a a lecturer in england and america she was later known on both conti bents by a translation of her indian name in sta the am ba bright eyes long and able arguments attorney poppleton s argument was ca detully prepared ind consumed 16 hoi rs in the delivering occupying the attention of the court tor two days on the third day mr webster spoke tor 1 hours and during all the pro ce dings the courtroom was packed wi h the beauty and culture of the cit towards the close of the trial the situation became tense As th wrongs on the indians were described by aba attorney a indignation was of tea at a white heat ana the judge made no attempt at suppressing the applause which broke out from time to time tor the department mr lambert son made a short address but was bened to in silence it was late in the afternoon when the trial drew to a close the excite anent had been increasing but it reached a height not before when judge dundy announced that chief star ding bear would be allowed to make a speech in his own behalf not one in that audience besides the army officers and mr tibb es had ever heard an oration by an indian chief all of them had read of the eloquence of red jacket and logan and they sat there wondering her the m id looking old man with the lines ot bi sorrow on his furrowed brow dressed in the fall rocks A little way there are greer prairies the swift running wa ter the niobrara Nio brara pours down between the green hills there are the graves of my fathers there again we will pitch our tepee and build our alres I 1 see the light of the world and of jib ercy ahead the old chief became silent again and after an appreciable pause he arned toward the judge with s ich a look of pathos and suffering on his fice that none who saw it will forget md said but in the center of the path there binds a man behind him I 1 see sol dier in number like the leaves of the trees it that man ches me bermis diun I 1 may pass on to life and liberty if he refuses I 1 must go back ind sink leleath the flood ahen in a lower tone you are that man there was silence in the court as ro e ot an indian chief could make a speech at all it happened that there was a good interpreter present the son ot father hamilton a well known missionary standing bear s address standing bear arose half facing the audience he held out his right hand ard stood motionless so long that the stillness of death which had settled down on the audience became almost unbearable at last looking up at the adge be said that hand is not the color of yours but if I 1 prick it the blood will flow and I 1 shall feel pain the blood Is ot the same color as yours god ande me and I 1 am a man I 1 never committed a crime it I 1 had 1 would not stand here to make a defense 1 would suffer the punishment and make no complaint still standing half facing the audi ence he looked past the judge out of a window as if gazing upon something ear in the distance and contin led I 1 seem to be standing on the high bank of a great river with my wite and little girl by ray side I 1 cannot cross the river and impassable cliffs arise behind me I 1 hear the noise of preat waters I 1 look and see a flood ming the waters rise to our teet and then to our knees my little girl stretches her hands toward me and bay bave me I 1 stand where no member of my race ever stood before there is no t to guide me the chiefs wh preceded me knew nothing of the cir cum stances that surround me I 1 hear only my little girl say save me in despair I 1 look toward the cliffs behind me and I 1 seem to see a dim trail that may lead to a way of lite but no indian ever passed over that trail it looks to be impassable I 1 make the attempt I 1 take my child by the hand and my wife follows after me our hands and our teet are torn by rocks and our trail is marked by ov blood at last I 1 see a rift in the t ie chief sat down some tears ran down over the judge s face gen crook leaned forward and covered hie tace with his hands some ot the ladles sobbed orator given ovation all at once that audience by one common impulse rose to its feet and inch a shout went up as was never asard in a nebraska courtroom no one heard judge dundy say court is adjourned there was a rush tor standing bear the first to reach him was gen crook I 1 was second the ledies cocked toward him and for an hour standing bear held a reception A few days afterward judge dunaj handed down his famous decision in which he announced that an indian wis a person and was entitled to the of the law standing bear and his followers were set tree and with his old wagon and the body of hie de id child he went back to the huntin grounds of his fathers and burled the boy with tribal honors it was the 1 er first time an indian was ever per ir bitted to appear in court and have his rights tried up at the ponca reservation there la an old white headed indian he Is the ca known really white headed in dian too it Is old standing bear oil and decrepit but he remembers carl schurz and still blames him for nuch of the hardships through which the western indians passed when told of the death of schurz the old man smoked a full minute beto e answering the one word of eng elsh which he ever uses abod |