Show tories tones of GREAT INDIANS by ELMO SCOTT WATSON copyright 1922 western newspaper Nos paper union STANDING BEAR WINS LIBERTY BY HABEAS CORPUS WRIT ICE upon a time a writ of habeas 0 ONCE corpus was invoked in behalf of an indian and the decision in his case marked a new epoch in the conduct of our indian affairs that man was waa standing bear mon chu non zhan chief of the doncas in 1877 the government decided t to 0 remove standing bears pe people ople from their ancestral homes in nebraska ka t to indian territory in spite of his opposition he and nine kotlier chiefs we were re taken south to choose a reservation they mould not select a place whereupon the agent refused them thein transportation por tation home at night they slept in haystacks shivering with the cold their only food was raw corn com which they found in the fields their moccasins wore vore out after 50 days they reached th tie the otoe reservation in nebraska and as they walked into the agents office they left bloody footprints on the floor ten days later they rode rod wearily into their home camp on ponies which the otoes fotoes had given them in their absence an official of 0 the indian department arrived to remove the joncas by force accepting the inevitable standing bear prepared to retrace liis his steps after a terrible journey during which chich two of standing bears children died the discouraged settled in their new homes within a ear a third of the tribe perished then standing bears favorite sou son died in january lie he took the bones of his sons and started once more to nebraska two months later they arrived destitute at the omaha reservation they borrowed land and seed from the and were preparing to put in a crop when soldiers appeared to arrest and return them to indian territory then public sentiment intervened two white lawyers offered to defend the doncas and sued out a writ of habeas corpus although attorneys for the indian department contended that indians were not persons within the meaning of the law judge dundy ruled against them and ordered the prisoners released once I 1 avenged my wrongs with the tomahawk said standing bear but the white mans way Is better I 1 lay the tomahawk down forever eve r 11 by this time standing bears case had attracted national attention and a senate investigation of the ponca removal resulted in restoring them to their old homes here september 6 1003 standing bear died at the age of eighty years |