Case of Chief Standing Bear: The Native American Fight for Civil Rights

Wednesday, May 27, 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Pioneer Bank, 1450 Adams St., Mankato (Victory Drive & Adams)

After the Battle of Little Bighorn, the Federal government wanted to appease the Lakota. The government offered the tribal land of the Ponca people in Northeast Nebraska to the Lakota. This required an order removing the Ponca from their reservation at the confluence of the Missouri and Niobrara rivers. By May of 1877, the United States Army had uprooted 700 Ponca and forced them to move to the Quapaw Agency in Northeast Oklahoma.
Once in Oklahoma, the Ponca discovered the government's promise went unfilled. Frustrated with lack of housing, squalor, and illness, Chief Standing Bear and 30 tribe members left the reservation without military permission and walked back to Nebraska in January and February 1878 only to be arrested for violation of a military order.
Before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment no Native American had standing to bring a lawsuit in a United States Court. Chief Standing Bear brought a writ of Habeas Corpus challenging his incarceration. The government argued that he was neither a citizen nor a “person” entitled to sue. The result was a new understanding of the Fifth Amendment.

Presenter:

James Fleming – James Fleming practiced law in Minnesota for 35 years before his recent retirement, 22 of those years as a public defender. He served as the chief public defender for the 15 counties of the Fifth Judicial District in southwest Minnesota, based in Mankato, and later for the Second Judicial District (Ramsey County).

Sponsor:

Larry Nicol