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Chief Standing Bear, whose landmark lawsuit in 1879 established {that a} Native American is an individual below the legislation, is on a brand new postage stamp.
The U.S. Postal Service launched a Ceaselessly stamp on Friday honoring the Ponca tribe chief, a civil rights icon recognized for his “I Am a Man” speech.
The stamp’s launch comes 146 years after the U.S. Military forcibly eliminated Chief Standing Bear and a few 700 different members of the tribe from their homeland in northeast Nebraska. Standing Bear’s son was amongst those that died of starvation and illness after the tribe’s 600-mile journey on foot to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
U.S. Postal Service
When Standing Bear made the perilous journey again to Nebraska to honor his son with a burial within the tribe’s homeland in 1879, he was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Omaha.
His arrest was the catalyst for a lawsuit that led to an 1879 ruling that decided a Native American was an individual below the legislation with an inherent proper to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
On the finish of his two-day trial in a Nebraska federal court docket, the decide honored his request to talk. By way of a translator, Standing Bear delivered a brief however putting speech that included the well-known 4 phrases that asserted his humanity. Extending his proper hand, he instructed Federal Choose Elmer Dundy, “That hand just isn’t the colour of yours, but when I pierce it, I shall really feel ache. For those who pierce your hand, you additionally really feel ache. The blood that may circulate from mine shall be of the identical coloration as yours. I’m a person. The identical God made us each.”
The decide agreed. Native People deserved the identical authorized protections as different People, he dominated.
In an announcement, Candace Schmidt, the chairwoman of the Ponca Tribe, celebrated the stamp as a “image of the delight and perseverance for all of our members previous, current and future.”
“It took our nation far too lengthy to acknowledge the humanity in a lot of its folks — together with the American Indians who lived in these lands for 1000’s of years,” mentioned Anton Hajjar, vice chairman of the USPS Board of Governors.
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