Tell the Story...Tell the Whole Story

 By Marilyn Moore

At a ceremony earlier this summer, the name of Chief Standing Bear was added to Nebraska’s Justice Administration Building.  At the same time, a bust of Standing Bear was placed and a mural inside the building was dedicated to honor Chief Standing Bear.  

During the ceremony, Governor Ricketts noted the significance of the Ponca chief, describing him as one of his personal heroes.  He said that he had not known of Chief Standing Bear until he became governor in 2015, and that Standing Bear’s story is an important one, one that every Nebraskan should know.  I agree with the Governor; every Nebraskan should know the story.  

The story, in brief….Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca people were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma in the late 1800’s by order of the US government.  Upon arriving in Oklahoma, the Chief’s son died.  His dying wish was to be buried in Nebraska near the Niobrara, where he had grown up. Though against federal law, Chief Standing Bear made the long trek, through the winter, to return his son’s body to Nebraska, where he was arrested for being here unlawfully.  He sued the federal government, whose officials argued in court that he was not a citizen of the United States, was not even recognized as a person, and therefore had no standing in federal court and could not bring suit.

In his defense, he uttered the words that have become forever linked to his name, “That hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain.  If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain.  The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours.  The same God made us both.  I am a man.”

Those words were persuasive to Judge Elmer Dundy, who ruled in the Chief’s favor, affirming that indigenous people were indeed people and had human rights under federal law.  It was a significant step in the nation’s civil rights history.  Today, Chief Standing Bear is one of the two persons whose statue represents Nebraska in the US Capitol’s Statuary Hall.  

I have three responses to the governor’s comments on that occasion.  The first is gratitude for his recognition of the importance of Chief Standing Bear and for the decision to place Standing Bear’s name on the Justice Administration Building.  That’s a placement of prominence, and Standing Bear’s name associated with “justice” is aspirational for all of us. 

The second is to wonder about Governor Ricketts’ admission that he didn’t know the Standing Bear story until he became governor, in 2015.  I thought about what that said about his history education in elementary and secondary school, remembering my own work as a history teacher, and my own elementary and secondary history classes.  

Most of us who grew up in Nebraska studied Nebraska history in fourth grade.  What I remember from that time, decades ago, is that we learned about the Indian tribes (that was the language used in the textbook) who lived in Nebraska in the pre-pioneer days, their homes, food, culture, buffalo hunts, ceremonies, etc.  And then…we learned about the Oregon Trail, the Homestead Act, the pioneers and the settlers.  There was a great big blank between those two segments of Nebraska history.  I don’t recall learning anything about how it was that the people who had lived on the prairies of what would be the state of Nebraska for millennia were suddenly not there, when homesteaders and pioneers arrived.  I did not learn about Chief Standing Bear.  I suspect the governor’s education was similar.  

I’m glad to report that the missing link is no longer missing, at least not in the Lincoln Public Schools curriculum.  Standing Bear is studied in fourth grade social studies, and again in ninth grade civics.  It is particularly important that his story is included in the civics course, because that judicial decision is a major ruling in the development of civil rights in the US.  Standing Bear is noted in the Nebraska state standards for social studies in grade four, and the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears are included in other grade levels.  The inclusion of Chief Standing Bear in social studies curricula is a significant improvement, and it would not have happened without the advocacy and persistence of citizens and educators at every level, demanding that the history that is taught be the history of all the people, not just that of the majority.  

Which brings me to my final response, and that is that the Standing Bear story is so much more than the dramatic courtroom scene and the very quotable quote.  The whole story would address questions that any thinking person would have, including ten-year-olds in fourth grade:  Why were the Ponca people forced to leave their homes in Nebraska and move to Oklahoma?    Why was it illegal for Standing Bear to return to his home to bury his son?  Why was someone who had lived his whole life in Nebraska not a citizen?  And how could anyone be considered “not a person?”  What does it mean to be “not a person?”  Just what happened in that time between the Indians roaming the plains, hunting buffalo, and homesteaders claiming a section of land and starting to farm?  

Excellent fourth grade teachers and secondary history teachers, and there are hundreds of them in Lincoln and in Nebraska, are intentional about helping students know the whole story, not just the courtroom scene.  It’s not an easy story to teach…so much complexity, so many perspectives.  And in some states, (not Nebraska, at least not yet), there would be extra scrutiny on teaching this story, because in some states there are state statutes that prohibit teaching anything in history that might make a student feel sad, or bad.  

I don’t know how you could hear, and learn, the Standing Bear story without feeling sad.  The same is true for many stories in history.  The Holocaust comes to mind, as does the enslavement of Black persons in the US, and the internment of Japanese US citizens in World War II, and the terrorist attacks on September 11.  You can add to this list…it’s nearly infinite.  The fact is, human beings have been cruel to one another in conflicts regarding power, land, and resources for most of our recorded history.  And from such cruelty, there have, at times, emerged wise leaders who can and do call out our better instincts (our better angels, as President Lincoln said) and inspire whole nations to move forward on the arc that bends toward justice.  Not teaching, and not learning, the whole story means we don’t have the chance to learn from such past and present lessons and get better at living together in the future.  Being sad may be uncomfortable, but it illumines a path forward.  Let’s tell the whole story.   

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