Jeff Fortenberry: “I would like to turn my attention to an opportunity I had this morning before the Natural Resources Committee to…”

“I would like to turn my attention to an opportunity I had this morning before the Natural Resources Committee to actually talk about another Nebraskan who lived long ago, a Nebraskan who will soon adorn the Halls here. His statue will be placed in Statuary Hall right outside of these Halls. He was Ponca Chief Standing Bear. I was pleased to welcome Ms. Judi Gaiashkibos, the director of the Nebraska Indian Commission, who, with me, petitioned the Natural Resources Committee to begin a process by which we study the feasibility of a trail in Standing Bear's honor and in honor of the Ponca people and the hardships which they endured I began before the committee this morning with these words: No be-t e wiuga-the eo kigo zhi: Our hands are not the same color. These were the words of Chief Standing Bear as he was on trial in 1879. And what was he accused of in that courtroom in Omaha? He was accused of leaving his reservation to bury his dead son on the Ponca homeland near Niobrara, Nebraska. Even though there were treaties with this Tribe, the Ponca had been forcefully relocated from Nebraska to Oklahoma. Along the way, his young daughter died. His son, suffering from the ill effects of this, later was very ill, and Chief Standing Bear promised him on his deathbed that he would bury him back in his homeland. So, leading a group of Ponca in a very tough winter of 1878, they began the trek back to Nebraska, and he was arrested.…”