Jeff Fortenberry: “First of all, let me thank Chairman Neguse for his profound words, generous words, kind words, and committed support to…”

“First of all, let me thank Chairman Neguse for his profound words, generous words, kind words, and committed support to this bill. I also thank Ranking Member McClintock for his review of this impactful history of our Nation. This is the reason that Nebraska chose to honor Chief Standing Bear and to share his legacy with the entire United States with a statue recently placed in Statuary Hall. In fact, Madam Speaker, I was walking through there recently, and I stopped for a moment and paused. I watched the young children gather around the Chief Standing Bear statue because it is so impressive and so dignified, and the words that are below it are so impactful: ``I am a man.'' You see, as Ranking Member McClintock traced some of this history, in 1877, the Ponca people were forced off their land in Niobrara, Nebraska, forcibly relocated in a harsh march down to Oklahoma--Indian territory, as it was called at the time. Chief Standing Bear's little child, his daughter, died along the way. His son later became ill, perhaps because of the trauma of the journey. But he promised his son that he would bury him in their native homeland, and that is what led to this tale. That really is what led us here today, Chief Standing Bear honoring a promise to his son. With other members of the Tribe, in the winter of 1878, they started northward back to Nebraska in the harshest of weather conditions. He was arrested for leaving the reservation.…”