Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 37 



I was second. The ladies flocked toward him and for an hour Standing Bear 

 held a reception. [Foreman, 1946, p. 253.] 



A few days later Judge Dundy filed his famous decision, a landmark 

 in American jurisprudence, holding that an Indian is a person the 

 same as a Wliite man and similarly entitled to the protection of the 

 Constitution. 



Standing Bear and his followers were set free, and with his old 

 wagon and the body of his dead child, he continued to the tribal burial 

 grounds on the Missouri bluffs, where he buried his son with tribal 

 honors. 



By the summer of 1879, 26 more persons had died and 16 births had 

 been recorded. The population of the Ponca in the Indian Territory 

 now stood at only 530. However, those who had remained in the 

 south were regaining some of their courage and fortitude. Under the 

 direction of the agent, 70 houses were built for their homes ; the logs 

 were cut, hewn, and laid in place by the Ponca, who were paid for 

 their labor. Cattle, horses, wagons, and harness were purchased for 

 them, and 350 acres of sod were broken, which they planted in corn 

 and vegetables. A day school was established and attended by 50 

 Ponca children. By 1880 the condition of the tribe had improved 

 so that the birth rate slightly exceeded the death rate. From July 1, 

 1877, to December 31, 1880, there had been 129 births and 117 deaths, 

 not including those who had prematurely moved to the Salt Fork. 

 During the year 1880, 70 families had moved into log or frame houses, 

 furnished with bedsteads and other furniture made by the agency 

 carpenters (Foreman, 1946, pp. 253-254). 



Meanwhile the complaints of the Ponca and their Wliite friends 

 in the East, of the abominable and unwarranted treatment of the 

 tribe by the Government, had reached the proportions of a national 

 scandal. Tlie Ponca had a particularly vigorous champion in Thomas 

 H. Tibbies, a former Indian agent and newspaperman. Touring the 

 country with Chief Standing Bear and an Omaha Indian girl named 

 Suzette ("Bright Eyes") La Flesche, he advertised the plight of the 

 Ponca and also won the maiden's hand in marriage. The press of 

 the country devoted much space to the Ponca, who had now become 

 a cause celebre. 



A committee of the U.S. Senate, after a full investigation of the 

 subject, on May 31, 1880, reported their conclusions to that body. 

 Both the majority and the minority of the committee agreed that: 

 "a great wrong had been done the Ponca Indians." As a further 

 result of the agitation. President Hayes, on December 18, 1880, ap- 

 pointed Generals George Crook and Nelson A. Miles, William Stick- 

 ney of Washington, and Walter Allen of Boston as a commission to 

 hold a conference with the Ponca and ascertain the facts relating to 



718-071—65 4 



