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    Two news items caught my eye this past weekend.

    A Ponca chief is now honored with a new postage stamp. Chief Standing Bear and several hundred tribal members were removed from Nebraska and forced to walk to Oklahoma in the 1840's. Many died during the walk. Chief Standing Bear was imprisoned, but  released in 1879 after filed a lawsuit requesting the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Tribal members later received limited compensation and U.S citizenship.  There are now 500 Ponca in the Nebraska tribe.

    Chief Standing Bear

    Chief Standing Bear (possibly Luther Standing Bear) full-length portrait, standing, facing slightly left, holding bow and arrows

     Proposals are in place to return the Upper Sioux Agency Minnesota State Park to the Upper Dakota Sioux Community.  The park was the original site of the agency responsible for providing money, food and supplies to the Dakota Sioux. The War of 1862 broke out when out the Sioux  were not given food. 
    Trader Andrew Myrick "infamously told a federal agent that he would not sell on credit, saying as far I am concerned let them eat  eat grass or their own dung.  Myrick was later found dead with grass in his mouth.  The current tribal leader describes the 1862 war as the ugliest moment in . . . Minnesota's history. 

     map of Indian wars

    Map of Indian Wars, #38. McConnell’s Historical Maps of the U.S

    The Largest mass execution in American History: remembering a little known war

    Sources: Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 2023
    State park would return to Dakota (5/12)
    Chief Standing bear is honored with a stamp (5/14)

       Social Studies/History    9 - 12    6 - 8    13+    Chief Standing Bear    Dakota Indians    Ponca Indians   Sioux Indians     Minnesota    Nebraska    Doifficult topics  

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    Thanks for such an informative and interesting post   Mary Alice Anderson  as well as unearthing the fantastic McConnell's Historical Maps of the U.S.!

    These are some great stories to unearth! I'm reminded that the Dakota people of the Lower Sioux community reclaimed 114 acres of their ancestral lands from the Minnesota Historical Society (my employer) in March 2021. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/03/03/tribe-reclaims-its-land-and-its-story 

    I really like the MPR headline for this story in particular, because while other news sources headlined the story with "Minnesota returns Lower Sioux ancestral lands" or something to that effect, MPR really focused on the agency of folks to reclaim their own lands. MNHS couldn't return it if it hadn't been stolen in the first place. I also really like how they centered "Dakota people from the Lower Sioux Community" as the Lower Sioux Community name is how they are federally recognized, not necessarily how they would call themselves. 

    Anyway, so much great history to unpack here. I told my Kindergartner the other day the story of the US Dakota War and he replied, "Why didn't they give it back? When they realized it was wrong?" From the mouths of babes... 

    Edited

    Thanks for adding to this post  I especially appreciate  the link to the MPR story and the additional links.

    I am reading the novel The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore. It's historical fiction based on a real situation of a woman captured by the Dakota It is set in Shakopee and later the RedWood Falls area in 1862.   Parts of very gruesome.   My only complaint is a lack of references which would  be helpful to people not familiar with that unfortunate episode in Minnesota  history.  

    Little War on the Prairie  Minnesota Public Radio, 2012.

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