Chief Standing Bear Stamps

In 1879, Chief Standing Bear (ca 1829-1908) won a landmark court ruling that determined a Native American was a personunder the law with an inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.The stamp features a portrait of Chief Standing Bear by Thomas Blackshear l based on a black-and-white photograph takenof Standing Bear in 1877 while he was in Washington, D.c as part of a delegation of Ponca chiefs. For the color of his attireBlackshear drew upon contemporary descriptions.

In 1877, the U.S. Army had relocated some 700 Ponca to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) after the federal government hadmistakenly given away the tribe's homeland in the Niobrara River Valley in what is now northeastern Nebraska.

In a landmark civil rights case, Standing Bear v. Crook, Standing Bear sued the government for his freedom after beingarrested, along with 29 other Ponca, for attempting to return to his homeland. Lawers filed for a writ of habeas corpus to testthe legality of the detention, an unprecedented filing on behalf of a Native American.

After winning the case, $tanding Bear and the members of the Ponca who had folowed him were allowed to return to their olNebraska reservation along the Niobrara River. in 1924, one issue that his 1879 trial had raised was finally resolved whenCongress adopted the indian Citizenship Act, which conferred citizenship on all Native Americans born in the United States

Derry Noyes served as art director and designer for this stamp.The Chief Standing Bear stamp is being issued as a Forever@ stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to thecurrent First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.

Made in the USA