US Postal Service honors civil rights leader, Ponca tribe Chief Standing Bear, with stamp

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE
Associated Press

A Ponca tribe chief whose landmark lawsuit in 1879 established that a Native American is a person under the law was honored with the unveiling of a U.S. Postal Service stamp that features his portrait. The release of the stamp on Friday of Chief Standing Bear comes 146 years after the Army forced him and about 700 other members of the Ponca tribe to leave their homeland in northeast Nebraska and walk 600 miles to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. A lawsuit filed by Chief Standing Bear led to a ruling that found a Native American is a person with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.