Chief Standing Bear
Senators ask for Standing Bear to be put on coin
Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008
Lincoln Journal Star
Senators are asking the Secretary of Treasury to select Ponca Chief Standing Bear as one of the designs for the reverse of the Native $1 coin through a legislative resolution passed Wednesday afternoon.
The Ponca chief was born in Nebraska but the tribe was forcibly moved to Oklahoma. In January 1879 Standing Bear and 30 followers left Indian Territory in Oklahoma to bury his son in Nebraska along the Ponca ancestral homeland in Nebraska.
Two months later, Standing Bear was arrested and put on trial.
That May, after a two-day trial, a federal judge recognized Standing Bear as a human under the law and freed him, a landmark decision that secured constitutional rights for all Native people.
Standing Bear deserves place on $1 coin
Friday, Jan 18, 2008 - 10:26:11 am CST
Putting the likeness of Ponca Chief Standing Bear on the $1 Sacagawea coin would be a fitting way to recognize the importance of his role in history.
Sen. Bill Avery has introduced a resolution in the Legislature that puts the body on record in support of putting the Native leader on the flip side of the coin.
The measure deserves unanimous approval. Chief Standing Bear already is in the Nebraska Hall of Fame, and commemoration ceremonies are held annually in his honor. Already lobbying to put the chief’s image on the coin are Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and the Nebraska Indian Commission.
State leaders want Standing Bear on $1 coin
By KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008 - 06:38:41 pm CST
Every so often, one of his friends waiting in a car nearby would honk the horn, trying to urge Bill Avery along.
But Avery — an admirer of Native people and culture since he was a boy growing up in North Carolina — had to see the names and dates on the historical markers.
Had to understand what took place on this battlefield in 1876.
In the same spirit, he paid homage to fallen soldiers and Native warriors at the Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana three years ago, Avery, now a state senator from Lincoln, wants to honor one of Nebraska’s prominent former Native leaders.
He’s introduced a resolution calling for the Nebraska Legislature to support an effort to put Ponca Chief Standing Bear’s likeness on the $1 Sacagawea coin.
