Chief Standing Bear Stamps

In 1879, Chief Standing Bear (ca 1829-1908) won a landmark court ruling that determined a Native American was a person underthe 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 ll based on a black-and-white photograph taken ofStanding Bear in 1877 while he was in Washington, D.c., as pat of a delegation of Ponca chiefs. For the color of his attire,Blackshear drew upon contemporary descriptions.
In 1877, the U.S. Army had relocated some 700 Ponca to Indian Territory (Oklahoma after the federal government had mistakenlygiven 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 being arrested,along with 29 other Ponca, for atempting to return to his homeland. awyers filed for a writ of habeas corpus to test the legalty ofthe detention, an unprecedented filing on behalf of a Native American.
After winning the case, Standing Bear and the members of the Ponca who had followed him were allowed to return to their oldNebraska reservation along the Niobrara River. in 1924, one issue that his 1879 trial had raised was finally resolved when Congressadopted the lndian 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.