Virtual Capitol Extension Lessons

9. Extension Lesson: Standing Bear: Native American Citizen

PURPOSE: During most of the 1800s, Native Americans (the First Americans) were not considered American citizens, even though they were born here. Instead, they were eventually confined to reservations and sometimes forcibly moved to other reservations in Oklahoma and other areas. When Standing Bear and some of his Ponca people tried to return to their homeland in Nebraska in 1879, they were arrested. Instead of resisting, Chief Standing Bear chose to take a nonviolent action that would start to change things for all Native Americans, even though actual citizenship would not be granted until 1924.