Customer Reviews

"I Am a Man": Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book was recommended by the History Book Club. I rarely read a nonfiction from front to back, this is one of the few that I could not put down. This is an inspiring story about a Ponca chief challenging the federal government in court and the many white citizens working on his behalf. While it tells of many horrors, it is a success story for all americans regardless if aboriginal, immigrant, or native. Tells of experiences in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and travels in Chicago, New York and other cities in eastern U.S. This is history of events that took place after the american civil war.

As a graduate from UC Davis with a minor in Native American Studies, and being of Cherokee descent, I thought I know a fair amount of Native American history. While I had heard of Chief Standing Bears court battle to be recognized as a man and a citizen of the United States, I knew only the surface of this intriguing and important event.

Joe Starita has done Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca a great service in his well-written account of a fascinating chapter of US history that has far-reaching implications for all of us of Native American descent.

Starita manages to present the facts and keep the reader's interest in what could have been--but is not--just another boring history book. Starita's book is a page turner, especially as the trial approaches and he reveals one fascinating fact after another.

I only wish this book were required reading for all students of American history. It is an eye-opener!

I am interested in History, live in Nebraska a read quite a bit. This book started well but seemed to go no where after a while. It provided a large amount of detail, most of which seemed a rehash of material in preceeding pages.

It seemed this book needed citations. There were lots of pieces of informtion that came from come kind or source, that would not be considered common knowledge, but there were no in-text citations, endnotes or footnotes. So I wonder about the accuracy of the information. There is a lengthly bibliography, but with out citations I wonder about how the bibliography was used.

I started over on this book a few times, re read the first 100 pages two or three times but could not maintain interest. I finally gave up and did not finish the book, which is highly unusual for my reading habits. The other reviewers seemed to like and apprecite this book, however, I did not. Maybe it was me.

This is a wonderfully written book. The language flows with very interesting content. The story of the Ponca people and Cheif Standing Bear is a lesson in human relations that one should not let pass by ones personal library of cultural wealth. There is a lesson for all of us. The is something deeper that Joe Starita hits on in this book. How was it that General Crook came to saddle up his hourse, risk a military career, and ride to a contact to suggest that Chief Standing Bear should sue General Crook? How was it that Chief Standing Bear had the understanding to go along with a scheme as it unfolded to file the habeus corpus writ. Are the great men and women that sense something great and rise to the occassion, or do the stars somehow align due to randomness or providential guidance. In my opinion, the greatness of Starita's book is that he tells the story that evey American should know, but lets the reader go through evolutionary experience to discover deep questions about the essence of the human species. I highly recommend this book to those from the young adult to older ages.

On the banks of the Missouri River on the border of present-day Nebraska and South Dakota lies a tributary of the Niobrara River, a place where history took place in the form of the trials of the Ponca Tribe which drifted from the present-day Carolinas to Nebraska over the course of a several centuries. From this tribe came a leader by the name of Standing Bear who settled down with his people to engage in agricultural pursuits when a boundary snafu between the United States Government and the Lakota tribe resulted in his and his tribe's eviction from the banks of the Niobrara and being relocated to what they called the Warm Country or Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). The removal to the territory down south resulted in the deaths and misery of many of their people in the spring and summer of 1877.

Upon the death of Standing Bear's son, he honored his son's request to be buried along the chalk bluffs along the Niobrara River and took a small group of Poncas from the Warm Country back to Nebraska. Braving cold and hunger, they almost made it back to their original home where they were arrested for leaving Indian Territory without permission from the federal government and were imprisoned for some time at Fort Omaha. It was here that a news reporter by the name of Thomas Tibbles heard about their plight and publicized the tribe's travails back on the east coast. Funds were raised to help defend Standing Bear and proclaim that he was a man, a person who wanted to be recognized as such in the court of law. The story is a well written summary of the incidents that occurred so long ago. Vignettes of current day Poncas are included to give a flavor of the Ponca culture today.

The book has 236 pages of text along with an extensive bibliography and an index. It was disappointing that there were no end notes to reference the statements and facts in the book. A few reflections. Why weren't the Ponca allowed to negoiate for the land mistakenly given to the Lakota, especially since it was known that the Lakota did not need the land? Also, why weren't the Ponca given an option to aprrove the allotment of their lands via the Dawes Act? It is ironic that the Dawes Act was done out of benevolence, but in reality took land from the Indians without their consent and against previously negoitated treaties. A good introductory book on Standing Bear and the Ponca Tribe.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. And, I read A LOT! It reads like a work of fiction, because this cannot possibly have happened. Except, sadly, it did happen, and this book tells the tale in a way where you literally are unable to put the book down. This is a read-it-cover-to-cover-in-one-day book. And, I had the added benefit of meeting Mr. Starita and discussing this book with him, and he is an exceptional author and researcher. You will enjoy this book, and more importantly, you will learn something about American history and the history of Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca people.

I JUST STARTED READING THE BOOK,I CAME BY UPS,THIS MORNING,SO FAR I REALLY LIKE IT. I THINK I WILL OREDER ANOTHER COPY FOR MY DAD.

Book arrived as promised and in new condition. Contents are outstanding and very well written. Highly recommend it to anyyone interested in Native American history.

This book was chosen by my book club. It was vaguely interesting, not well written, of little interest unless you have never heard anything about the government treatment of the American Indians. Boring!

This is a fascinating book. I was born and raised in Nebraska and had not heard this story. Absolutely a must read.