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

The appeal of your homeland. One of the driving motivations was the Ponca’s tribe’s desire to maintain, preserve and sustain their original lands. This is a completely understandable motivation so you could appreciate their heartbreak when they were forced to leave to their new territory. I also thought the U.S. government’s solution of gifting parcels of land to individuals as opposed to their tribe illustrated a very different culture amongst the Ponca tribe (and probably most Indian tribes). They value the collective more than the individual which was confusing to the U.S. representatives.

White Buffalo Girl. I was emotional about this story of the first death of the Ponca journey to Oklahoma. A casualty of the march and of the inadequacies of the government’s preparedness her grave is still observed with flowers. “The Indians don’t like to leave the graves of their ancestors but we had to move and hope it will be for the best. I leave the grave in your care. I may never see it again. Care for it for me.” Powerful.

Differences between U.S. Government and U.S. Citizens. One of the more interesting aspects of the book was the fact that U.S. citizens were largely sympathetic to the Ponca tribe and their concerns. Most of the legal momentum was created by U.S. citizens via word-of-mouth, newspaper reports, and the East Coast tour of Standing Bear and others. There were also plenty of stories of people helping the Indians in individual communities which seemed to work against how the government were treating them.



“But a man bars the passage…If he says that I cannot pass, I cannot. The long struggle will have been in vain. My wife and child and I must return and sink beneath the flood. We are weak and faint and sick. I cannot fight.” “You are that man.”