[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 38 (Wednesday, February 26, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H1206-H1207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHIEF STANDING BEAR NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL FEASIBILITY STUDY
Mr. NEGUSE. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 2490) to amend the National Trails System Act to direct the
Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study on the feasibility of
designating the Chief Standing Bear National Historic Trail, and for
other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2490
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. CHIEF STANDING BEAR NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL
FEASIBILITY STUDY.
Section 5(c) of the National Trails System Act (16 U.S.C.
1244(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(xx) Chief standing bear national historic trail.--The
Chief Standing Bear Trail, extending approximately 550 miles
from Niobrara, Nebraska, to Ponca City, Oklahoma, which
follows the route taken by Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca
people during Federal Indian removal, and approximately 550
miles from Ponca City, Oklahoma, through Omaha, Nebraska, to
Niobrara, Nebraska, which follows the return route taken by
Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca people.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Colorado (Mr. Neguse) and the gentleman from California (Mr.
McClintock) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Colorado.
General Leave
Mr. NEGUSE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Colorado?
There was no objection.
Mr. NEGUSE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, H.R. 2490, introduced by Representative Fortenberry of
Nebraska, would direct the Secretary of the Interior to study the
feasibility of designating the Chief Standing Bear National Historic
Trail.
The proposed trail would extend approximately 550 miles from
Niobrara, Nebraska, to Ponca City, Oklahoma, tracing the route taken by
Chief Standing Bear during Federal Indian removal and their return to
Nebraska.
The trail would commemorate and elevate the story of Chief Standing
Bear, and the trail would memorialize the honor, the courage, and the
fortitude of Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca people as they struggled
to return to their homeland. It would serve as a reminder of their
fight to achieve justice, freedom, and equality.
Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Fortenberry for championing
this important legislation and for his efforts to bring about a greater
understanding of Tribal sovereignty and rights.
Madam Speaker, I certainly urge my colleagues to support this
important bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
The statue of Chief Standing Bear can be found in this Capitol,
honored by the State of Nebraska as one of its favorite sons.
Chief Standing Bear led the Ponca Tribe through the crisis that began
with its displacement by a flood of westward-bound settlers encouraged
by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Tribe was pressured to abandon its most
productive lands and, essentially, made wanderers by a series of broken
promises by the United States Government. When they sought refuge on
the Omaha Reservation, Chief Standing Bear and his surviving tribesmen
were arrested and detained at Fort Omaha, with no legal recourse.
The legal case that followed established, in 1879, the legal
principle that American Indians were indeed American citizens protected
under the Constitution and accorded all the due process rights
enshrined in it. During that case, the words of Chief Standing Bear,
pleading on behalf of his Tribe, moved the entire Nation and endure to
this day.
H.R. 2490, authored by Congressman Fortenberry, directs the Secretary
of the Interior to study the feasibility of designating the Chief
Standing Bear National Historic Trail. The Chief Standing Bear Trail,
extending approximately 550 miles from Nebraska to Oklahoma, follows
the route taken by Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca people during
their forced removal.
If supported by this study, any designation of the trail would
require additional action from the Committee on Natural Resources and
the Congress.
This legislation passed the House in the 114th Congress. It is long
overdue to become law.
Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry), the author of the measure.
Mr. FORTENBERRY. Madam Speaker, first of all, let me thank Chairman
Neguse for his profound words, generous words, kind words, and
committed support to this bill. I also thank Ranking Member McClintock
for his review of this impactful history of our Nation.
This is the reason that Nebraska chose to honor Chief Standing Bear
and to share his legacy with the entire United States with a statue
recently placed in Statuary Hall.
In fact, Madam Speaker, I was walking through there recently, and I
stopped for a moment and paused. I watched the young children gather
around the Chief Standing Bear statue because it is so impressive and
so dignified, and the words that are below it are so impactful: ``I am
a man.''
You see, as Ranking Member McClintock traced some of this history, in
1877, the Ponca people were forced off their land in Niobrara,
Nebraska, forcibly relocated in a harsh march down to Oklahoma--Indian
territory, as it was called at the time.
Chief Standing Bear's little child, his daughter, died along the way.
His son later became ill, perhaps because of the trauma of the journey.
But he promised his son that he would bury him in their native
homeland, and that is what led to this tale.
That really is what led us here today, Chief Standing Bear honoring a
promise to his son. With other members of the Tribe, in the winter of
1878, they started northward back to Nebraska in the harshest of
weather conditions. He was arrested for leaving the reservation. The
predecessor to today's paper in Nebraska, the Omaha World-Herald,
picked up on the story. It became a famous court case that was followed
throughout America.
At the end of the trial, Chief Standing Bear simply raised his hand
and said this:
That hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel
pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will
flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man. God made us
both.
With that profound statement, the court was so moved that the judge
ruled, as Ranking Member McClintock said, that Native Americans for the
first time--this was 1879--would be declared persons for purposes under
the law.
It is an amazing, traumatic, difficult, but poignant civil rights
story.
Today, what we are doing is potentially talking about the
establishment
[[Page H1207]]
of the Chief Standing Bear National Historic Trail that would honor
both the courage of this brave individual and his great contribution to
the idea of freedom and civil liberties for all Americans. This bill is
a first important step toward establishing this trail, and I am really
thankful to my colleagues for their support.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. NEGUSE. Madam Speaker, I again thank my colleague from Nebraska
for his leadership and for bringing this important bill, and I urge my
colleagues to support it.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Neguse) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 2490, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. NEGUSE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________