[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.

                          ____________________