TULSA, Okla. (KFOR) – A Tulsa, Okla., lawyer and descendant of Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Tribe took a stand towards the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Friday, hoping to get a tribal tomahawk again.
Brett Chapman mentioned the Tomahawk was handed down by means of generations of Standing Bear’s household. Now, it’s sitting in that museum and Chapman is asking for it to be given again to the Ponca tribe of Nebraska.
The fascinating story, first reported by The Guardian, dates again to the 1800s. Chapman’s great-great-grandfather, Chief White Eagle, shared a standard grandparent with Chief Standing Bear.
“This story just isn’t a troublesome one that ought to take months and years of dialogue and dialog,” Chapman mentioned.
Chapman mentioned he simply needs to convey the important thing piece of historical past residence.
“I’m interesting to their humanity,” he mentioned.
The Ponca Tribe was compelled to relocate to Indian Territory together with an estimated 60,000 different native and indigenous individuals alongside the lethal Path of Tears. In 1878, Standing Bear left the reservation in hopes to return to his fatherland of present-day Nebraska. After his son’s demise, he needed to bury him within the place the place he was born.
“The President ordered the military to apprehend him,” Chapman mentioned.
It was that arrest that will in the end result in a landmark federal determination. The choice would acknowledge Native People as people who find themselves protected by regulation and entitled to rights and safety. Standing Bear gave the 2 attorneys who took up his case free of charge a token of his gratitude.
“He introduced them, or gifted them, with these tomahawks, two tomahawks, which he mentioned had been household heirlooms,” Chapman mentioned.
Nevertheless, in some unspecified time in the future, the tomahawk was given to the museum.
“It was moved from this lawyer to Harvard with out Standing Bear’s information,” Chapman mentioned. “Harvard has completely no connection to this in anyway.”
Though it was a present, Chapman cited the entire image of the state of affairs.
“If it weren’t for this injustice of them being forcibly eliminated illegally, which the federal government acknowledged, he wouldn’t have wanted a white lawyer,” Chapman mentioned. “He wouldn’t have wanted to present this to them. It could nonetheless be within the household.”
KFOR reached out to the museum however didn’t hear again. Now, Chapman mentioned he’s hoping he can convey an artifact close to and pricey to him again to the tribe.
“They clearly have a superior declare to it morally,” he mentioned. “They need to have the ability to have a good time their very own historical past, have a good time their very own tradition.”
In line with Chapman, there was dialogue between he and the museum. Nevertheless, he mentioned the main points shifting ahead are nonetheless imprecise. Chapman mentioned he believed the media consideration prompted the response to his letter and the one reply he has at this level is that they’re welcoming dialogue. Chapman mentioned he has by no means seen nor held the tomahawk that may be a direct hyperlink to his previous.
The total interview with Chapman is featured beneath:
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