STANDING BEAR WAS ARRESTED FOR TRYING TO GO HOME – THEN HIS CASE FORCED A U.S. COURT TO DECIDE IF A NATIVE MAN WAS A “PERSON”
SUSETTE LA FLESCHE WAS NOT A SIDE CHARACTER
Popular retellings of Standing Bear’s trial often narrow the cast until only two men remain: Standing Bear and Judge Dundy.
That makes the story easier to tell, but it distorts how the case actually reached the public and how Standing Bear’s voice moved through a predominantly English-speaking legal and media world.
Susette La Flesche was crucial.
She was Omaha, the daughter of Joseph La Flesche, and had experience navigating both Omaha and Euro-American institutions.
Smithsonian archival material on the Thomas Henry Tibbles papers identifies her as the chief interpreter during Standing Bear’s trial and emphasizes her close work with Tibbles.
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