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”

The case was narrower.

That does not make it less important.

In some ways, the narrowness makes the achievement more historically revealing.

Dundy did not need to settle every issue of Native sovereignty or citizenship to rule that the government could not place an Indian outside a basic judicial protection written for persons.

Standing Bear forced the court to recognize a minimum boundary.

The government had power, but that power was not beyond judicial examination.