Public lectures allowed audiences in eastern cities to hear directly about Ponca removal and the conditions that had produced the lawsuit.

The Library of Congress records that Francis La Flesche accompanied his sister Susette and his uncle Standing Bear on an eastern campaign related to Indian land reform in 1879.

The speaking campaign mattered because the United States in the late nineteenth century contained millions of people who had little direct knowledge of how federal Indian policy worked on the ground.

Newspaper stories and lectures could make policies that sounded distant or technical suddenly personal.

Standing Bear could describe what removal meant to his family.

Susette La Flesche could translate and interpret Native political arguments for audiences accustomed to hearing federal officials speak for Native people.