A
fter he fled from Indian Terrotiry, where he and other Poncas were sent, Standing Bear was arrested. After a habeas corpus hearing at which the U.S. government claimed that as an Indian, the chief had no standing in court and, in fact, was not considered "a person." Judge Elmer Dundy ruled that he was a person in the eyes of the law. It was a landmark civil rights ruling (1879, at Omaha, Neb.).