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SAVE THE DATE!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Friday, September 16, 2011
3:30 p.m.
Roman L. Hruska U.S. Courthouse
4th Floor - Courtroom 1
Omaha, Nebraska

Reception to follow

The Nebraska State Bar Foundation and the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska cordially invite you to attend the unveiling ceremony of the Standing Bear Bust.  United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will be a distinguished guest at the unveiling.

The bust of Ponca Chief Standing Bear was anonymously donated to the Nebraska State Bar Foundation and is on loan to the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.  The bust will be displayed on the first floor of the Hruska Courthouse.  At the ceremony, Bar Foundation President Kile W. Johnson will present the sculpture, and Judge Cloyd Clark of McCook will make remarks on behalf of the donor.

The 1879 Standing Bear trial was a landmark civil rights case decided in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.  Chief Standing Bear sought a writ of habeas corpus, protesting the government's refusal to allow his Ponca band to return to former tribal lands in Nebraska.  United States District Judge Elmer Dundy was the first federal judge to find that an Indian was a person within the meaning of the law and so had a right to seek a writ of habeas corpus.  He also ruled that the government could not force Standing Bear and his followers to return to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.  Eventually Standing Bear and his followers returned to their old reservation, where Standing Bear died in 1908.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, September 7th to Cindy McGroarty at
cindym@nebarfnd.org or (402) 475-1042.

NOTE: You received this message because you are a registered user of CM/ECF.  This is an automated message.  DO NOT REPLY to this e-mail.  If you wish to contact the court, use the following link: http://www.ned.uscourts.gov/emailus.

Thank you,
United States District Court Clerk's Office