Photo: United States Postal Service
(Lincoln, NE) -- A historic Nebraska activist will be featured on a new USPS stamp.
A stamp honoring Ponca Chief Standing Bear will be released soon, five years after it was recommended to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee. Standing Bear argued, and won, a landmark 1879 federal court case that ruled that Native Americans were people under the law and therefore entitled to rights and protection. The case made Standing Bear the first Native American judicially granted civil rights under American law.
The stamp features a portrait of Chief Standing Bear by Thomas Blackshear II, based on a black-and-white photograph taken in 1877. The color of Standing Bear's attire was based mainly on contemporary descriptions. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp.
The stamp is set to be released May 12.