A Trail of Tears
I decided this year to go to Nebraska and Kansas – yes, again! Here's how that decision came about.
In October 2020 I watched the 58-minute video documentary Standing Bear's Footsteps. I'd heard of Chief Standing Bear before I watched the video. I'd ridden on a trail named after him and had briefly visited a museum with his name, but I hadn't remembered what he'd done. Wanting to know more, I read the book "I Am a Man" by Joe Starita.
This book does a good job telling the story of the Poncas' forced relocation in 1877 and how Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Tribe ended up in a federal district courtroom two years later.
Inside the book is a map of their forced removal - The Ponca Trail of Tears - which was from their homeland near Niobrara, Nebraska to Indian Territory near Quapaw, Oklahoma. I'd been to many of the towns shown on the map on previous bicycle trips. Now I had a reason to visit them again, to see them from a different perspective.
E. A. Howard, the government official leading the group, kept a journal of the trip, which was recorded in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the year 1877 (on pages 97 through 99). From this I was able to determine (approximately) where they were each night as they went.
For this trip I'll drive to Nebraska, park my truck at the Omaha airport, then head north on bicycle to Niobrara. From there I'll travel along the 1877 Ponca Trail of Tears to Quapaw. I'll make my way to Ponca City, Oklahoma next, near where some of the Ponca Tribe settled in 1878. North after that back through Kansas and southern Nebraska to Omaha and my truck. Figures at 1476 miles over 39 days. Monday, July 15, is the planned first day for bicycling.
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