The State Bar Association of North Dakota Summer 2013 Gavel Magazine

LETSBANDTOGETHER 2 0 1 3 2013 ANNUAL MEETING PRESENTERS LETSBANDTOGETHER BRINGS TOGETHER STATE LAWYERS FOR ANNUAL MEETING The 114th annual meeting of the State Bar Association of North Dakota was a gathering place for lawyers across the state to reconnect with colleagues, attend CLE seminars and recognize individuals with awards. The theme of the meeting was “LetSBANDtogether.” In addition to gatherings of related organizations, the annual golf tournament and 5K run, social events included the annual reception and silent auction to raise funds supporting the North Dakota Bar Foundation. The meeting also honored outgoing SBAND executive director Bill Neumann, who led the association for eight years. Joseph Starita Bradley Parrish CONSTITUTIONAL SYMPOSIUM This year’s 11th Annual Constitutional Symposium dealt with the story of a chief of the Ponca Tribe. “Chief Standing Bear: The Long Journey to Justice of an American Hero,” was presented by author Joe Starita, a professor at the University of Nebraska’s College of Journalism and the author of the book, “I Am A Man, Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice.” In May of 1879, Chief Standing Bear sued U.S. Army general for the right to bury his son on the soil of the Ponca Tribe’s native homeland near the border of Nebraska and South Dakota. In 1877 the Ponca people had been forced from their homeland and relocated to what is present-day Oklahoma. Soon after arriving, Standing Bear’s only son, Bear Shield, died. He did, however make his father a promise to bury him on the soil of their homeland. Carrying his son’s body in the back of a buckboard, Starita recounted how Chief Standing Bear began the 500-mile trip back to the Niobrara River Valley on the first day of January, 1879. In Omaha, he and his party were arrested by the U.S. Army and charged with leaving the reservation without permission. They were taken to the stockade at Fort Omaha. When word got out of the plight of Chief Standing Bear, a number of organizations, including national church groups, offered their support. Andrew Jackson Poppleton, considered Nebraska’s most powerful and polished lawyer, agreed to take the case to court for free. This was the first civil rights case involving an American Indian in the history of the nation. “At issue were the legal intricacies underlying fundamental questions of government and human liberty,” said Starita. “For more than a century, the legal relationship between the government and its Native people had remained a mystery. Over time, it had evolved into Indians being considered simply as wards – as children whose governmental parents could more or less do with them as they pleased, including moving them willy-nilly if it suited the parental interests. Poppleton wanted to try and clarify that status, to determine if they were more than wards, to see if they had any legal John Berry Robert Spector David Maring Michael McGinniss William McLees The Gavel Summer 2013 9

The State Bar Association of North Dakota Summer 2013 Gavel Magazine | Page 11