Charles Milton Bell
Ponca Delegation to Washington, D.C.

Public Domain

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Artist Charles Milton BellAmerican, 1848–1893

CultureAmerican

Titles

Ponca Delegation to Washington, D.C.

DateNovember 14, 1877

MediumAlbumen silver print from glass negative

DimensionsImage (at open): 13 1/8 × 17 7/16 in. (33.3 × 44.3 cm)
Sheet (at open): 13 1/8 × 17 7/16 in. (33.3 × 44.3 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Endowment

Object number2020.131

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionLike Charles Bird King earlier, numerous photographers portrayed Native American delegations visiting Washington, D.C. Having been confined to a reservation in northern Nebraska which the U.S. government subsequently gave to the Sioux, the Poncas were forcibly marched in 1876 to less hospitable land in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). This delegation of Ponca chiefs petitioned for the return of their old lands but left Washington empty-handed. Two years later, Standing Bear (seated, third from left) was arrested for taking his son’s body back to Ponca burial grounds in Nebraska. His court case ultimately yielded an important victory for Native American civil rights.
ProvenanceVictor F. Germack and Lori Shepard Germack, New York; purchased by MFAH, 2020.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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