Viewing page 55 of 100

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-52-

and denounced the cruelties practiced upon them, and following after came the New York Herald, Tribune, Sun, and many others.No word came from the Secretary of the Interior... He, (Mr. Tibbles) would find out whether the courts regarded the Indian as a man, or simply a brute, whether he "had any rights which a white man was bound to respect." ...There was a lawyer in Omaha who had graduated at the same college that he did and with whom he was on intimate terms of friendship. This lawyer had been president of the Nebraska constitutional convention...a man whose opinions commanded respect in the courts and outside. He laid the case before him, and told him he belived a writ of habeas corpus would hold. The lawyer, Hon. John L. Webster, took the matter under advisement.

Mr. Webster said:

"My services are at your disposal...if Hon. A. J. Poppleton will assist me...The editor started to find Mr. Poppleton...an orator...Mr. Poppleton was given a printed account of the treatment of the Poncas....He said: "I believe you have a good case. I think we can make the writ hold....Judge Dundy, before whom the case had to be brought, lived a hundred and fifty miles away. ...He decided he would hear it in Lincoln. The Indian petitioners were: