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CHAPTER VIII

Standing Bear's Appeal to the Courts

The case came to trial on the 30th of April the year 1879, and lasted two days .... (direct testimony quoted)

CHAPTER IX

What The Attorneys Had To Say To The Court

At the conclusion of the testimony of Standing Bear, the government having no evidence to offer, the argument for the Indians was opened by Hon. J. L. Webster. He first inquired, after a brief recital of the wrongs and cruelties which had so long been practiced upon the Indians, how the government of the United States got titles to the land...

He maintained that the government could not claim title to this land by discovery....A title by discovery did not give a fee simple to the soil, if it was occupied, but only political control.

The government of the United States could never acquire title by conquest, or it had never been at war with the Ponca tribe...The government had never purchased the land, and, therefore, the title to it still remained in the Poncas. Mr. Webster...claimed that there was no law for the removal of the Poncas to the Indian Territory, or for keeping them there by force, or for returning those who had escaped, and asked the absolute discharge of Standing Bear and his party.

...the Government Attorney, Hon. G. M. Lambertson...