Ponca Tribe will soon own piece of land that's part of 'Trail of Tears,'

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FULL title: Ponca Tribe will soon own piece of land that's part of 'Trail of Tears,' name it after Chief Standing Bear

http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/ponca-tribe-will-soon-own-piece-of-land-that-s/article_3135f670-041f-5695-b4d9-bea70a5a46ae.html



POSTED: SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2015 3:30 PM | UPDATED: 12:28 AM, MON JUL 27, 2015.
By Joe Duggan / World-Herald Bureau

LINCOLN — The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska will soon take ownership of a ribbon of land that is tightly braided into the tribe’s ancestral and cultural identity.

During a ceremony Sunday at their offices in Lincoln, tribal leaders signed an agreement to accept 19½ miles of a former railroad right of way between Beatrice and the Kansas border in southeast Nebraska. The land holds special significance because it traces part of the path walked by the Ponca in 1877, when the U.S. Army forced 500 men, women and children to march 500 miles to a reservation in Oklahoma.

The right of way will be operated as a segment of the Homestead Trail, a public pathway for hikers, bicyclists and, now, students of history. It was donated to the tribe by the Nebraska Trails Foundation.

“This is just a really special opportunity for the public in general to share in our history. Ultimately, it’s all of our history,” Larry Wright Jr., tribal chairman, said in anticipation of Sunday’s ceremony.

FULL story at link.