In the village of Niobrara, the tiny Ponca tribe operates a museum in a one-story community center covered with dark-brown shingles and white trim. The town is located in the Northeast corner of Nebraska, across from North Dakota, where the Niobrara River flows into the Missouri -- a beautiful stretch of water that remains much the same as it was when Lewis and Clark paddled by 210 years ago.
In the community center, the Ponca hold tight to their memories. The tribe’s historian, Vance Appling, eagerly recounts the story of Standing Bear and the “Ponca Trail of Tears,” when the U.S. forced the tribe to relocate to barren land in Oklahoma in 1877. The debate that followed would have a lasting impact on the nation.