General Crook
Born September 28, 1928 George Crook grew up on a farm in Ohio and was nominated later to the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1852 he was ranked near the bottom of his class. He served all over the United States and against Native Americans and established the Pitt River Expiation. He fought in the civil war in his early service, and in several Indian wars a common one was the snake war.
Later in life he served in Omaha against the department of the Platte from 1886 to 1888, he spoke out against unjust treatment of his former Indian advisaries. He died suddenly in Chicago of 1890.
Chief Standing Bear
Standing Bear, or named at birth, Mantcunajin, was born in 1829 was a Ponca Native American. He grew vegetables and fruit trees, raised maize and hunted bison in the harsh cold winters. The Ponca Indians were enemies with the Olga Lakota, and the Brule but in times raiding other villages they served as allies. In 1859 the Kansas- Nebraska act came into place and their were many more European settlers coming into the area, forcing the Ponca to move to the Northwest bank of Niobrara.
White settlers kept pouring in and eventually the Ponca were forced to move to Oklahoma on the trail of tears. The harsh conditions of Oklahoma killed his son and he thought it would a proper burial back in Nebraska, where the trial began. After the trial ended and declared freedom to the Ponca between 1879-1883 Standing Bear went around the US and Europe and gave speeches on Indian rights. He resided at his home of Niobrara and died in 1908.
Thomas Tibbles
Born in Ohio in 1840, traveled to Kansas as age 16 to participate in "Bleeding Kansas" on the slavery related border conflict on the side of the abolitionists, he was taken by prisoner by pro slavery forces and was declared to be hung but escaped and went to Omaha. He then turned to journalism and was promoted later to assistant of the Omaha Daily Herald. He played a major role in the trial and post trial he got married to Susette LaFleshle who was Standing Bears translator at the trial. Later in life he worked on a newspaper in Washington, returning to Nebraska he became editor and chief of a weekly populist party newspaper. He later died in 1928.