Historic Portrayal: Chief Standing Bear

As part of Lakeside’s Historic Portrayal Series, we will be visited by Ponca Nation Chief Standing Bear, portrayed by Taylor Keen. This Historic Portrayal will take place at a special time at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 6 in Orchestra Hall.

From his birth on the banks of the Niobrara River in Nebraska until his death in 1908, Chief Standing Bear spent his life in constant struggle to gain equality and justice for our nation’s Native Americans.

In 1877, Chief Standing Bear and the Ponca Tribe were forced by a federal treaty to leave their homeland in Nebraska for Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. He became the first Native American to be recognized as a person in a federal court decision.

Keen has been portraying Chief Standing Bear since 2012, beginning with Humanities Nebraska, and has taken his show across the U.S.

He is a Senior Lecturer at the Heider College of Business Administration in Strategy & Entrepreneurship at Creighton University. Keen holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College as well as a Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, where he served as a Fellow in the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Keen is the author of the forthcoming book Rediscovering Turtle Island: A First Peoples’ Account of the Sacred Geography of America.

A Cherokee Nation citizen, Keen carries the name “Bison Mane” of the Earthen Bison Clan of the Omaha Tribe, The People Who Move Against the Current. He is the Founder of Sacred Seed, a nonprofit that educates and celebrates Indigenous culture and history. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife, Jennifer.