12+   The historical play Standing Bear—The Indigenous Thing Who Became a Native American Person has a long history.

In February 2019, I laid the foundation stone of this play in Oxford during the Drama Writing course. In the beginning, it was a drama writing class assignment. It was the first and the most complex creative writing exercise on prompt, but I loved the challenge and embraced it with all my heart.

Our tutor, Nicholas McInerny, asked us to pick up one picture from around eight pictures of either men or women from different historical times to build a scene around that picture by answering as many as possible of the twenty given questions.

I wanted to answer them all, directly or indirectly, although extremely different and hard to put in one scene:

What is your favorite building? What is your favorite journey? What is your favorite word? What vehicles do you own? Where would you like to live? What is your idea of perfect happiness? What is your greatest extravagance? What is your greatest fear? What do you most dislike about your appearance? What is your most unappealing habit? What words or phrases do you most overuse? Which living person do you most admire? What or who is the greatest love of your life? What is your greatest regret? For what cause would you die? How do you relax? How often do you have sex? What is the most important lesson life has taught you? What would your motto be? How would you like to be remembered?

Standing Bear

I chose the picture of a man who looked like a Native American, and I thought of Standing Bear.

I honestly don't know where this idea came from. Divine inspiration or not, I don't know. Still, I subscribe to the opinion of great playwrights who speak of a mysterious way ideas are born, some making an analogy to the mystery of human creation. The assignment had to be done in the shortest delay, like a day or two.

During this time, I researched, wrote the scene, and posted it on the class forum where the tutor and the classmates could read and discuss. The feedback was fabulous. I confess I enjoyed every friendly word as the nicest compliment ever. I plead guilty to enjoying the creative challenge and writing the scene that became Act III Scene 1 in this play (the part on Standing Bear; the part with Red Moon was added later).

Then I also posted the scene on my Writing Break Blog, but I got no more feedback and went on with my drama writing endeavors: I finished this course and started others.

I always kept in mind that I would like to try a new playwright challenge, like writing a play with a narrator. I also thought to try some with prologues, and others with epilogues, if I find the right topic that would require a narrator, a prologue, and/or an epilogue.

Returning to the Scene

At the end of June 2022, I shortly returned to this scene within the context of the Writing for Video Games professional certificate courses. I implemented on it a new writing concept I learned during these courses — interactive narrative. I tried my hand, practiced writing, and loved it; then, I put it aside to continue my writing endeavors.

In 2024, I realized I could expand this scene into a play with a narrator, prologue, and epilogue. I thought this scene could be the play's climax, and I wanted to try something new by writing the story starting with the climax and working back to the beginning. I like new writing challenges, no matter how hard they are.

This coincided with my study of Spanish and some trips to Spain.

Because of this, I wrote Act II Scene 5 on paper during my holidays in Valencia, and I sketched the other scenes because I was eager to see how the play looked on paper. Here, I checked one of the things I learned during the drama writing course. We learned to give the audience what it expects in terms of the way the story unfolds, but not the way it expects it. That's why I was so eager to see, even just on paper, how Act II Scene 5 and the following scenes played out. Furthermore, I typed Act III and the epilogue, shortly before going to Málaga.

And so was the Introduction, as I always write it last.

The Play

The play Standing Bear—The Indigenous Thing Who Became a Native American Person is a fiction inspired by true historical events. In the spring of 1877, the U.S. Army forced 750 Ponca Indians, led by Standing Bear, to move from their homeland (in Nebraska) to the Indian Territories (in Oklahoma) where one-third of the Ponca died in the first year, including Standing Bear's daughter and son.

The son's last wish was to be buried with their ancestors, in Nebraska. Therefore, in January 1879, Standing Bear wrapped the body of his son and started the journey back to Nebraska with thirty Ponca Indians. The soldiers of General Crook arrested them for having left the Indian Territories and put them in prison at Fort Omaha.

The White Man's Law prevented the Native Americans from representing themselves in the trial, as they were not men by the law. However, at the end of the trial, Judge Elmer S. Dundy allowed Standing Bear to deliver a speech in his defense.

And he did it remarkably!

After the Standing Bear vs. Crook trial, Judge Dundy declared "persons" all Native Americans. In the courtroom, there was also Thomas Tibbles, a journalist at the Omaha Daily Herald, who previously received a visit from General Crook at 1 a.m. on March 30, 1879. It was the event that triggered the change in history.

Empathy and Hope

My play's message is that empathy can change destinies and even the course of history; and that democracy isn't perfect, but perfectible.

I hope this story will touch some hearts that won't stay indifferent when something positive can be done—even when it looks hard or impossible. Hopefully, you'll be the next person to change destinies and/or history for the better.

© 2025 Laura Lai

Since January 29, 2025, the play Standing Bear—The Indigenous Thing Who Became a Native American Person is available on digital platforms and Amazon.

I hope you enjoy reading this historical play! Thank you in advance for leaving a review or at least considering it. Please use the contact form on my website or social media if you want to leave a longer comment.

Click here to read Standing Bear – The Indigenous Thing Who Became a Native American Person, the True Story, the Play, Snippets from the Play, and the Play’s Story.

Click here to read The Anatomy of the Play.

Click here to read the Press Release.

Also read more about me and my play on my Draft2Digital and Amazon author pages.