About This Stamp
In 1879, Chief Standing Bear (ca 1829–1908) won a landmark court ruling that determined a Native American was a person under the law with an inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The stamp features a portrait of Chief Standing Bear by Thomas Blackshear II based on a black-and-white photograph taken of Standing Bear in 1877 while he was in Washington, D.C., as part of a delegation of Ponca chiefs. For the color of his attire, Blackshear drew upon contemporary descriptions.
In 1877, the U.S. Army had relocated some 700 Ponca to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) after the federal government had mistakenly given away the tribe’s homeland in the Niobrara River Valley in what is now northeastern Nebraska.
In a landmark civil rights case, Standing Bear v. Crook, Standing Bear sued the government for his freedom after being arrested, along with 29 other Ponca, for attempting to return to his homeland. Lawyers filed for a writ of habeas corpus to test the legality of the detention, an unprecedented filing on behalf of a Native American.
After winning the case, Standing Bear and the members of the Ponca who had followed him were allowed to return to their old Nebraska reservation along the Niobrara River. In 1924, one issue that his 1879 trial had raised was finally resolved when Congress adopted the Indian Citizenship Act, which conferred citizenship on all Native Americans born in the United States.
Derry Noyes served as art director and designer for this stamp.
The Chief Standing Bear stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
Thomas Blackshear II
Thomas Blackshear II was born in Texas and grew up in Georgia. He pursued his interest in art—“Drawing was all I ever wanted to do,” he says—throughout high school. After graduating from the American Academy of Art in Chicago in 1977, he went to work for Hallmark Cards, where he met and served as an apprentice to illustrator Mark English. In 1980, Blackshear became head illustrator for Godbold/Richter Studios. He began his freelance career in 1982.
Known for his dramatic lighting and sensitivity to mood, Blackshear has produced illustrations for stamps, posters, collectors’ plates, magazines, greeting cards, calendars, books, and advertising. His clients have included Anheuser-Busch, Disney Pictures, Coca-Cola, Jim Henson Studios, Lee Jeans, George Lucas Studios, Milton Bradley, Seven-Up, and Universal Studios.
In 2006, Blackshear’s art was exhibited in Rome in a show sponsored by the Vatican. Known for his best-selling designs for figurines in the Thomas Blackshear’s Ebony Visions collection, he also created the artwork for the “Master Place” collection for DaySpring Cards.
Blackshear’s numerous stamp designs for the U.S. Postal Service® include five stamps in the Black Heritage series, most recently the Dorothy Height stamp (2017). In addition, his artwork has been featured on more than a dozen stamps commemorating Classic Films (1990), Jazz: Legends of American Music series (1995), Classic Movie Monsters (1997), James Baldwin (2004), Mother Teresa (2010), Rosa Parks (2013), and Chief Standing Bear (2023).
Twenty-eight of his depictions of famous Black Americans are featured in the 1992 Black Heritage series commemorative book entitled I Have A Dream. Blackshear has received many awards for his art including a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. This freelance artist, teacher, and lecturer currently lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.