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The Chief Standing Bear Native
American Memorial Park in Ponca
City, Oklahoma is an eight acre park
designed to celebrate and pay
tribute to our nation's rich Native
American heritage. The memorial
committee selected Ponca tribal
leader, Chief Standing Bear as the
person who best represented his
people's arduous struggle to protect
their way of life. He successfully
sued the United States government
for individual rights to live in the
area of his choosing and for the
civil rights guaranteed to all
citizens under the Constitution.
The circular viewing court is set
five feet below the base of Chief
Standing Bear separated by a cut
limestone retaining wall. In the
center of the court is an eternal
flame rising through limestone which
appears to float above the
reflecting pool. The decorative
paving in the court is divided into
eight quadrants.
Each section bears
the name of one of the eight Ponca
tribal clans sandblasted into a
colored popular Native American
motif. A native limestone bench is
located at the periphery of each
quadrant. Red bands pointing to the
eight compass points separate the
quadrants. At the terminus of six of
the compass points, situated in a
colored gravel bed, are natural
limestone boulders inlaid with a
bronze replica of the six Oklahoma
Native American tribal seals.
The over $570,000 in site
improvements at the park are funded
through the Intermodal Surface
Transportation Act of 1991 and
administered by the Oklahoma
Department of Transportation. This
project received the prestigious
Honor Design Award given by the
Oklahoma Chapter of the American
Society of Landscape Architects in
1998 and was awarded an honorable
mention in the U. S. Concrete
Pavement Awards in January of 1997.
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