From presiding over the first Native American civil rights victory to influencing the state motto, Judge Elmer S. Dundy left his mark on judicial history. 

Dundy, who practiced law in Falls City, first served as a judge for the Nebraska Territory before being appointed as the first federal judge for the Nebraska district after Nebraska was granted statehood in 1867. He served as a United States district judge until his death in 1896, at the age of 66. 

Dundy's path to the bench meandered through several jobs. The son of "plain people," as the Falls City Journal newspaper described them in 1896, he followed his parents from their Ohio home to Clearfield, Pennsylvania. 

At the age of 18, he worked in farming and lumbering, among other jobs. A voracious reader, he was self-educated, eventually becoming a teacher and principal. 

Befriended by local attorney William A. Wallace, Dundy studied law under the future U.S. senator. After he was admitted to the state bar association, Dundy got an itch to move west, to take on the challenges facing Euro-American settlers as the United States expanded its footprint. 

In 1857, he arrived in the small town of Archer, then the seat of Richardson County in southeast Nebraska, said Norma Thompson, a member of the Richardson County Historical Society board of directors. 

He quickly became entrenched in local politics and legal issues, Thompson said. Archer had been incorrectly platted, with half the land located on a Native American reservation, she said. 

"He went back to Washington to try to straighten it out, because it came up that Archer, where it was built, was half on the (Native American) tract, and so that kind of was the downfall of Archer," she said. 

Archer lost its fight, leading to the town's demise, fading from Nebraska's landscape in 1861.

In need of a new county seat, the Nebraska Territory’s legislature approved Salem as the new location. But that didn't sit well with some residents. Salem residents were believed to be pro-slavery, while Falls City was known as an abolitionist community. 

Forcing an election, four towns received votes to serve as the county seat. But Dundy, joining other local politicians, flexed his political muscle, lobbying for Falls City, his new home and office site, as Archer's replacement. He won, and Falls City has been the government seat since, Thompson said. 

After serving on the Council of the Nebraska Territory 1858-62, Dundy was appointed as the territorial judge until 1868, when he was named as Nebraska's first federal judge. 

As Nebraska was admitted to the union as the 37th state, some leaders sought to move away from the "white men only" voting restriction originally written in the new state constitution. Nebraska House of Representatives member Isaac Wiles consulted with Dundy about what the state should use as its motto. Dundy endorsed "Equality Before the Law," supporting suffrage for Blacks. It was adopted. 

Dundy established his judicial legacy while presiding over the trial of Standing Bear vs. (General George) Crook in 1879. Ponca Chief Standing Bear and his traveling party were arrested by American soldiers after they had left the reservation established for the tribe in Oklahoma. They were returning to their traditional home in northeast Nebraska to bury the chief’s son, fulfilling the man's wish to be buried there. 

During the trial, in which the federal government sought to prove Native Americans had no rights under the U.S. Constitution, Standing Bear, extending one of his arms, said, "That hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be of the same color as yours. I am a man. The same God made us both." 

Following a brief trial, Dundy ruled in favor of Standing Bear, saying "That an Indian is a person with the meaning of the laws of the United States, and has therefore the right to sue out a writ of habeas corpus in a federal court and before a federal judge, in all cases where he may be confined, or in custody under color of authority of the United States, or where he is restrained of liberty in violation of the constitution or laws of the United States." 

Declaring that American Indians were legally people, the federal government was required to present a writ of habeas corpus, Dundy ruled. Standing Bear was allowed to return to his homeland. 

It's considered the first civil rights victory in Native American history. 

While the judge continued to live in Falls City, he'd travel to Omaha for the trial, Thompson said. Falls City was used as a film location for a documentary on the Trial of Standing Bear, she said. 

"They filmed some of that in the Richardson County Courthouse, because they said it was more like it would have been back then," Thompson said. 

The story of Standing Bear's trial is displayed on the main level of the Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse in Omaha. 

While the Standing Bear trial may have been legacy-making, Dundy followed it a few years later with another trial challenging Native rights. John Elk, a Winnebago tribal citizen, sought to vote in an 1880 Omaha election after having renounced his tribal citizenship and moving to the city. 

He was denied the opportunity to vote by Charles Wilkins, a voting registrar. Elk vs. Wilkins challenged the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. 

Dundy ruled against Elk, saying that "an Indian, born a member of one of the Indian tribes within the United States, which still exists and is recognized as a tribe by the government of the United States, who has voluntarily separated himself from his tribe, and taken up his residence among the white citizens of a state, but who has not been naturalized, or taxed, or recognized as a citizen either by the United States or by the state, is not a citizen of the United States within the meaning of the first section of the Fourteenth Article of Amendment of the Constitution." 

Dundy's involvement in precedent-setting court cases was indicative of his personality, Thompson said. "Historically, he seemed to be ready to jump in and take on causes," she said.

Tim Trudell is a freelance writer and online content creator. His work has appeared in Flatwater Free Press, Next Avenue, Indian Country Today, Nebraska Life, Nebraska Magazine, Council Bluffs Daily Non-Pareil and Douglas County Post Gazette, among others. He is a citizen of the Santee Dakota Nation.