Infantry until 1896, when the garrison was relocated to Fort Crook near Bellevue. Fort Omaha was the site where Chief Standing Bear was held prior to the 1879 trial of Standing Bear v. Crook''. Standing Bear, a Ponca chief, successfully argued in the U.S. District Court that Native Americans were "persons within the meaning of the law" and had rights of citizenship. During the trial, Standing Bear was assisted by Susette LaFlesche Tibbles, a famous Omaha woman who was the daughter of Iron Eye, the last recognized chief of the Omaha. His lawyer was Andrew Jackson Poppleton, a pioneer Omaha attorney who held the position of general attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad. The trial was the most important of Poppleton's career. Both the fort's significant role in US military history in relation to the Indian Wars, and this important civil rights trial, contributed to the site's being listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The Spanish–American War brought the fort into usage as a muster point for troops from across Nebraska. Camp Meiklejohn, Camp Augur and Camp Vincent were all subordinate troop sites around Omaha under command of the fort. In World War II, Fort Omaha was used as a prisoner-of-war camp to house Italian Army soldiers captured in Europe. Notable personnel Major General George Crook Major General Stuart Heintzelman Brigadier General Dan Christie Kingman Brigadier General George G. Lundberg Fort Omaha Balloon School In 1907, the Army built a large steel hangar at Fort Omaha for use in experiments with dirigibles, a program that was abandoned in 1909. This program and its successor were part of the American Expeditionary Forces. A balloon house was built in 1908, and in 1909, the first balloon flight took place. The military acquired additional space for training called Florence Field, at the corner of North 30th and Martin Streets in North Omaha. Shortly after the United States entered World War I, 800 men immediately enlisted in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps. They were sent to the Fort Omaha Balloon School for training. They later provided forward observations for the artillery. More than 16,000 airmen went through the Balloon School. In 1917, the Army determined that weather conditions at Fort Omaha were not suitable for rapidly training balloon companies. The next year, a contingent of officers and men from Fort Omaha were assigned to Camp John Wise