On September 18, 2019, Fortenberry welcomed a statue of Ponca Chief Standing Bear to the Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol. The statue replaced Nebraska's previous statue of former United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. He described Standing Bear as an important civil rights leader in American history. Fortenberry introduced H.R. 2490 to amend the National Trails System Act to direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study on the feasibility of designating the Chief Standing Bear National Historic Trail, and for other purposes. This passed the House February 2020.