In the United States, relationships with Indian nations are regulated at the federal level by Congress and are administered through the Department of the Interior. Congress is, of course, composed of elected officials who are supposed to represent the people. In 1872, Indians could not be citizens and, therefore, could not vote. While Congress regulated Indian affairs, it did not represent Indians, nor did it solicit Indian testimony regarding bills which impacted Indians.
Briefly described below are a few of the events relating to Indian affairs 150 years ago, in 1872.
Congress
One of the concerns that Congress had to address centered around land. The federal policies concerning Indians involved segregating Indians on reservations so that their traditional tribal lands could be given to non-Indians. By 1872, American greed was demanding that reservations be broken up so that these lands could be “developed” by non-Indians. Members of Congress were lobbied by corporate interests and others to reduce the land holdings of the reservations.
In 1872, Congress authorized the survey, appraisement, and land sale of Pawnee, Omaha, Otoe, Missouria, and Sauk and Fox lands in Nebraska. Anthropologist Martha Royce Blaine, in her book Pawnee Passage 1870-1875, notes:
“This attempt to take so much land simultaneously from Nebraska tribes resulted largely from pressure exerted over the years by state officials and the public, eager for land.”
The survey of Pawnee lands carried out under this act found that the Pawnee reservation was smaller than stipulated by treaty and that the Pawnee had not received 4,800 acres of land to which they were entitled.
Congress was also concerned with Indian “wars”: that is, armed conflicts with Indians. In 1872, one of the concerns was with the so-called Kickapoo War. Congress adopted Joint Resolution Number 101 which authorized an investigation into the Kickapoo War against Texas. Three commissioners were appointed to carry out the investigation. Hearings were held at Laredo, Eagle Pass, Fort Clark, Uvalde, and San Antonio. Hundreds of witnesses told of their losses to the Kickapoo raiders. The commissioners estimated that at that time in south Texas ranches, the livestock population was only one-tenth of what it had been in 1865.
Under pressure from the United States, the Mexican government launched an investigation into the charges that corrupt officials had been helping the Mexican Kickapoo in their war against Texas. After months of investigation, the commission found that the charges of corruption were untrue. In his book The Kickapoos: Lords of the Middle Border, A.M. Gibson writes:
“The Kickapoos in Coahuila were exonerated of any blame for the alleged war on Texas. The Mexican Commission charged all depredations in Texas to the Comanches and other tribes of the north, as well as to Texas desperadoes and cattle rustlers who attacked Texas communities disguised as Kickapoo Indians.”
In the nineteenth century, the stereotype of Indians as nomadic, horse-mounted buffalo hunters and warriors was not only strongly believed but was used as the basis for formulating government policies. However, a diverse group of Indian tribes in the Southwest, commonly grouped together as Pueblo Indians, did not fit this stereotype and there were debates as to whether the Pueblos should be considered Indians. In 1872, Congress authorized the extension of federal services to New Mexico’s Pueblo Indians, thus placing them under the Indian Service.
Secretary of the Interior
Since Indian affairs were administered through the Department of the Interior, the Secretary of the Interior was the highest-ranking government official dealing with Indians. In his annual report, the Secretary of the Interior wrote:
“In our intercourse with the Indians it must always be borne in mind that we are the most powerful party… We are assuming, and I think with propriety, that our civilization ought to take the place of their barbarous habits. We therefore claim the right to control the soil which they occupy, and we assume that it is our duty to coerce them, if necessary, into the adoption and practice of our habits and customs.”
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Within the Department of the Interior, Indian affairs were managed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This position was a political appointment and any experience with actual Indians was not considered important in getting appointed to the position. In 1872, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was Francis A. Walker, who had been a political economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to his writings, he felt that the success of the United States was due to the racial superiority of Europeans, particularly those of Germanic heritage.
Commissioner Francis A. Walker suggested that reservations should not only contain Indians, but it should also train them by putting them to hard work. He felt that Indians should be allowed to leave the reservations only with special permission so that they could learn to control their “strong animal appetites.” Those Indian leaders who opposed progress should be relentlessly crushed. In his annual report to Congress, Walker wrote:
“There is no question of national dignity, be it remembered, involved in the treatment of savages by a civilized power. With wild men, as with wild beasts, the question whether in a given situation one shall fight, coax, or run, is a question merely of what is easiest and safest.”
There were several Indian activists who criticized government policies and raised questions about the administration of Indian Reservations. One of these was Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute woman. In Nevada, a reporter for the Nevada State Journal interviewed activist Sarah Winnemucca about Indian reservations. She said:
“Our agent is continually promising farm implements, but they never come. He don’t want them for should my people raise their own provisions his place would be worth little. Then again, I know that the agent has been in the habit of renting the reservation to stockraisers, putting the rent in his own pocket.”
Mining
Since the beginning of the European invasion of North America, the exploitation of the continent’s mineral resources, particularly gold and silver, has been undertaken to enhance personal wealth. During the creation of Indian reservations throughout the nineteenth century, care was taken to exclude possible mineral-rich areas from the reservations. However, it was found that some reservations still included mineral resources and the general government policy was that such resources should not be developed for the benefit of the Indians on the reservation but should be privatized or removed from the reservation to enhance the wealth of non-Indians.
Regarding mines and mineral lands on Indian reservations, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs wrote in 1872:
“It is the policy of the government to segregate such [mineral] lands from Indian reservations as far as may be consistent with the faith of the United States and throw them open to entry and settlement in order that the Indians may not be annoyed and distressed by the cupidity of the miners and settlers who in large numbers, in spite of the efforts of the government to the contrary, flock to such regions of the country on the first report of the gold discovery.”
Board of Indian Commissioners
In 1869, Congress had established the Board of Indian Commissioners which was made up of distinguished philanthropists who served without pay. The Board was to oversee the purchase and distribution of goods and supplies for the Indian Service (now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs). In an article in the Chronicles of Oklahoma, Francis Paul Prucha reports:
“The men who made up the first Board of Indian Commissioners were wealthy businessmen, most of who had served with the Christian Commission during the Civil War, and who were motivated, indeed driven, by a sincere Christian philanthropic zeal.”
None of the men were Indian, none had actual experience with Indian communities, and none were Catholic. Historian Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, in an article in The Western Historical Quarterly, reports:
“Interestingly, almost all of the men maintained business interests in the dry goods, mineral extraction, and transportation industries. These industries stood to benefit from Indian confinement in the West, and this fact suggests that perhaps their personal interests influenced their Indian policy work and their support of coercive reservations.”
In 1872, several Oklahoma tribes sent delegates to meet with the Board of Indian Commissioners in Washington, D.C. William P. Ross, the Cherokee delegate, presented a brief history of the Cherokee emphasizing their progress in education and Christianization. Samuel Checote, the Creek delegate, spoke through an interpreter about Creek progress in education and Christianization. Finally, Peter Pitchlynn, the Choctaw delegate, praised the good work of the missionaries among the Choctaw, particularly regarding temperance. Francis Paul Prucha reports:
“The Indian delegates were well received, in large part no doubt because most of them had been trained by missionaries of the churches represented at the conference.”
National Park
The American national park system began in 1872 when Congress created Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana. Indians, despite their long association with the Park, were not consulted.
The idea of creating national parks, such as Yellowstone, came from a desire to somehow preserve these lands in a pristine condition. In their book Myth and History in the Creation of Yellowstone National Park, Paul Schullery and Lee Whittlesey report:
“Early national park proponents thought it was enough to keep them in much the same condition they had been in when first visited by Euro-Americans, with no awareness, much less regard, for the many effects of earlier occupation. Native peoples, through their aggressive use of fire, their hunting and gathering practices, and even their agriculture had in many cases significantly altered these landscapes, even selectively maintaining portions of them in certain conditions for certain purposes.”
Ferdinand V. Hayden, the first surveyor of Yellowstone National Park, called for the development of agriculture among the Indians of the west. He said:
“Unless they are localized and made to enter upon agricultural and pastoral pursuits they must ultimately be exterminated.”
Indians 101
On Tuesdays and Thursdays this series presents American Indian topics. More nineteenth-century histories from this series:
Indians 101: Indian Reservations 150 years ago, 1872
Indians 101: Visiting Washington 150 years ago, 1872
Indians 201: The war against the Yavapai
Indians 201: Indians as People Under the Law
Indians 101: Chehalis Treaties and Reservations
Indians 101: The Lowry War
Indians 101: Genocide in Northern California
Indians 101: Suppressing Indian religions in Montana in the nineteenth century