Indian History
1492+
“Discovered” by ColumbusThe role of Christianity - evangelism?
Early 1600s
Europeans and Indians were primarily engaged in trade.
Holland, Spain, France, EnglandSt. Augustine 1565
Jamestown 1607 (British)
Quebec 1608 (French)
Santa Fe 1610 (Spanish)
New Amersterdam (York) 1626 (Dutch)"The First Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Indians at Plymouth" 1621
Each treated Indians differently.
In general, Indians were adversely affected
Disease was hugeThe French – fur trade
Didn’t require taking land
Didn’t need permanent settlements
The best of the relationships with Natives
Usually beneficial to bothThe Spanish – wanted precious metals
Forced Indians into mining
Some Indians forced off land
Missionaries (Jesuits)
Much in South and Central America
The MissionThe Dutch – wanted trading posts and villages
At first, negotiated for land, gradually used force to acquire more
Wanted Indians off the landThe English – wanted land
Agriculture and colonies
Wanted Indians off the land (or converted to the British way of life)Russia in the 1740s
Claimed lands along the Northwest coast
Forced labor and concubines
Remained until 1867 when Russia ceded Alaska to the US
First arrivals
In most cases, first arrivals were greeted with hospitality
Offered food and shelter and taught whites how to survive
As relationships developed, esp. the British began to demand that
Indians adapt a civilized European lifestyle and Christianity
As Europeans continued to arrive and white power grew, East Coast
wars started
Pequot War (1637)
King Philips War (1675-6)
The first of a series of wars on many fronts
Indians defeated
By the end of the 1600s most East Coast tribes had been decimated by
disease, war and subjegation.The fur trade
One of the major economic enterprises
Trading on the East Coast
As supplies dwindled, whites began moving inland
(Great Lakes)
Indians received guns, metal goods (cooking), tools etc.
At first beneficial
Indians came to depend on these goods as they discarded their
technologically inferior implements.
Traders also introduced alcohol
Indians had no experience – a devastating introduction
As a result, Native economies were ruined, wildlife depleted and land
taken.Mid-1700s
The grab for land intensifies
Whites build settlements along trade routes to the interior
Whites flex increasing military power
Forced unequal trades and land cessions
These dealings put tribes into debt.
This led to tribes competing with other tribes for increasingly scarce
resources to pay their debts
In many cases, tribal members were forced to serve in conflicts
between European nations.
1754-1763
The French and Indian War
Misnamed!
Against the French by the British
Britain bought off tribes to fight on their side
French lost Canada to the British
British stopped payments to the tribes
Indians suffered losses during the war
Led to revolt
Pontiac’s uprising
Capturing nine forts and killing ~1000
Indian fighting force involving 7 tribes
couldn’t sustain – peace settlement
British agree not to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains
Settlement ignored by settlers and traders
Many settlers wanted to move West
British raised a force to stop settlers, taxed colonists to do so
Resented by colonists
This was one of the factors behind the American RevolutionIndians began to align themselves with the British against “American” encroachment
Were the British really interested in protecting Indian lands?
Americans tried to secure Indian neutrality and mostly failed.
The Declaration of Independence
27th article (the He is King George III)
He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
After the Revolutionary War, British ceded the Northwest Territory to the Americans (ignoring that it was Indian land)
Held on to trading posts around the Great LakesAfter the Revolution, settlers poured onto Indian lands
Led to conflict as Indians defended their land
Gradually, American forces began pushing Indians further westDuring the War of 1812, Indians fought against American troops
Sometimes in conjunction with the British sometimes alone.
It would be the last time Indian tribes aligned with a foreign powerAfter America won the War of 1812, Indian tribes in the Northeast and Southeast were forced into large concessions of land
Federal policy
Under the Constitution, the federal govt had the authority to deal with the
various tribes
Article 1, Section 8 (The Congress shall have Power...To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;)
The federal government appointed commissioners to oversee different parts
of the country
Evolved into the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Agents reported to superintendents (commissioners) who reported to
the Secretary of War who reported to the PresidentNote: In 2021 Deb Haaland (Pueblo) was appointed Interior Secretary
The Northwest Ordinance (1787) said:
The utmost faith shall always be observed toward Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made, for preventing wrongs done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.The Seneca example
The treaty making period (1789-1871)
Land acquisition became an American priority
US military wasn’t strong enough to engage in wholesale taking
Tried to negotiate land cessions through peaceful means
(Accomodation)Territorial governments also had some authority
By 1803, hostilities had grown over broken treaties and government policy shifted from accomodation to extermination or assimilation
Here, religious organizations pushed hard for assimilation
The compromise was removal
Once removed, the assimilation process could proceed
Religion, education and agriculture were seen as keyEventually (1830), Andrew Jackson would initiate the Indian Removal Act and forcibly remove tribes to west of the Mississippi
(***Trail of Tears presentation***)
Forcible removal and the “Trail of Tears” (18,000 left, 14,000 survived)
The govt tried persuasion (Lies!) to make removal more orderly
1866 – an Indian agent trying to convince a chief to move peacably
My red brothers, the winds of 55 winters have blown over my head and have silvered it with gray. In all that time I have not done wrong to a single human being. As the representative of the Great Father and as your friend, I advise you to sign this treaty at once.
The chief’s reply:
My father, look at me! The winds of 55 winters have blown over my head, and have silvered it with gray. But – they haven’t blown my brains away.Georgia was particularly aggressive
1831 – Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and (1832) Worcester v. Georgia
the Supreme Court recognized that tribes were self-governing entities and as such, the Federal government and not the States have the right to deal with Indian tribesignored, the Seminoles were the most resistant and eventually the
government gave up trying to remove them
one of the few tribes in the southeast to stay on their land east of the
Mississippiin the Great Lakes region, the story was similar, many removed by force,
the strongest ones were able to stay
problems remained, reduced homelands, no economyby 1840, the removal policy had done all it was capable of
“permanent Indian country” west of the Mississippi (Oklahoma)
about 100,000 were removedAssimilation could now begin. It was always assumed by whites that native tribes would willingly give up their culture once the superiority of white culture was demonstrated and the tribes were converted
The wounds were too deep for this to happenOnce in Indian territory, tribes that had never been in contact with each
other were now thrown together
Intertribal conflicts erupted1840s and 1850s
the pressure to expand westward began the removal of Indian tribes in the
Indian territory to lands further westManifest Destiny - first coined in 1845, but used as an idea going back to the roots of America - the idea that the United States is destined - by God - to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent
In the present day, America as a "city on a hill..." or the "New Jerusalem"
1854 Kansas-Nebraska bill authorized to remove Indians therePressures were also building on the West Coast
1848 United States acquires California and much of the Southwest from
Mexico
Railroads and telegraph lines begin to link the Midwest and the West
Where could Indians be moved to now?
1851 Fort Laramie Treaty
set boundaries between tribes
authorized roads and military posts
guaranteed safety to white travelers
annuities (not delivered)(*** Dakota conflict presentation***)
Civil War
The Confederacy picked up support from the tribes
(angry at the Indian Removal Act)
The confederacy could afford to promise Indians things in the West
Some tribes stuck with the Union
When the War was over, Reconstruction was needed among the tribes as
well as the SouthAfter the war
Increasing encroachment on land west of the Mississippi
Resources rapidly depleting and mismanaged
Buffalo population
1800 40 million
1850 20 million
1865 15 million
1875 1 million1880 395,000
1885 20,000
1895 less than 1,000
Indians retaliated by attacking trespassers
United States responded with all out military campaigns(*** Little Big Horn presentation***)
1868 Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution
Section 1 - All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive and person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2 - Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed...
Indians were not protected under the 14th Amendment but freed slaves were.
1871 – the United States had all the territory it needed save the ever
decreasing size of Indian reservations
end of the treaty making periodthe new view
Indians are wards of the state and the federal government is their
guardian (Indians as children)
The federal govt. – through the Indian Office was to meet the Indians needs
Was also a period of massive corruption and much of the promised goods and services never made it to the reservations
On-going guerrilla warfareMove begins to break up the reservation system
Give each individual Indian a plot of land and dissolve Indian nations
1887 Dawes Act (The General Allotment Act)
assimilation
a 25 year trust period until Indians were competent enough to manage
their own land
many of the allotments weren’t farmable
many Indian males saw farming as women’s work
when allotment was terminated in 1934 over 90 million acres of Indian land
was lost
also, various presidents used executive orders to take Indian land for
mining, logging, oil etc. (the Cobell litigation)the Cultural Assault
1901 BIA edict
forbidding of Indian customs
males can’t have long hair
no face painting
no Indian style clothes
dances and feasts forbidden
assimilation is forcedBIA takes over housing, education, health care, police etc.
A welfare systemBoarding Schools
The premise – the Indian problem will be solved when there were no more
identifiable Indians
Thus, it was necessary to force Indians to give up their heritage"Kill the Indian in him, and save the man"
Richard Henry Platt - army officer, founder of Carlisle Indian School (the first Indian boarding school)
This system came under criticism (over time)1924 Indian Citizen Act - Indians are made US citizens and given the right to vote in some cases. Full voting rights were not secured until the 1960s.
1934 Indian Reorganization Act
an Indian “New Deal”
help develop Indian economic resources
self-sufficiency the goal
trade schools
scholarships
federal jobs
never very successful
Indians suspicious
Whites not very aware of Indian concernsBy the 1940s serious problems,
Too many bureaucrats
Too little input from Indians
Everyone else knew what was bestNew policy (1953)
Termination policy (name!)
Lets end the “special status” of Indian tribes
Federal govt. begins the process of terminating tribal status for as many tribes as possible (the idea - end the govt. to govt. sovereign nation status under the Constitution and instead focus on Natives as individual US citizens)
Indians fiercely opposedprogram launched to relocate reservation Indians to urban centers
1940 5% of all Indians lived in urban centers
1990 51%
Twin Cities are around #8
Many of these cities have tribal centers that are trying to
restore “traditional life”By the mid 60s
Civil rights and the growth of the Indian movement began the
process of reversing the 100s of terminations that had taken
placeThe move toward Self-Determination
Recognizing the rights of a tribal community to maintain itself
With govt. assistanceA part of LBJs “Great Society”
New programs for reservationsNixon continued this philosophy
- no tribe would be terminated without consent
- tribal governments would be encouraged to take over federal programs
- tribes would be helped to become economically self-sufficent
this is the philosophy still used today
1969 Louis Bruce becomes the first Indian to head the BIA
1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act
1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Actsome progress but the federal govt. still had no qualms about taking Indian
land when needed for roads or other projects
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Activist
Occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973(***Wounded Knee presentation***)
Indians begin to use the courts to seek reparations for broken treaties
Hunting and fishing rights
Water rights
Compensation of landA mixed bag of results
Gaming rights
1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Acttoday...