Board of Indian Commissioners

Last updated

The Board of Indian Commissioners was a committee that advised the federal government of the United States on Native American policy and inspected supplies delivered to Indian agencies to ensure the fulfillment of government treaty obligations.

Contents

History

In 1862, in response to the recent Dakota Uprising, Henry Whipple, Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, wrote "The Duty of Citizens Concerning the Indian Massacre." According to Scott W. Burg one of its "key tenets" was "the creation of an independent commission to oversee Indian affairs, a nonpartisan group made up of clergy and citizens empowered to initiate change and given the tools to investigate malfeasance" (38 Nooses, p. 212). In 1862 President Lincoln, with whom Whipple had communications over the matter, was in the throes of the Civil War and Whipple's "key tenant" would not find realization until President Grant's post-Civil War presidency.

The board, established by Congress on 10 April 1869, authorized the president to organize a board of not more than ten persons "to be selected by him from men eminent for their intelligence and philanthropy, to serve without pecuniary compensation." [1] It remained an all-Protestant, male body[ citation needed ] until 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed two Roman Catholics to fill vacancies. [2] The Board of Indian Commissioners established what an "Indian" was, and the rights that they were given, through the different laws and regulations for educating Indians that the board established. An Indian was determined based on their physical appearances. However, legally, it was difficult to determine what rights to give Indians, as according to the board, they weren't aliens or foreigners, however, they weren't citizens by birth. The board therefore determined how to go about treating Native Americans. [3] The members of the board all held semi-official positions within the government, unlike other humanitarian boards. However, the amount of work that the board was able to accomplish was rather compromised, because Congress held the board responsible for funding, and didn't give sufficient powers to enforce either their fundings or recommendations. [4]

Grant's Indian peace policy

Beginning in 1869, and in concert with the board, President Ulysses S. Grant attempted to formulate a new humane policy towards Native American tribes that was free of political corruption. Known as the Peace Policy, it aimed to place Native Americans on reservations where, in collaboration with Christian Church organizations, the Office of Indian Affairs would provide Native Americans with moral and competent Indian agents, establish churches and schools, teach agriculture and civilized pursuits and provide high-quality supplies at reasonable prices.

In 1872, the implementation of the policy involved the allotting of Indian reservations to religious organizations as exclusive religious domains. Of the 73 agencies assigned, the Methodists received fourteen; the Orthodox Friends ten; the Presbyterians nine; the Episcopalians eight; the Roman Catholics seven; the Hicksite Friends six; the Baptists five; the Dutch Reformed five; the Congregationalists three; Christians two; Unitarians two; American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions one; and Lutherans one. In the same year, 1872, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal missions converted more than 600 Sioux, Chippewas, Nez Percés and other Native Americans to these religions. In order to join these Christian religions, the Native Americans were required to shave their hair, adopt civil clothing, and go to work for his living. In essence, the conversion of Native Americans to these Christian religions was an attempt at assimilating Native Americans to the white man's society. [5] The distribution caused immediate dissatisfaction among many groups who claimed that they had been slighted or overlooked. The selection criteria were vague and some critics saw the Peace Policy as violating Native American freedom of religion. Among the Roman Catholics, this dissatisfaction led to the establishment of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions in 1874.

The Peace Policy remained in force until 1881, when the government heeded the protests of religious organizations whose missionaries had been removed from reservations on which they had not been assigned. [6]

The Board after 1900

Although the Board of Indian Commissioners began to lose influence in 1900, the appointment of new members quickly revived it. The introduction of Warren K. Moorehead to the Board led to the Board becoming aware of diseases that existed on reservations, as Moorehead was dedicated to this. [7] In 1922, Flora Warren Seymour became the first woman on the Board. [8] [9] The fight against diseases on reservations was continued by the board member Charles Burke in 1923, when he began a health drive. Although the Board of Indian Commissioners continued to accomplish its goals of fighting disease on reservations, assimilating Native Americans into popular society, and making citizenship available to Native Americans throughout the Progressive Era and well into the 1920s, the Board was terminated by John Collier in 1933, as there was no funding for the Board in the New Deal. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of religion in the United States</span>

Religion in the United States began with the religions and spiritual practices of Native Americans. Later, religion also played a role in the founding of some colonies, as many colonists, such as the Puritans, came to escape religious persecution. Historians debate how much influence religion, specifically Christianity and more specifically Protestantism, had on the American Revolution. Many of the Founding Fathers were active in a local Protestant church; some of them had deist sentiments, such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. Some researchers and authors have referred to the United States as a "Protestant nation" or "founded on Protestant principles," specifically emphasizing its Calvinist heritage. Others stress the secular character of the American Revolution and note the secular character of the nation's founding documents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbus Delano</span> American politician and Secretary of Interior (1809–1896)

Columbus Delano was an American lawyer, rancher, banker, statesman, and a member of the prominent Delano family. Forced to live on his own at an early age, Delano struggled to become a self-made man. Delano was elected U.S. Congressman from Ohio, serving two full terms and one partial one. Prior to the American Civil War, Delano was a National Republican and then a Whig; as a Whig, he was identified with the faction of the party that opposed the spread of slavery into the Western territories. He became a Republican when the party was founded as the major anti-slavery party after the demise of the Whigs in the 1850s. During Reconstruction Delano advocated federal protection of African-Americans' civil rights, and argued that the former Confederate states should be administered by the federal government, but not as part of the United States until they met the requirements for readmission to the Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo</span> Native American people of the United States

The Navajo or Diné, are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pascua Yaqui Tribe</span> Yaqui Native American tribe in Arizona

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona is a federally recognized tribe of Yaqui Native Americans in the state of Arizona.

The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions is a Roman Catholic institution created in 1874 by J. Roosevelt Bayley, Archbishop of Baltimore, for the protection and promotion of Catholic mission interests among Native Americans in the United States. It is currently one of the three constituent members of the Black and Indian Mission Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren K. Moorehead</span>

Warren King Moorehead was an American archaeologist and writer who worked on excavating and surveying various Native American sites, including Fort Ancient. Moorehead the first curator of the Ohio Archaeological Society and was deemed the "Dean of American archaeology". He died on January 5, 1939, at the age of 72, and is buried in his hometown of Xenia, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural assimilation of Native Americans</span>

A series of efforts were made by the United States to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream European–American culture between the years of 1790 and 1920. George Washington and Henry Knox were first to propose, in the American context, the cultural assimilation of Native Americans. They formulated a policy to encourage the so-called "civilizing process". With increased waves of immigration from Europe, there was growing public support for education to encourage a standard set of cultural values and practices to be held in common by the majority of citizens. Education was viewed as the primary method in the acculturation process for minorities.

In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American civil rights</span> Legal, social, or ethical principles pertaining to Native Americans

Native American civil rights are the civil rights of Native Americans in the United States. Native Americans are citizens of their respective Native nations as well as of the United States, and those nations are characterized under United States law as "domestic dependent nations", a special relationship that creates a tension between rights retained via tribal sovereignty and rights that individual Natives have as U.S. citizens. This status creates tension today but was far more extreme before Native people were uniformly granted U.S. citizenship in 1924. Assorted laws and policies of the United States government, some tracing to the pre-Revolutionary colonial period, denied basic human rights—particularly in the areas of cultural expression and travel—to indigenous people.

Native American self-determination refers to the social movements, legislation and beliefs by which the Native American tribes in the United States exercise self-governance and decision-making on issues that affect their own people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Indian boarding schools</span> Schools for assimilating Native Americans

American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Native American children and youth into Anglo-American culture. In the process, these schools denigrated Native American culture and made children give up their languages and religion. At the same time the schools provided a basic Western education. These boarding schools were first established by Christian missionaries of various denominations. The missionaries were often approved by the federal government to start both missions and schools on reservations, especially in the lightly populated areas of the West. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries especially, the government paid Church denominations to provide basic education to Native American children on reservations, and later established its own schools on reservations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) also founded additional off-reservation boarding schools. Similarly to schools that taught speakers of immigrant languages, the curriculum was rooted in linguistic imperialism, the English only movement, and forced assimilation enforced by corporal punishment. These sometimes drew children from a variety of tribes. In addition, religious orders established off-reservation schools. In October 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an official apology on behalf of the federal government for the abuse suffered in these boarding schools. In his apology, Biden discusses the history of boarding schools and blames the government for not apologizing sooner. He recognizes this kind of apology had never been issued before and addresses it to a crowd of Indigenous people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Peace Commission</span> 1867 US government body

The Indian Peace Commission was a group formed by an act of Congress on July 20, 1867 "to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes." It was composed of four civilians and three, later four, military leaders. Throughout 1867 and 1868, they negotiated with a number of tribes, including the Comanche, Kiowa, Arapaho, Kiowa-Apache, Cheyenne, Lakota, Navajo, Snake, Sioux, and Bannock. The treaties that resulted were designed to move the tribes to reservations, to "civilize" and assimilate these native peoples, and transition their societies from a nomadic to an agricultural existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant</span> U.S. presidential administration from 1869 to 1877

The presidency of Ulysses S. Grant began on March 4, 1869, when Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated as the 18th President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1877. The Reconstruction era took place during Grant's two terms of office. The Ku Klux Klan caused widespread violence throughout the South against African Americans. By 1870, all former Confederate states had been readmitted into the United States and were represented in Congress; however, Democrats and former slave owners refused to accept that freedmen were citizens who were granted suffrage by the Fifteenth Amendment, which prompted Congress to pass three Force Acts to allow the federal government to intervene when states failed to protect former slaves' rights. Following an escalation of Klan violence in the late 1860s, Grant and his attorney general, Amos T. Akerman, head of the newly created Department of Justice, began a crackdown on Klan activity in the South, starting in South Carolina, where Grant sent federal troops to capture Klan members. This led the Klan to demobilize and helped ensure fair elections in 1872. He was succeeded by fellow Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who won the 1876 presidential election.

The largest religion in the Nagaland state of India is Christianity. According to the 2011 census, the state's population was 1,978,502, out of which 87.93% are Christians. Along with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram, Nagaland is one of the four Christian-majority states in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American policy of the Ulysses S. Grant administration</span> Unsuccessful 19th-century US policy of reconciliation with Native Americans

President Ulysses S. Grant sympathized with the plight of Native Americans and believed that the original occupants of the land were worthy of study. Grant's Inauguration Address set the tone for the Grant administration Native American Peace policy. The Board of Indian Commissioners was created to make reforms in Native policy and to ensure Native tribes received federal help. Grant lobbied the United States Congress to ensure that Native peoples would receive adequate funding. The hallmark of Grant's Peace policy was the incorporation of religious groups that served on Native agencies, which were dispersed throughout the United States.

There were ten American Indian Boarding Schools in Wisconsin that operated in the 19th and 20th centuries. The goal of the schools was to culturally assimilate Native Americans to European–American culture. This was often accomplished by force and abuse. The boarding schools were run by church, government, and private organizations.

Chamberlain Indian School was an American Indian boarding school in Chamberlain, South Dakota, located on the east bank of the Missouri River. It was among 25 off-reservation boarding schools opened by the federal government by 1898 in the plains region. It was administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and operated until 1908

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flandreau Indian School</span> Boarding school in Moody County, South Dakota

Flandreau Indian School (FIS), previously Flandreau Indian Vocational High School, is a boarding school for Native American children in unincorporated Moody County, South Dakota, adjacent to Flandreau. It is operated by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and is off-reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tucson Indian School</span> American Indian boarding school in Arizona, U.S.

Tucson Indian school was founded by the United States federal government in 1888 to assimilate Native American children of the Akimel O'odham and Tohono Oʼodham tribes from the area around what is now Tucson, Arizona into mainstream American society. The school was created under federal acts with the goal of indoctrinating Native American children into Western colonial society by separating them from their communities' culture and reeducating them in boarding schools. The school closed in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Juan Episcopal Mission</span>

The San Juan Episcopal Mission is a branch of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland Area Mission based in Farmington, New Mexico. Established in 1917, the mission serves sections of northwestern New Mexico, in particular the northern area of the Navajo Nation. What began as a small hospital and chapel functions today through three locations: All Saint's Episcopal Church in Farmington, St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Fruitland, and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Bloomfield.

References

  1. ↑ United States Statutes at Large, XVI, 40.
  2. ↑ Thirty-Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners, 1902 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903), 22–23.
  3. ↑ Gates, Merrill Edwards (1885). "University of Oklahoma College of Law". digitialcommons.law.ou.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  4. ↑ Cartwright, Charles Edward (1979-03-06). "The University of Arizona University Libraries" (PDF). repository.arizona.edu. Archived from the original on 2022-09-04. Retrieved 2020-05-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ↑ "Annual report of the Board of Indian Commissioners to the President of the United States. 4th (1872)". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  6. ↑ Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis, Christian Reformers and the Indian, 1865-1900, (2014) ISBN   0-8061-1279-4, 30–71.
  7. 1 2 "Board of Indian Commissioners". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  8. ↑ "Flora Warren Seymour". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  9. ↑ "American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary". vdoc.pub. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.