Following the custom of the nineteenth century, the American government a century ago (1921), through the Department of the Interior, which is in charge of administering Indian affairs, viewed Indians as incompetent and childlike with regard to dealing with the modern world.
Historian Tanis Thorne, in his book The World’s Richest Indian: The Scandal Over Jackson Barnett’s Oil Fortune, writes:
“Its reference points were an idealistic commitment to protecting a ‘weaker’ race, an unflagging faith that instilling the Protestant work ethic was the key to Indian salvation, and an unquestioning belief in the superiority of federal bureaucratic management.”
In their book Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest, Clifford Trafzer and Richard Scheuerman write:
“American Indian policy was designed for the benefit of whites, not Indians, and was carried out by determined agents far more concerned with their professional duty and the destiny of their nation than they were with Indians. These policies were generally executed by governmental representatives selected more for their political loyalties than their experience in Indian matters.”
During the first third of the twentieth century, the federal government continued to insist that Indians should become farmers in the Jeffersonian ideal of a century earlier. There was relatively little concern for reality: even when reservation lands were unsuitable for farming, the government demanded that Indians had to become farmers. Lands allotted to individual Indians were to small to become economically viable farms in the industrial world of the twentieth century. In addition, agricultural mechanization and modernization was discouraged and Indian farmers did not have access to capital for improvements.
With regard to allotted lands which were not suitable for farming, the government supervised the leasing of these lands for cattle, oil, and minerals. The individual Indians to whom these lands had been allotted were viewed as incompetent wards of the government and thus the Department of the Interior assumed the role of trustee over this property. Unearned income, such as that generated from the leasing of allotments, did not go to individual Indians, but was instead deposited into an Individual Indian Money Account (IIM). This money was then to be distributed to the individual when the individual could show a specific need for the money. According to historian Tanis Thorne:
“The bureau had definite beliefs about what were legitimate expenditures, and in the early twentieth century it routinely blocked individuals’ access to their own funds based on convictions that income from inheritance or leasing was undeserved or that Indians should be forced to work rather than live on ‘unearned’ income.”
In general, this “unearned income” did not fit into the Protestant work ethic promoted by the government and was often viewed by them as a corrupting influence. Thus, they tried to encourage the Indians to work as laborers rather than reap the benefits of being capitalistic landowners.
As “incompetent wards” of the government, Indians were seen as having few legal rights. The government controlled the money in the IIM accounts, often using it to offset the administrative costs of federal Indian programs to which the Indians had not consented. The government did not feel that it had any obligation, legal or moral, to provide the Indians with any accounting about their money. Historian Tanis Thorne reports:
“Lacking mechanism of accountability, those Indian funds carefully conserved in trust accounts continue to be diverted to serve non-Indian interests, without the Indian account holders’ knowledge or consent.”
During World War I, Indian men could not be drafted as they were not American citizens. However, many volunteered and, following the war, the United States acknowledged the contributions of Indian military men to the war effort by conferring citizenship on those who had served. In 1921, American Indian veterans were citizens, but they were still denied the right to vote in most states and the federal government continued to ignore their citizenship rights.
Briefly described below are some of the events of 1921 relating to the federal government and American Indians.
Department of the Interior
Within the American system of federal government, Indian affairs are administered by the Department of the Interior and within the Department, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is in charge of the Indian Office (also known as the Indian Bureau and the Bureau of Indian Affairs).
Albert Fall, the former Senator from New Mexico, became the Secretary of the Interior in 1921. Fall was hostile to Indian rights and felt that large tracts of Indian land inhibited progress. In his book Religion and Hopi Life, John Loftin writes:
“Fall’s desire to exploit Native Americans unmercifully through his Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke, aroused the anger of many American citizens who were sympathetic to the Native American plight.”
One of Fall’s first acts was to enforce the prohibition against the Plains Indian Sun Dance. Those who participate are to be jailed for 30 days in the agency prison.
The Indian Office issued a lengthy list of Indian offenses for which corrective penalties were provided. One concern was the reckless giving away of property and another concern was Indian dances which were described by the Bureau as a “ribald system of debauchery”.
The Indian Office granted more authority to area superintendents with regard to Indian leases. The local superintendents were more susceptible to pressure and manipulation from local non-Indians and tended to work in cooperation with non-Indian interests.
Indian Education
The policies guiding the education of American Indian children focused on assimilation—the idea that Indian cultures should be destroyed. This involved an emphasis on teaching English and punishing students for speaking their native languages, requiring Euroamerican dress codes (males had to have short hair), and requiring a Christian education. In a chapter in Language and Poverty: Perspectives on a Theme, Lynn Osborn writes:
“The early days of English as a second language in schools for American Indian children, particularly during the latter years of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth, were marked by a deliberate and concerted effort to obliterate completely any traces of the native tongue.”
In order to facilitate assimilation, children were often removed from their families and sent to boarding schools. In an article in North Dakota History, Jeffrey Hamley writes:
“The purpose and method of government boarding school education was not simply to introduce ideas to Indian youth but to make Indians as much as possible like Euro-Americans.”
The purpose of Indian education at this time was to prepare Indians to work for non-Indians: boys were trained as laborers and girls were trained as servants.
Federal funding for boarding schools in 1921 was $204 per student. This compared with $360 per boy at state reform schools and $436 per girl at state schools for girls. In her Dartmouth M.A. Thesis, Chemawa Indian Boarding School: The First One Hundred Years, Sonciray Bonnell writes:
“In order to operate at these costs, students were required to work for their room and board.”
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series presents various American Indian stories. More twentieth-century histories from this series:
Indians 101: American Indian art 100 years ago, 1921
Indians 101: The Northwest Coast Potlatch 100 years ago, 1921
Indians 101: Popular culture, stereotypes, crafts 100 years ago, 1920
Indians 101: American Indian Religions 100 years ago, 1920
Indians 101: Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Writer, Musician, and Activist
Indians 201: D'Arcy McNickle, Novelist, Bureaucrat, Activist
Indians 201: James Welch, Novelist
Indians 201: Mourning Dove, first American Indian woman novelist