To impress Indian leaders with the greatness of the United States, it was a common practice to bring Indian delegations to Washington, D.C., where they could meet with American bureaucrats and see the splendors of the city. Briefly described below are some of the Indian delegation visits to Washington 150 years ago, in 1872.
At this time Ulysses Grant was President and his primary Indian policy was to turn over the administration of Indian reservations to Christian missionaries. His Indian policy is referred to as the Peace Policy as it stresses peace with the Indians rather than war. Catholic historian James White, in an article in Chronicles of Oklahoma, reports:
“Under the terms of the Peace Policy, a single religious group had a franchise over the evangelizing efforts on each reservation.”
In the American governmental bureaucracy, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, a political appointee within the Department of the Interior, was in charge of administering Indian Affairs. With the resignation of Ely Parker, the first American Indian to hold this position, Francis A. Walker became the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs in late 1871 and served as Commissioner until late 1872. Like most people appointed to this position, he knew very little about Indians and had been working on the Census. He felt that the Indian war chiefs were comical and that there was no question of honor between a civilized nation and the “savage” Indian nations.
Sioux
While American administrators in 1872 (and many of today’s popular writers) assume that the Sioux were a single Indian nation, the designation Sioux actually refers to many different and politically autonomous tribes. During the nineteenth century, the Sioux tribes occupied large areas that included the Dakotas, parts of Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Minnesota.
In 1872, a delegation of Sioux chiefs—Red Cloud, Red Dog, Little Wound, Blue Horse, High Wolf, Red Leaf, and Big Foot—travelled to Washington, D.C. to discuss the establishment of an agency for them, away from Fort Laramie, Wyoming.
They met first with the Secretary of the Interior (the Cabinet official responsible for the administration of Indian Affairs) and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Red Cloud once again complained of the wrongs committed by the Americans against his people.
The following day the group met with President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant suggested that the Sioux should go south into Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). In his book Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem, James Olson reports:
“This, the first of several suggestions that the Sioux consider a move to the south, made no impression at all. Red Cloud ignored it altogether.”
Another delegation of Sioux and Yanktonai chiefs – Medicine Bear, Afraid of Bear, Black Eye (Yanktonai), Black Catfish, Big Head, Big Razee, Two Bears, Red Bear, Bull’s Ghost, Skin of the Heart, Eagle Packer, Red Thunder, Long Fox, Gray Crane Walking, and Black Eye (from Grand River)—travelled to Washington, D.C. to ask that those Sioux who wanted to remain in Montana be allowed to enroll at the Milk River Agency (later renamed Fork Peck). No treaty was negotiated in Washington.
Arizona Indians
A delegation of Indians from Arizona—Yavapai, Pima, Apache, and Tohono O’odham—travelled to Washington, D.C. and met with President Ulysses S. Grant. At the White House, each of the delegates received $50, a document which proclaimed him to be a “chief”, and a medal with Grant’s likeness. Grant expressed a desire for peace throughout the land. He told the delegates that if their people remained on their reservations and became full-time farmers, they would receive rations and education and they would have no further troubles with the army. Historian Timothy Braatz, in his book Surviving Conquest: A History of the Yavapai Peoples, reports:
“President Grant was preaching to the converted; he should have been lecturing those Indian Office personnel, U.S. Army officers, and the Indian-hating citizens of Arizona whose greed and rabid ethnocentrism prevented peaceful coexistence.”
The Yavapai members of the delegation—Pakota (later called José Coffee) and Takodawa (later called Washington Charley)—were neither leaders nor headmen: they were simply two men who volunteered to go to Washington.
In Arizona, General Oliver Otis Howard asked Apache chiefs Miguel and Eshkeldahsilah to come with him to Washington, D.C. On the trip, General Howard, known as “America’s Christian General,” insisted that the group stop for the Sabbath. Miguel got bored with the delay and left the party, returning to Arizona three days later.
In Washington, Eshkeldahsilah met with President Ulysses S. Grant and complained to the president that the soldiers had burned his cornfields and killed his people. Grant apologized and promised that there would be a lasting peace. Grant gave the Apache chief a good repeating rifle and some cartridges, as well as other gifts.
Ute
In Colorado, Ute leader Ouray was called to Washington, D.C. where he met with President Ulysses S. Grant and was told to return home to prepare a council to discuss the San Juan mines.
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series presents American Indian topics. More nineteenth-century histories from this series—
Indians 201: Carlisle Indian School
Indians 101: The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty
Indians 101: Some Indian events of 150 years ago, 1870
Indians 101: Reforming Indian Policies 150 Years Ago, 1869
Indians 101: The Hopi Reservation in the 19th century
Indians 101: The Methodists Run the Siletz Reservation
Indians 101: Greed, Corruption, and the Foundation for Oklahoma Statehood, 1893 to 1894
Indians 101: The Navajo Long Walk