During most of the nineteenth century, the policy of the United States was to settle all American Indians on reservations where they would be out of the way of the American settlers who wanted to claim their lands. By the end of the nineteenth century, American greed was demanding that the reservations be broken up so that the “unused” land could be given to non-Indians. This policy continued through most of the twentieth century.
Many Americans were offended by the tribal practice of holding lands in common, a practice labeled “communistic” during the twentieth century. It was strongly felt that land had to be privately owned and that ownership should be inherited patrilineally (that is, from father to son). Government policies attempted to enforce the ideals of private ownership, inheritance from the father, and the use of the father’s surname as a way of destroying Native cultures.
In the governmental structure of the United States, Indian affairs were administered through the Department of the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior, a politically appointed position, was the highest-ranking government official responsible for Indian affairs. The actual running of the Indian Office (later known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) was the responsibility of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, another politically appointed position. In 1924, Charles Henry Burke, a former Congressman from South Dakota who had been on the House Committee on Indian Affairs, held that position. Burke opposed Indian religions and actively sought to suppress traditional ceremonies.
Briefly described below are a few of the reservation events of 100 years ago, in 1924.
Pueblos
The Pueblos in New Mexico do not fit the stereotype of Indians found in the media, Indian legislation, and Indian court cases. They continue to occupy farming villages that were often constructed prior to the European invasion. While federal government officials have sometimes questioned whether or not the Pueblos should be considered Indians, they are administered as reservations.
With regard to the designation Pueblo, Alfonso Ortiz, in his chapter in North American Indian Anthropology: Essays on Society and Culture, writes:
“After all, the term Pueblos today encompasses some forty thousand people speaking six mutually unintelligible languages and occupying thirty-odd villages stretched along a rough crescent of more than four hundred miles.”
Alfonso Ortiz goes on to say:
“The Pueblos, it seems safe to say, have never all shared an institution, nor have they ever had common symbols of cultural identity.”
The Council of All the New Mexico Pueblos issued a long response to the government’s attack on their religion. In this response they ask that:
“Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of this state shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship.”
Navajo Reservation
To illustrate the songs used in Navajo ceremonies, Navajo singers (medicine men) use sandpaintings or drypaintings. These are created by dribbling colors (made from charcoal and pulverized minerals) on the ground using the first and second fingers of the right hand. The painting starts at the center and includes symbolic representations of the Holy People. In her chapter in Washington Matthews: Studies of Navajo Culture, 1880-1894, Nancy Parezo explains that the sandpaintings:
“…are pictures of: the protagonist of the myth that explains the ceremony and provides its rationale; the Holy People whom he encounters in his mythological adventures; supernatural beings and forces that need to be brought under control; and subsidiary beings.”
Nancy Parezo also reports:
“Drypaintings are designed to attract the Holy People, powerful supernaturals who are invoked to cure and bless, thereby promoting holiness.”
Sandpaintings range from one foot in diameter to over twenty feet in diameter. The larger sandpaintings may take more than a dozen people most of a day to complete.
The painting is a vessel which receives its power when the singer sprinkles it with pollen. At this point it becomes an altar.
In Arizona, artist Laura Armer persuaded a Navajo singer (medicine man) to make a sandpainting from the Shootingway Chant. Feeling that the moment when the sandpainting becomes consecrated is when the corn pollen is sprinkled on it, he left off this final step and destroyed the painting as soon as Armer had photographed it.
Southern Ute Reservation
The Utes were never a single unified tribe: there are several bands of the Utes which shared a common culture. The name Ute means “high up” or “land of the sun.” Linguistically, the Ute language belongs to the Numic group of the Uto-Aztecan language family and is most closely related to Mojave, Paiute, Kawaiisu, and Chemehuevi.
In Colorado, the boarding school on the Southern Ute Reservation was re-opened to serve both Ute and Navajo children.
In 1924, Ute leader Buckskin Charlie, prompted by talk of erecting a monument to Chief Ouray, led a trader, reporter, and photographer to Ouray’s burial site, which had been hidden to outsiders. Ouray (ca. 1820-1880 or ca. 1833-1880) had been the spokesman for the seven Ute bands and was a peacemaker during the Ute War of 1879.
Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation
In Nevada, the United States government sold most of the Pyramid Lake Paiute land to homesteaders without obtaining title to it.
Cibeque Apache Reservation
In Arizona, Cibeque Apache medicine man Silas John led a small-scale movement to restore some traditional elements to Apache life and to rid the area of witches.
Hopi Reservation
In Arizona, the Moqui Reservation became the Hopi Reservation. While the United States has insisted on dealing with the Hopi as if they were a single tribe rather than independent pueblos, not all of the Hopi villages recognize the authority of the Hopi Tribal Council. The designation Hopi is a contraction of Hopi-tuh which means “peaceful ones.”
More 20th-Century American Indian Histories
Generally, the histories of American Indians have been segregated into the era between the 16th and 19th centuries and in the 20th century they are invisible. For many people, American Indians no longer exist in the 20th century.
Indians 101: The American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
Indians 101: American Indian art and heritage 100 years ago, 1923
Indians 101: The U.S. Government replaces the Navajo Council in 1923
Indians 101: Reservations 100 years ago, 1923
Indians 201: The Hoover Commission Report on American Indians
Indians 201: Suppressing Indian religions, 1921-1922
Indians 101: the 1923 Posey's War in Utah
Indians 101: The Grand Coulee Dam and the Colville Indians