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. Following the Constitution of the United States, the federal government negotiated treaties (international agreements) with Indian nations. These treaties often established Indian reservations that were territories which the Indian nations reserved for themselves (please note that the United States did not “give” reservations to the Indian nations). The treaties indicated these reservations were to be for the exclusive use of the Indians.
Religious Administration
Corruption in the administration of Indian reservations was widespread. In an effort to stop corruption and to speed-up the assimilation of Indians, President Ulysses S. Grant instituted his Peace Policy in which the administration of reservations was given to Christian (primarily Protestant) churches. With no regard for aboriginal religious practices, it was assumed that all Indians should be forced to become Christian as a part of their assimilation into American culture. By 1872, 63 of the nation’s 75 Indian reservations were being administered by Christian religious denominations.
Flathead Reservation
In Montana, congressman James A. Garfield visited the Bitterroot Valley to negotiate the withdrawal of the Flathead from the valley and their resettlement on the Jocko (Flathead) Reservation. In their 1855 Treaty of Hellgate with the United States, the Flathead had reserved their traditional homeland and had refused to be relocated to the north into the traditional homelands of the Pend d’Oreille and Kootenai. The Flathead were reluctant to enter into a new agreement since none of the provisions of their 1855 Treaty of Hellgate had been carried out by the government.
Two sub-chiefs, Arlee and Adolph, signed the agreement, but Chief Charlo refused to sign. In his 1893 book Indian and White in the Northwest: A History of Catholicity in Montana 1831 to 1891. Father Lawrence Palladino, S.J. writes:
“Everyone in the assembly was an eye-witness to his refusal; his signature is not on the original on file in the Department of the Interior; neither did it appear on the duplicate left with the Indians.”
Somehow, as if by magic, Charlo’s mark appeared on the document. When Charlo complained about the blatant forgery, the United States government simply appointed Arlee as the head chief, ignoring the fact that Arlee was not Flathead, but Nez Perce.
In his book Charlo’s People: The Flathead Tribe, Adolf Hungry Wolf reports:
“Confronted with the evidence, General Garfield claimed that he had reported the document signed because he thought that Charlo would agree and sign it once he saw that his People were actually being moved.”
According to the Flathead Culture Committee in A Brief History of the Flathead Tribes:
“This apparent fraud caused the Chieftain (Charlo) to become further embittered against the whiteman who had taken his country and was making a strange life for him.”
The two sub-chiefs selected the Jocko Valley as the future home of the Flathead. Claude E. Schaeffer, in his report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs An Acculturation Study of the Indians of the Flathead Reservation of Western Montana, reports:
“This locality, while not particularly favorable for agricultural purposes, offered other advantages which seemed more important to the Indians, such as good pasture, running streams and an abundance of timber.”
Crow Reservation
In eastern Montana, the Crow complained that non-Indians were coming on to their reservation by the hundreds, killing game, and destroying grazing areas.
Fort Peck Reservation
In Montana, the Fort Peck Reservation was established for the Assiniboine, the Yanktonai bands which are allied with them, and for some Santee and Teton bands.
The Milk River Agency was moved to the Fort Peck site. The new agency incorporated both Assiniboine and Lakota Sioux. In one of his chapters in The History of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, 1800-2000, Dennis Smith writes:
“This was an extraordinary decision for Lakotas, who now had the unprecedented right to an agency outside the Great Sioux Reservation established by the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.”
Fort Belknap Reservation
In Montana, the Gros Ventre and Upper Assiniboine, along with some River Crow who had not moved to the Crow Reservation, moved up the Milk River to settle near the Fort Belknap trading post.
Fort Hall Reservation
In Idaho, about 300 Shoshone under the leadership of Pocatello showed up at the Fort Hall Reservation with the intention of making it their home.
Little Traverse Reservation
Congress passed Act for the Restoration to Market of Certain Lands in Michigan which allowed the Ottawa who had not received individual allotments under their 1855 treaty to select homesteads and receive fee-simple patents to their land. The Indians were given six months to select their land and then the surplus land was to be opened for homesteading by non-Indians. In a short time, the non-Indians outnumbered the Ottawa on their Little Traverse Reservation.
One of the ways the non-Indians used to obtain Ottawa land was to declare the Indian homestead to be abandoned, even if the Ottawa family was still living on it. Ethnohistorian James McClurken, in his chapter in Native Americans and Wage Labor: Ethnohistorical Perspectives, writes:
“Because Indians could not find justice in local courts or from the federal government they almost always lost their homes.”
Osage
The Osage were moved to their new reservation in Oklahoma. While the reservation was large, it was almost worthless for agriculture. The land for the reservation had been purchased from the Cherokee and was land which the Osage had once ceded to the United States. The Osage nation’s new capital was established at Pawhuska and the five Osage bands settled into five areas which corresponded to the five traditional villages.
An official survey of the reservation, however, found that many of the improvements which had been made by the Indian agent were east of the ninety-sixth meridian and therefore the Osage had to move west. According to James Thomas, in an article in the Chronicles of Oklahoma:
“Many tribal members therefore refused to plant new crops or make improvements until they obtained a deed.”
The Osage in Oklahoma belonged to two distinct populations: 3,679 belonged to “full-blood” bands and 277 belonged to the “mixed-blood” band. The mixed-bloods tended to be of French-Osage ancestry, Roman Catholic. They lived and dressed in European-American style. According to Garrick Bailey, in his chapter on the Osage in the Handbook of North American Indians:
“While many still spoke Osage, their social identity was White, not Osage.”
Some of the full-bloods spoke fluent English and were literate, but they retained an orientation toward traditional Osage culture. Regarding the full-blood bands, Garrick Bailey reports:
“They lived in wigwams; dressed in traditional clothing; depended upon hunting, horticulture, and gathering for their subsistence; and retained traditional religious practices.”
Citizen Potawatomi and Absentee Shawnee
In Oklahoma, the Secretary of the Interior investigated the situation of the Citizen Potawatomi and Absentee Shawnee who were occupying the same reservation. The government found that all of the Potawatomi had taken citizenship. The Secretary concluded that this meant that the Citizen Potawatomi tribe was “extinct” even though this had not been the original intent of Congress.
As a result of this investigation, Congress passed legislation which restored sovereignty to the Citizen Potawatomi tribe and repealed the rights of the Citizen Potawatomi as U.S. citizens, returning them to the status of Indians. The Secretary of the Interior was authorized to issue allotment certificates to individuals from both tribes. Anthropologist Lisa Kraft, in an article in the Chronicles of Oklahoma, reports:
“The act of 1872 clearly sought to compensate the Citizen Potawatomi: they were given a better offer with respect to quantity and location of land within the entire reservation.”
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs permitted the Absentee Shawnee to remain in undisturbed possession of their lands and improvements.
Cherokee Reservation
In Oklahoma, Indian agent John Jones persuaded the federal government to provide him with cavalry troops to drive some 1,500 non-Indian squatters from the Cherokee reservation. The troops burned the squatters’ cabins, tore down their fences, and burned their corn and wheat fields. According to historian William McLoughlin, in his chapter in Between Indian and White Worlds: The Cultural Broker, Jones “wanted to show the white frontiersmen that the Indians had rights that the U.S. government was bound to protect.”
Wichita and Caddo
In Oklahoma, a reservation was established for the Wichita and the Caddo. However, Congress did not ratify the agreement.
Comanche and Kiowa
With regard to the Comanche and Kiowa in Oklahoma, Indian Commissioner Francis A. Walker reports:
“The United States have given them a noble reservation, and have provided amply for all their wants.”
In response to this assertion, historian William Hagan, in his book United States - Comanche Relations: The Reservation Years, would later note:
“The Comanches would have heatedly denied both assertions. The United States certainly had not ‘given’ them a reservation; at most it had recognized their claim to a fraction of what had been Indian territory before the whites began driving them from it.”
Wind River Reservation
Congress authorized the President to negotiate with the Shoshone for the southern portion of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Congress was anxious to obtain title to an area known as “Miner’s Delight”. Felix Brunot, chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners and a man known to have little regard for the welfare of Indians, was sent to negotiate with the Shoshone. The Shoshone eventually agreed to give up part of the reservation (601,120 acres) in exchange for an annuity of $25,000 to be paid in cattle over 5 years. In addition, Chief Washakie was to receive $500 per year for five years.
Gosiute
In Utah, a special agent met with the Gosiute. While he asked for more supplies for them, he recommended that they be removed from their homelands and sent to the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho.
Shoshone
In Utah, the special agent sent by the government to investigate Utah Indian affairs recommended that all the Shoshone in Utah and Nevada be sent to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
Moapa Reservation
In Utah, the Moapa Reservation was created for the Southern Paiute by executive order of President Ulysses Grant. The reservation was to include 3,900 square miles.
Colville Reservation
In Washington, the Colville Reservation was established by executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant for the Met-how, Okanagan, Sanpoil, Nespelem, Lakes, Colville, Kalispel, Spokan, Coeur d’Alene, Chelan, Entiat, and Southern Okanagan.
At the request of the agent in charge of the reservation, a second executive order was issued three months later which countermanded the first executive order. The agent wanted the reservation to include “the cold, dry highlands west of that [Columbia] river, where white men have abandoned the country after trial, and failed to farm owning to frosts and other difficulties in the way.”
The change in the reservation resulted in the loss of a very fertile valley, the only area which is really suitable for farming. Anthropologist Lillian Ackerman, in her book A Necessary Balance: Gender and Power Among Indians of the Columbia Plateau, reports:
“The loss of the valley occurred through the machinations of W. P. Winans, who was the appointed ‘farmer in charge’ to the Colville Reservation from 1869 to 1873.”
Winans took the part of the non-Indian settlers and encouraged them to settle on the best agricultural land on the reservation.
San Carlos Reservation
In Arizona, the San Carlos Division of the White Mountain Apache Reservation was established as other Apache reservations in the state are abolished.
Indians 101
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, this series presents American Indian topics. More from this series:
Indians 101: Visiting Washington 150 years ago, 1872
Indians 101: Some Indian events of 150 years ago, 1870
Indians 101: Indians nations and American governments 200 years ago, 1822
Indians 101: The Removal of the Flathead Indians
Indians 101: The Stevens Treaties in Washington Territory
Indians 101: Flathead Indians 150 Years Ago, 1869
Indians 101: The Hopi Reservation in the 19th century
Indians 101: The Early Years of the Coast or Siletz Reservation