McKinley, War, and Indigenous Policy

Born , 1843, in Niles, , William McKinley, was a world traveler until the rd Civil War beckoned him to action. He signed up for the 23 ​ Ohio Volunteer Infantry to ​ fight for the Union. Participating at some of the most important battles, he earned respect that helped him win a seat in Congress from 1877-91, and the Ohio Governorship in 1892. William McKinley was sworn into the office of the President on March 4, 1897.

McKinley first sympathized with the Cubans in the Spanish American War, but the U.S.S. unexplained explosion in Harbor in early 1898, and the sensational ​ ​ rhetoric of journalism following, McKinley appeased domestic calls for the expansion of U.S. influence by rubber-stamping the Spanish-American War and subsequently occupying , , , and the Philippines - the lattermost of which saw the government-approved use of concentration camps to suppress the citizenry.

This was .

The prior administration, President Grover , opposed the idea of annexing the nation of . President McKinley reversed the U.S. position, even though the vast majority of the former Kingdom’s residents were opposed to U.S. rule.

During McKinley’s Presidency, he continued policies of displacing, discriminating against, and abusing native people. McKinley signed the Curtis Act of 1898, which took away the sovereign status of the , overturned treaties and abolished ​ the tribes’ governments, invalidated their laws and dissolved their courts. The Curtis Act called for the abolition of tribal governments, and was intended to establish the concept of individual land holdings. This Act extended all provisions of the to the ​ ​ lands of the Five Civilized Tribes, making large parts of these lands open to settlement by whites. It resulted in removing an estimated 90 million acres of land formerly reserved for Native .

When an Indian nation signed a treaty, it agreed to give the federal government some or all of its land as well as some or all of its sovereign powers. In return, the federal government entered into a trust responsibility with the Indian Nation in which the federal government in exchange for some or all of Indian land, is legally responsible for the protection of tribal lands, assets, resources, and . The trust responsibility bound the United States to fulfill its treaty obligations and commitments. From 1898 onwards, acts of legislation dealing with sovereignty made by tribal governing bodies would only be considered valid if signed by the President of the United States.

Northern Californian immigrant residents responded to Indian ‘troubles’, ie raids, killings, and economic competition from Indian communities with acts of vigilante violence against native people – none of which were punished by local, state, or federal agencies.

McKinley was a veteran of The Civil War, and an espoused abolitionist, but as President ​ he turned a blind eye to repeated occurrences of mass of black Americans in the South. In a letter titled an Open Letter to President McKinley by Colored People Of ​ Massachusetts ,which was read out loud at a church in Boston on October 3, 1899, it ​ includes the following,

“We have suffered sir, God knows we have suffered, since your accession to office, at the hands of a country professing to be Christian, but which is not Christian, from the hate and violence of a people claiming to be civilized, but who are not civilized, and you have seen our sufferings, witnessed from your high place our awful wrongs and miseries, and yet you have at no time, and on no occasion, opened your lips in our behalf….

Is there no help in the federal arm for us, or even a word of audible pity, protest, and remonstrance in your own breast, Mr. President?”

And on the subject of the Spanish American War, the previous mentioned letter said,

“Are crying national transgressions and injustices more ‘injurious and menacing’ to the Republic, as well as ‘shocking to it’s sentiments of humanity’, when committed by a foreign state, in a foreign territory, against a foreign people, than when they are committed by a portion of our people here at home? Do colored people of the United States deserve equal consideration with the Cuban people at the hands of your administration? “

McKinley, while simultaneously using rhetoric about worldly injustice and how the U.S. should function as a role model for combating oppressive actors abroad, was known for his ‘extraordinary and incomprehensible silence on the subject of wrongs’ done to black and native Americans.