• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The San Carlos Indian Reservation, 1872-1886: An Administrative History Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Bret Harte, John Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 09/10/2021 10:48:02 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/552232 THE SAN CARLOS INDIAN RESERVATION, 1872-1886: AN ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY VOLUME I by John i Bret Harte A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1 9 7 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by __________ John Bret Harte___________________ entitled THE SAN CARLOS INDIAN RESERVATION. 1872-1886: AN ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY_________________________ be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of _____________ Doctor of Philosophy______________ After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:* /A /9 ;z This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: ©COPYRIGHTED BY JOHN BRET HARTE 1972 iii For Susan, with my love. iv PREFACE A flood of literature over the past decade has dealt with many aspects of the history and culture of American Indians. Publishers' lists have included works as diverse as anthropological studies of linguistic patterns and re­ prints of memoirs by participants in the Indian wars. Tribal studies have taken their place beside works dealing - with federal Indian policy, while biographies of well known native leaders have appeared beside compendia of photo­ graphs and of speeches for which famous chiefs justly may be remembered. Scholarly and balanced general works by anthropologists and historians have been accompanied by sensational, exploitive, and flagrantly inaccurate books seeking to portray Indians as only distorted imagination could see them. Curiously lacking from this effusion of studies has been any solid work dealing with Indian reservations and their administration. Yet it was on reserves that Indians were concentrated, and there, for better or worse, they became acculturated to the dominant Anglo-Saxon way of life in nineteenth-century America. About the administration of Indian reservations an extensive and widely accepted folk­ lore grew up in the last century. The standard figures of the drama were the dishonest agent, the scheming federal v vi contractor, and the oppressed Indian himself. The first two characters conspired, inevitably with success, to defraud and cheat the third. Under the guise of sanctimonious piety or business expediency, they systematically robbed him, filling his ration flour with stones, his issue beef with water, and his life with indignity and privation. Such corruption fattened the pockets of agents and contractors, but at length it drove the Indian to bloody warfare, with £ all its attendant horrors. So generally did Americans accept this stereotype of dishonesty and mismanagement that only occasional humanitarians and civil servants eager to exonerate an inefficient Indian service challenged it. The myth neatly explained the phenomenon of civil servants willing to serve on distant and dangerous frontiers for miserly salaries. It reflected American assumptions about business practices of the period. Finally, it provided an alternative to the theory of racial inferiority to account for the slowness of Indian acculturation. The persistence of the myth of corrupt Indian administration perhaps has accounted for the failure of historians to examine reservation management. The subject lacks the glamor of warfare or the real pathos of much of tribal life; perhaps these facts also are responsible for the neglect. Moreover, careful study in a largely unexplored historical area often requires meticulous, slow, and frus­ trating research ,into large quantities of primary materials. vii In the case of nineteenth-century administrative history, the sources are mostly manuscript; many are hard to locate and difficult to read. These obstacles, however, do not diminish the need for solid work in a vital area. The purpose of the study which follows is to examine the various administrations of the San Carlos agency in central Arizona for the first fourteen years of its existence, from 1872 until 1886. For a number of reasons the reservation was important during those years. It was large, covering more than two and a half million acres. Its inhabitants, Apaches from five major groups as well as smaller numbers of Yavapais and Tulkepaias, were the most fractious and dangerous Indians of the Southwest. San Carlos was the scene of frequent and bitter rivalry between civilian and military authorities, as well as of continual and dangerous encroachments by white settlers. Among the reservations west of the Indian Territory, only the Sioux agencies of the North Plains commanded larger appropriations and more subsistence. The history of the San Carlos agency in its early years clearly illustrates the many difficulties of managing an Indian reservation. From it may be seen not merely the problems, but also the dynamics of agency administration, and the elements which, in terms of federal Indian policy goals, constituted successful management of the reservation. It demonstrates that agents, after the first chaotic year, viii were by and large successful in handling the problems they confronted as administrators. Where they failed, the responsibility often was due to inadequate support from their superiors. Yet the critical element in nearly every administration was the character and decisiveness of the agent himself. A determined and dedicated man who sought actively to innovate means of advancing the objectives of federal policy might court anguish and frustration, but he also was apt to win the esteem, not only of the bureaucracy which administered Indian affairs, but of his charges as well. Such men were responsible for most of the concrete achievements made at San Carlos. The importance of the San Carlos reservation assured it a mention in virtually all books written on Arizona in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Some of this literature was promotional, and offered principally statis­ tics on population, acreage, and resources of the reserve. More was concerned primarily with the Indian wars, and treated the story of San Carlos as an adjunct to those conflicts. Some of the most vivid writing about the reservation came from the pens of army officers who had served there or nearby. These reminiscences, ranging from Bourke's great On the Border with Crook to Britton Davis' The Truth about Geronimo and Thomas Cruse's Apache Days and After offer many details and color which more formal records lack, but as history they frequently are unreliable. ix Published observations by travelers passing through the reservation appeared from time to time in national magazines of the 1870s through the 1890s, but in general they lack significant value. Occasional polemical pieces, damning either the army or the civilian management, are obviously of doubtful historical significance. Research for the following study has been done almost entirely in archival sources and in newspapers. Like any undertaking of similar size, it would have been impos­ sible without the willing and able assistance of many other people. To Professor Harwood P. Hinton of The University of Arizona I owe a special debt of gratitude, for the study was undertaken at his suggestion, and he assisted me with advice and encouragement at every step along the way. Miss Margaret J. Sparks and the library staff of the Arizona Historical Society graciously provided many reels of microfilm, as well as original newspapers and government documents. The Society also underwrote the cost of micro filming various important San Carlos documents from the National Archives in Washing­ ton. With Sidney B. Brinckerhoff, Director of the Society; Henry P. Walker, my colleague on the staff of Arizona and the West: the late Dr. Benjamin Sacks, of Baltimore, Maryland; and Mrs. Samuel Altshuler, one of the most knowledgeable scholars of nineteenth-century Arizona living today, I have discussed many ideas and received valuable suggestions. ' X Mr. Richard Ploch, director, and the staff of the Special Collections Division, University of Arizona Library,

Load more

  467

Copy Link