University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1983 Diversity of assimilation: Case studies of the early reservation years 1867-1901 Ira E. Lax The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Lax, Ira E., "Diversity of assimilation: Case studies of the early reservation years 1867-1901" (1983). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 5390. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/5390 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1976 Th is is an unpublished manuscript in which copyright sub­ s i s t s . Any further r e p r in t in g of it s contents must be approved BY THE AUTHOR, Mansfield Library University of Montana Date : __JL 1 8 v «3> THE DIVERSITY OF ASSIMILATION CASE STUDIES OF THE EARLY RESERVATION YEARS, 1867 - 1901 by Ira E. Lax B.A., Oakland University, 1969 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 1983 Ap>p|ov&d^ by : f) i (X_x.Aa^ Chairman, Board of Examiners Dean, Graduate Sdnool Date UMI Number: EP40854 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages; thes& will be; noted. Also, if material had to be-removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI* Dtamrtaikm Wbfelirifl UMI EP40854 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Lax, Ira E., M.A., August 1983 History The Diversity of Assimilation: Case Studies of the Early Reservation Years, 1867-1901 Director: Dr. H. Duane Hampton H Q , _ k \ The responses of the Kiowas, Comanches, Southern Cheyennes, Southern Arapahoes, Santee and Yanktonais Sioux to the post- Civil War U.S. assimilation policy demonstrate the persistence of native traditions. The experiences of these five tribes are compared as they formed new relationships with government agents and other Indians, faced encroaching non-Indian populations, and adjusted to farming, ranching, and other novel economic activities on the semi-arid Great Plains. Although the native economic and political institutions were destroyed during the wars of the 1870s, the tribal remnants were able to maintain and to perpetuate their social and religious traditions. The assimilation policy sought to transform nomadic hunters and warriors into Christianized yeoman farmers. Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy aligned the government with the Christian denominations to establish schools, missions, and programs leading to the allotment of Indian land in severalty. Eastern reformers and westerners hungry for more land hoped that acculturation would lead the Indians to drop their tribal relations within twenty-five years. With the nuclear Indian family working an individual farm, surplus reservation land could then be opened to White settlement. The principal sources used were the Annual Reports of The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Annual Reports of the Board of -Indian Commissioners, and the published microfilm edition of the James McLaughlin papers. Although the Indians' own words are missing from these reports, their presence is not. The assimilation policy the agent was attempting to implement is clearly stated, as are his frustrations with the various forms of traditional Indian culture which persist despite his efforts to prohibit them. Complaints of one tribe or band visiting another, Indian ceremonies, give-aways, polygamy, camp living, and tradi­ tional styles of dress and hair length are scattered throughout the agency reports. While this study ends at 1901, thirty years were to pass before Indian self-determination was taken seriously in the making of federal Indian policy. TABLE OF CONTENTS MAPS ..................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ................. ,......................... 1 Chapter I. CONQUEST BY KINDNESS ............................ 4 Kiowas and Coraanches......................... 14 Cheyennes and Arapahoes ..................... 21 Santee and Yanktonais Sioux ................ 30 Chapter II. THESE ARE NEARLY ALL "BLANKET INDIANS" .... 54 Kiowas and Comanches ......................... 56 Cheyennes and Arapahoes ..................... 80 Santee and Yanktonais Sioux ................ 99 Chapter III. WORK OR S T A R V E .................. 122 Santee and Yanktonais Sioux ................ 130 Cheyennes and Arapahoes ..................... 137 Kiowas and Comanches ......................... 149 C o n c l u s i o n ..................................... 161 SOURCES CONSULTED ..................................... 164 iii Beaver Osage No Man’s Land O C ity Cherok Cherokee Outlet — -r < F ort PawhuskaO V in ita O Supply C houteau Cantonment o T ah le q u an 1 Peoria ■dJnasstgned Creek o 2 Quapaw 3 Modoc Cheyenne and Slow Fori Gibson 4 O ttaw a V illage O km ulgee o Webbers Falls 5 Shawnee Arapaho ^grllngtonc 6 Wyandot o 7 Seneca Reno 8 Kaw Seger ColonyoW ichit 9 Tonkawa 10 Ponca addo Wewok IV 11 Oto and Missouri hoctaw M c A le s te r 12 Pawnee C om anche 13 Iowa 14 Sac and Fox Kiow a and ^ j P Tuskahom a 15 Kickapoo F ort S illo Chickasaw 16 Pottawatomie and Shawnee 17 Seminole Apache ° P Atoka Tishomingo o E a g le to w n o D urant C' INDIAN TERRITORY, 1866 -1889 miles: 0 10 20 40 60 80 r a w n b y 1 ■ A i r a e c * Source: Gibson, Arrell M. Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. / Turtle Mountain ICMpp«wo) (IS :o u r t Dfvih tok« fV # f*^ Forl Totten Fort BertboJd A -■ i o (OoVofo) Grand fa rk s . (Mandan, WdaUo, Arikoru} Standing Rock (O okofo) Map showing 1 he location, of Indian reservations in North Dakota. Source: Raymond F. Schulenberg, "Indians of North Dakota," North Dakota Historical Quarterly July-October 1956), p. 218. INTRODUCTION For forty years before the Civil War in America, clashes between Indians and Whites east of the Mississippi River were settled or sometimes avoided by removing the tribes westward beyond the frontier of White settlement. There, government agents regulated trade and encouraged the Indians to farm so that they might one day assimilate into the Europeanized American lifestyle. With his inauguration as President in 1869, Ulysses S. Grant gave official sanction to a revised approach to American Indian policy made necessary by increased transcontinental commercial activity and the movement of pioneer families westward. The continued segregation of Native Americans from the rest of the population was no longer feasible. Grant's so called "Peace Policy" involved transferring the administration of the Indian reservations out of the hands of politically appointed government agents and turning it over to the representatives of America's Christian denominations. (It was even called the Quaker Policy, early on, since the Quakers were the most active demonination at its inception.) The agent's job was to convince the Indians to forsake their tribal relations, adhere to Christianity, and begin family farms on individual 1 2 plots of land. Indian reservations, greatly reduced in size to accommodate individual homesteads, would serve as the training ground for this experiment in acculturation until the reservations themselves could be opened to White settlement. The purpose of this study is to examine how the Kiowas, Comanches, Southern Cheyennes, Southern Arapahoes, and bands of the Santee and Yanktonais Sioux responded to United States assimilation policy between 1867 and 1901. It will be important to become familiar with the unique experience of each tribe in order to understand to what extent it did or did not benefit from the government's sincere efforts on its behalf. American politicians and reformers of the time confidently presumed that by the end of the century they could simply replace Indian tribal values with the individualistic ethos of.the expanding nation. Such a clear transformation did not take place. What occurred were complex changes that depended for the most part on the natural and human environments, the personality of the government agent, and socio-political character of the particular tribe. In all cases the Indians used their ability to pick and choose from the new culture being placed before them) integrating the traits they deemed most useful in their greatly altered circumstances, while at the same time remaining rooted in their own traditions. 3 Chapter I will trace the development of Grant's Peace Policy in the 1870s, and will show the results of its initial application on the three reservations by the church- supported Indian agents. Chapter II will show that most of these tribes had accepted the fact of the reservations by the 1880s, and had come to terms with it, each in their own selective manner. Chapter III will examine the goal of the assimilation policy— the allotment of Indian lands in severalty (individual landholdings). The idea of allotment and its emergence in the Dawes Act (1887) will also be discussed, as will its effect upon these five tribes through the 1890s. The conclusion will provide an evaluation of the assimilation policy on these reservations. CHAPTER I CONQUEST BY KINDNESS In 1867 and 1868 representatives of the United States government met in council with leaders of the nomadic Indian tribes of the Great Plains to ensure safe transportation routes for Americans moving west.