GOVERNMENT POLICIES REGARDING NATIVE AMERICANS

Throughout American history there has always been a relationship between the United States of America and the Native Americans, unfortunately the majority of this relationship has been very negative and ugly. The westward expansion brought much bloodshed and disease among the natives; which has progressed to the modern age of reservations, regulations and legal battles between the partially sovereign natives and the federal government. Government policies towards the indigenous have changed over time but realistically they have not done anything for the Native Americans to become their own people with their own government. Assimilation has been the nightmare for every culture that has come to the United States, however in the case of the Indians they were the first to experience the process which was forced upon them.

POST REVOLUTIONARY WAR

            During the period after the revolutionary war there was a large amount of establishing the government in the territories that were established as well as the land as a whole. Policies were instituted for all various aspects of the constitution. Many of these only pertained to the white inhabitants of the territories and the rules and regulations that they had to abide. However there were certain policies that were made towards the “Indians” in order to have some order and peace. In addition to the war between the Americans and the British ending, constant violence from the Native Americans drove the whites to desire peace. In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 article 3 there was a brief statement pertaining to how the people of the United States should treat the Indians. It stated, "…The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them" (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=8). The American government wanted to preserve the peace between the Indians as much as they could. At the time they wanted to be as sympathetic as possible, which may have been due to the lack of resources that they had after the war to pursue their intended goal of expanding west. Though there was this idea of peace it was masking the hatred towards the “savages” and the inevitable war that was to come. During this time there was a clear misunderstanding between the Americans and the Indians due to the different languages, and consequently there had not been good enough communication to have civil conversations. In some cases there are even instances of the government taking advantage of the Indians with their lack of understanding. The Treaty of Greenville is a perfect example of this injustice towards the Indians. The major-general at the time, Anthony Wayne, proposed this treaty to various tribes including the Chipewas, Ottawas, and Kickapoos and claimed to want peace and resolve all controversies. What Wayne did instead was manipulate the Indians into signing a document they could not read in which it stated that they agreed to give up certain pieces of land  (this document can be seen here http://ktik-nsn.gov/1795treaty.htm).

     Eight years after this treaty was signed there was a letter written by President Jefferson to William Henry Harrison who was a governor at the time. Within this letter was a statement made by Jefferson which simply stated how the government truly felt towards the Indians. He starts off the letter saying the privacy of the message allows him to express a more “extensive view of our policy respecting the Indians”. The beginning of the letter mentions that the government wants to keep perpetual peace with the Indians and protect them from the wrongs of “our people”. What the majority of the letter describes is a plan to basically assimilate the Indians into our culture so as to give up more of their land due to their new perspective on what is important. There is even a system mentioned that purposely drives the Indians into debt to force them to sell their land willingly. The last part of the letter describes what they envision to be the outcome of this plan and what is to become of those who resist. After Jefferson writes how they are going to get rid of the “pests” he continues by saying, "

In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the United States or remove beyond the Missisipi. As to their fear, we presume that our strength and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be fool-hardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe and driving them across the Missisipi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation" (http://www.in.gov/history/2573.htm). 

These were the beginning stages to the expansion west and the inevitable war with the Indians that was to come.

WESTWARD EXPANSION

            Shortly after these treaties and other documents were written was the start of the United States government’s plan for the Indians. Though there was much peace spoken and promised by politicians and other government figureheads there was a large amount of degrading acts towards the indigenous. As it has been said previously many were cornered into debt and were pressured into becoming an assimilated citizen of the United States. The threat from the government pertaining to the relocation of tribes who refused to assimilate was anything but hollow and was eventually demonstrated nearly 30 years after President Jefferson’s letter to William Henry Harrison. In the early 1830’s the government ordered the relocation of over 120,000 Indians to the west side of the Mississippi river to designated areas (http://www.history.com/topics/trail-of-tears).

Andrew Jackson was a very large supporter for the removal of Indians. During the time that he served as an army general he long fought battles against the Creeks and Seminoles and gained thousands of acres of land from them. When he became the president he maintained his hatred towards the indigenous and signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to what we know as the Trail of Tears in 1838. The government had the intention of giving these lands to farmers in order to grow cotton. Many were forced from there homes beginning in 1831 but the last remaining Indians from the Cherokee tribe where the most resilient. For years they tried to legally fight the removal of their tribe from their lands but even after petitions were signed and representatives were appointed to try to fight they eventually lost. Finally in 1838 President Martin Van Buren ordered 7000 soldiers to speed up the removal of the Cherokees. After being forced to walk for 1200 miles and deal with unforgiving coldness and disease approximately over 5000 Cherokee men, women, and children died as a result of the Trail of Tears  (http://www.history.com/topics/trail-of-tears). After this large removal of Indians was complete the government promised that they would never disrupt their land again and it would remain theirs forever; unfortunately that was not the case.

BATTLES AGAINST INDIANS AND MOTIVES

There were many years in which the Indians were harassed to sell more of their land and the amount of money that they would receive for the lands would continue to get smaller and smaller. Pressure built up between the Indians and the United States until there were multiple outbursts of violence. Soldiers would be sent out to battle tribes in the conquest for new land in the west. Many of these battles would end poorly for the indigenous due to the lack of military strength in comparison to the United States army. However this was not the case for every battle that was fought between the two. The Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876 is famous for the Indian’s triumph over Custer in battle. They won due to many factors but mostly because Custer was outgunned and had a poor plan which involved splitting up his division, allowing the Sioux to take down the two groups individually, all of which was confessed by Mrs. Spotted Horn Bull in Account of the Battle of Little Big Horn written in 1910. These outbursts of military action were not uncommon and lead to many battles full of bloodshed on both sides. One battle stood out more than others when it came to the violence and brutality of the U.S. soldiers. On December 15, 1890 the U.S. cavalry attacked an Indian tribe and concluded to be one of the ugliest acts towards Native Americans. This battle is known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. Approximately one hundred and fifty Lakota Sioux Indians perished in the bloody battle with most of them being women and children. An account of the battle was recorded by and Indian from the tribe by the name of Black Elk. His memory was of a brutal battle that he could barely stand to watch. He made the statement, "Men and women and children were heaped and scattered all over the flat at the bottom of the little hill where the soldiers had their wagon-guns, and westward up the dry gulch all the way to the high ridge, the dead women and children and babies were scattered. When I saw this I wished that I had died too…. The sun was shining. But after the soldiers marched away from their dirty work, a heavy snow began to fall. The wind came up in the night. There was a big blizzard, and it grew very cold. The snow drifted deep in the crooked gulch, and it was one long grave of butchered women and children and babies, who had never done any harm and were only trying to run away" (John Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks, 1932). These battles were random at times but the majority of the battles were by direct orders to remove the Indians participating in dancing rituals which were referred to as “ghost dances”. These ghost dances were widely practiced in Indian tribes throughout the western part of the United States. The dances where considered to be a religion based off of the teachings of Jack Wilson, who was known by the Indians as Wovoka. Wovoka was a spiritual leader that created the ghost dance for Indians from a vision that he had during a solar eclipse. The point of the dance was to pray for peace along with other things mentioned in his letter that was given to a Cheyenne named Black Short Nose (http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/gdmessg.htm). In the letter he describes how the dance should be done and for how long as well as some teachings that he shared; none of which were threatening. He makes statements such as “do not harm anybody or do harm to anyone” and “you must not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life”. He continues by saying Jesus is on earth and when the time comes there will not be sickness anymore and everyone is young again. These teachings were spread throughout the west but there were claims by a few Americans that the dance was a preparation for war. In a journal written by Jeffrey Ostler, he expands on this notion by saying the “doctrine” taught by Wovoka was for peace towards the whites and was perverted by the Lakotas into a “militant crusade against the white man” (Conquest and the State, pg. 218). This belief was strong enough for the whites to leave their homes and seek military aid from the government. In the Wounded Knee Massacre the battle was started when the U.S. cavalry surrounded a group of ghost dancers, lead by Big Horn, and a fight broke out between an Indian and a soldier which lead to the massacre. This massacre was the last ghost dance movement and confrontation the U.S. had with the Plains Indians (http://www.history.com/topics/wounded-knee).

ORGANIZATIONS AND RESERVATIONS

The policies of this time caused much destruction towards the Indians’ way of life. The reduction of their land, the relocation of their people and the battles and massacres that killed countless indigenous people crippled their way of life and began the process of evolution into the modern age of Native Americans. Numerous organizations have been established in both the U.S. government and the Native American government to help regulate affairs between the two. The oldest Indian organization, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), was established in 1824 by the United States and is still operating to this day. Though the BIA was an Indian organization the well-being of the Indians was not the center of focus in the beginning. The original intent of the department was to manage the Indians as the country spread towards the west. Jeffrey Ostler speaks about the BIA (known as the Office of Indian Affairs) in regards to how they functioned by saying,"It is well known that the late nineteenth-century army had definite views about the management of Indian affairs. Until 1849 Indian affairs had been under the War Department at which time they were transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior" (Conquest of the State, pg. 228). This organization was also heavily involved in the Wounded Knee Massacre and was also known to put great amounts of effort into the management of reservations in order to promote assimilation into United States Civilization. The BIA is now the oldest bureau in the Department of the Interior and has completely changed the focus of their mission. According to their mission statement that can be seen on http://www.bia.gov/WhoWeAre/index.htm, "… enhance the quality of life, to promote economic opportunity, and to carry out the responsibility to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives". Every reservation in the United States (310 in total) is managed by a tribe or tribes under the BIA. Unfortunately with there being only 310 reservations and 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States not every tribe can have a reservation to themselves or in some cases even have one at all. Each reservation has some form of sovereignty within its borders that can be comparable to any one of the individual states of America. They are allowed to create laws, tax their citizens, to license and regulate activities in their jurisdiction, receive funds from the government and even exclude people from their tribe. They still have restrictions placed upon them from the federal government that prevents them from being truly sovereign people. Some of these restrictions are also similar to those of the states, such as the power to declare war, engage in foreign affairs, or print and issue currency (information provided by www.bia.gov). Unfortunately there are instances where the liberties of the tribes are limited or ignored when it comes to how they want to regulate their culture or preserve their practices.

            In one instance, the Crow tribe have passed a few laws since the 1950’s regarding fishing and hunting regulations which included one that prohibited hunting and fishing within the reservation by anyone who is not a tribe member which included land held in fee simple by non-Indians. In the case of Montana vs. United States (1981) the state of Montana continued to assert its authority to regulate over hunting and fishing by non-Indians within the reservation. At that point in time approximately 28 percent of the land in question was owned by non-Indians held in fee simple, 2 percent was owned by Montana and 1 percent owned by the United States (http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14799549859514416959&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr). The ruling of the court after reviewing the case was as follows,"is the recognition that Indian tribes do not have the power, nor do they have the authority, to regulate non-Indians unless so granted by an act of Congress… Because no treaty or Act of Congress gave the Tribe authority to regulate hunting or fishing by non-Indians, the court held 550*550 that the Tribe could not exercise such authority except by granting or withholding authority to trespass on tribal or Indian land". According to the federal government, when someone owns a land in fee simple it is theirs to do with as they like and they have complete ownership. Since this is the case for 28% of the reservations land held by non-members the Crows are not allowed to prohibit them from fishing and hunting. The sovereignty of the tribe is trumped by that of the state of Montana, making it questionable whether the reservation has true “implied-sovereignty”. Even when the land itself is considered almost all of tribal lands are owned in trust by the United States which means that if the tribe wants to sell the land they are required to sell it to the federal government. They have to pay taxes to the United States government (with few exceptions) and congress withholds the right to change whether or not federal and tribal laws are the only laws members of the tribe are required to follow (usa.usembassy.de/etexts/soc/bia.pdf). Some policies do exist in order to keep some limitation to the power of Indian reservations and are understandable, however there needs

to be a certain understanding the way Native Americans wish to control their culture and how we are restricting them from doing so.

            The policies that we have had throughout our history regarding the Indians have been seen as completely inhumane, insensitive, and morally wrong on multiple occasions. Though there is a clear difference between how 1700’s America and modern day America treats Native Americans we can still see how there are injustices towards the tribes in our nation. The roadblock that prevents us from giving the Indians free reign over their own people is that we would need to be required to give them complete control over their own land, resulting in their own country. The last possible decision the United States would make would be just that, to go back on our previous goal of manifest destiny. The Indians may never know truly what it is like to have their own land back without the supervision and regulation of the United States government, but there can be vast improvements on the current policies the federal government has.

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