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The article discusses the U.S. federal Indian policies developed by former Union general and Indian superintendent Robert Huston Milroy in the late 19th century, focusing on the radicalism he exhibited in his efforts to reform Indian policies. Other topics include Milroy's ideas on how to assimilate Indians, the impact of Milroy on the Puyallup and Nisqually Indians in Washington state, and Milroy's dismissal from his post during the administration of former U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

On a bitterly cold morning on November 19, 1887, six Navajo boys were walking across the school grounds at Fort Defiance Indian Agency when they came across a clot of blood containing a human fetus. A brief investigation by the agent pointed to the unmarried school matron as being the mother of the fetus, a finding that provoked a deep factional dispute among agency employees. Given the explosiveness of the situation, the commissioner of Indian affairs found cause to send an inspector to the remote agency to collect evidence and render a judgement as to whether any individuals were guilty of "undue intimacy." More than a detective story, this essay utilizes the Fort Defiance story as a window for exploring the problems of agency factionalism and the challenges facing the Office of Indian Affairs in its efforts to monitor and regulate employee behavior in its colonial outposts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the emergence and content of a buffalo-soldier mythology and within the context of this myth examines the spread of a baseless claim that there were six holders of the Medal of Honor among the black soldiers dismissed after the August 1906 shooting affray in Brownsville, Texas. Despite the ease with which the story could be disproved, historians accepted it as credible, and it has migrated from the historical literature into the popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the range conflicts among cowboys, Indians and county officials in the Wind River Basin in Wyoming from 1880 to 1890. Relations between Eastern Shoshones and Northern Arapahoes tribes; Farming and stock raising activities; Hunting and grazing policies; Work of the Indian Affairs; Impact of white settlements near the reservation on tribal traditions and economies; Legal fights about jurisdictions and taxes.

The article discusses the Northern Paiute activist and author Sarah Winnemucca's 1880 trip to Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia) to restore to the Paiutes the Malheur Reservation in Oregon following their removal to Yakima (Yakama) Reservation in Washington territory. An overview of the U.S. government's colonial tactics towards the Paiutes, including its surveillance of their population, is provided. The commemorative statue of Winnemucca in Washington D.C. is discussed.

This article examines the late nineteenth-century writings of American explorer, travel writer, and journalist George Kennan on Siberian indigenous peoples, the region's incarceration and exile system, and his early twentieth-century commentary on federal Indian policy. Kennan's work highlights the possibilities for comparative analysis of the U.S. empire in the Far West and Russia's far eastern empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on Native American economic activity in the assimilation period telh a story of unscrupulous whites, fraud, and failure, often identifying the policy of competency as the culprit, fudging from these accounts, one might assume that being declared competent ruas almost always bad news for Native Americans, but perhaps particularly for women-- who were less likely to have exposure to the world of business. The records of the Quapaw Agency in Oklahoma from the 1910s and 1920s tell a different story. The impact of competency on Native American women was not always bleak. Competency sometimes gave women control over significant property. Some women of the. Quapaw Agency were skilled in business practices, negotiated successfully with the agency, and controlled both their finances and their destinies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues of agency and citizenship in American Indian relations with the U.S. government during the early 20th century, with a particular focus on the civil rights organization the Society of American Indians (SAI). It is suggested that U.S. assimilation policies failed to assist American Indians in becoming autonomous citizens, while American Indians desired citizenship but were unwilling to give up their tribal status and rights as enforced by government Indian Agents.

The article discusses the concepts of citizenship and sovereignty as related to American Indian rights and politics in the early 20th century, with a particular focus on the civil rights group the Society of American Indians (SAI). The author examines the tensions between U.S. citizenship and tribal sovereignty and identity as understood by the SAI. Topics discussed include self-determination and the relationship between individuals and the state.

Writing and "papers" were first encountered by the Tlingit through contacts with European explorers and traders in the late eighteenth century. Euro- American traders subsequently developed a system of papers of introduction for high-ranking indigenous leaders. These papers became objects of great importance to the leaders, who held them closely and brought them out to show to other important Euro-American visitors. After 1867, US military officers observed that when they encountered Tlingit leaders, they were regularly shown papers from traders in exceptional condition. US military commanders adopted the system, and provided Tlingit leaders with papers recognizing their position and authority, which were likewise carefully preserved. This essay contends that papers of introduction and recognition were conceptualized by Tlingit leaders with the "reverence" accorded in traditional cultural practice to at.óow, thereby instantiating a hybrid bridge of relationship rooted in Tlingit conceptualization of reciprocal and sustained respect for the claims of others. The reverence bestowed by the Tlingit on these instruments was not reciprocated by later agents of US governmentality, notably Governor John Brady, and Tlingit efforts to sustain traditional cultural practices in regard to political leadership through mutual construction of an articulation with US governmentality were repudiated in the early 1900s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses efforts by U.S. Army officers to uphold Lakota Indian treaty rights to the Black Hills of South Dakota between 1868 and 1876, with a particular focus on logistical and bureaucratic obstacles to the enforcement of treaty rights. According to the author, the army's unpublished manuscript correspondence illustrates that officers were neither monolithic in their thinking nor consistently able to wield the power vested in them by the state. Officers' relationships with superiors are also discussed.

The article discusses the work of Indian agent Charles Stuart Medary at the Flathead Indian Agency on the Flathead Reservation in Montana from 1875 to 1877. It notes that at this time the reservation was populated by Bitterroot Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Koontenai Indians. The author comments on Medary's relations with the white and Indian communities and his conflicts with several individuals including Chief Arlee of the Salish tribe, Chief Michelle of the Pend d'Oreilles, and merchant and local politician Telesphore J. Demers. Issues of finance, bureaucracy, and justice administration are also considered.

The use of documentary sources resulting from late-19th-century interactions between Florida Seminole Indians and agents of the U.S. government reveals that individual Seminoles responded to the outside world favorably through the adoption of new technologies, housing styles, and other ways viewed as "progressive" by the government observers. Viewing these individuals as agents of cosmopolitanism allows archaeologists to consider the role of the individual as a source of cultural variation that can be expressed in the archaeological record. A theoretical perspective that sees the individual as a source of creative response provides for a nuanced and complex view of past human behavior; less abstract, and closer to the reality of the human experience. In the Seminole case, styles of house building labeled as desirably progressive are shown to have deeper historical roots and reappear in the late 1800s as a selective response to renewed contact with American society after a period of isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Native American demands for religious freedom in an era when the U.S. government systematically suppressed indigenous traditions. Records from across Indian country reveal that religious freedom claims emerged as only one option in a broader strategic toolbox. While tribal leaders named some ceremonies as religion, they defended others as harmless social events similar to white dances, or as the Indian way of celebrating the Fourth of July. Significantly, while the former tended to take on characteristics that supported the designation of “religion” in the eyes of authorities, the latter tended to drop such attributes. The point here is not simply that some ceremonies were secularized while others became more religious—in fact neither development was absolute—but that the very distinction between “religion” and the “secular” in Native American traditions was a product of government suppression, a necessary accommodation to the norms of the dominant society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the Conservative premier of British Columbia (BC) Richard McBride's relationship with the debate over Indian land tenure in early 20th century BC. An overview of McBride's relationship with Indians, including his perspective on their land claims in BC and on the status of Indian reserves, is provided. An overview of McBride's negotiations with BC Indians is also provided. An overview of the McKenna-McBride commission, also known as the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs in British Columbia that was comprised of McBride and Indian Commissioner J.A.J. McKenna, is presented.

This article examines the standards of tribal membership in the Choctaw Nation (present-day Oklahoma) during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although forced by the U.S. Congress to make rolls of its members, the Choctaw government willingly used race to trump other considerations when it came to determining citizenship, including long-held cultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an 1887 conflict between the U.S. federal government and white land claimants on the Round Valley Reservation in Mendocino County, California, referred to as the "Round Valley War." It examines the work of local courts in preventing the trespassers' evictions by federal authority and the U.S. Army. The authors comment on the Indian policy of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs and reflect on the Office's relations with the U.S. War Department. Individuals considered include U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs Thomas Jefferson Henley, U.S. Senator Henry L. Dawes, and U.S. Army Captain Richard G. Shaw.

The article discusses meat preparation and consumption on the Blackfeet Reservation in northern Montana, focusing on the period 1879 to 1895. It examines the replacement of bison with beef and the construction of two slaughterhouses on the reservation. The author comments on the efforts of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) to assimilate Native Americans and reflects on the sale of Blackfeet labor for food rations. He also analyzes Blackfeet hunting practices and explores the U.S. government's desire to transform Blackfeet Indians from hunters into herders.

When attempting to confront hostile Apache guerrillas in New Mexico between 1879 and 1881, the US Army encountered a style of warfare which took merciless advantage of its weaknesses. However, the failure of the army to defeat its enemies can be only partially ascribed to this factor. Its efforts were further hampered by the political context within which it had to operate. Nevertheless, these factors occasionally worked in the army’s favour. When these political constraints did undermine efforts to defeat the Apaches, the US Army demonstrated that it was sometimes capable of turning this political context to its advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an overview of the Nez Perce Indians' war with the United States in 1877. The leadership of the band's Chief Heinmot Tooyalakekt, who is more well-known as Joseph, is discussed. The cause of the war is attributed to an incidence of violence against the white culture in Idaho on June 14, 1877, tribal tensions exploited by federal agents to secure treaties that would give a right-of-way for a transcontinental railroad, and the government's interference in the Nez Perce social order. The band's placement on Colville Indian Reservation in Washington state is discussed.

This article examines two conflicting policy directions in post-Civil War Indian affairs and the contentious relationship that emerged between prominent reformers of the early Peace Policy era. It argues that the 1871 House of Representatives investigation of fraud in the Office of Indian Affairs served as a critical moment in the development of reservation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses the treaty negotiations between the Bitterroot Salish and the U.S. government regarding their removal from their traditional lands in Bitterroot Valley, Montana to the Jocko or Flathead Reservation. The treaty negotiations were held in 1889, primarily between retired U.S. general Henry B. Carrington and Salish Chief Charlo, sometimes referred to as Charlot. Other subjects considered include the 1855 Hellgate Treaty, the relationship between the Salish Indians and the American buffalo, the tribal organization of the Salish, and the U.S. government's Indian policies during the 19th century.

The article presents an exploration into the history of the Meskwaki Indians at the turn of the 20th century, highlighting the creation of powwows and other public events to showcase and advocate Indian cultural identity within the larger mixed community surrounding their reservation in Iowa. Accounts are given describing the rise in Meskwaki interest in engaging in public performances to confront opposing movements of cultural assimilation. Also profiled is the political debate between the Meskwaki and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs over the level of sovereignty the tribe could enact.

This article discusses the 1916 autobiography "From the Deep Woods to Civilization: Chapters in the Autobiography of an Indian" by Dakota Sioux Indian writer Charles Eastman. The author examines how Eastman critiqued the U.S. within an assimilationist framework. The author explores how Eastman embraced mainstream U.S. culture and rejected reservation life. The reaction of American Indian literary critics to Eastman's work is also examined. Biographical information on Eastman is provided. The article also discusses the U.S. government's emphasis on "civilizing" Native Americans during the 19th century and their citizenship.

The article discusses activism by women's clubs in California to promote reforms intended to improve social conditions for U.S. Indians. With the assistance of John Collier, former U.S. commissioner for Indian affairs, and Pueblo Indians, members of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) campaigned against assimilation-based U.S. policies regarding Indians and supported the return of lands to Indians as well as religious freedom and self-efficacy for Indian tribes. The author notes that GFWC members such as Stella Atwood investigated social problems faced by Indians and motivated Collier to promote Indian reforms.

The article examines the impact that United States federal land policy and the arrival of settlers in the Gila River Valley had on the Pima Indians in the late 19th-century. The author discusses the cultural, social and economic importance of agriculture to the Pima and the role that the Gila River played in allowing them to independently thrive in the region. The article then examines how U.S. federal land policy encouraged settlement in the Gila River Valley and hurt the Pima by depriving them of the river's resources.

This article discusses the small-scale farming of Creek Indians and explores the transformation from working in slavery to personally owning land following the U.S. Civil War. Details are provided about a treaty signed in 1866 between the U.S. Government and the Creek Indian Nation regarding the rights of Creek Indians. The multiethnic development of the Creek Nation in the 1870s is described and the unity felt by the Creek Nation is discussed. The nationalist attitude of the Creek Nation with regard to their land is also examined.

This article reassesses the Peace Policy of the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, emphasizing incoherence in its formulation and implementation. Historians have involved themselves in illuminating debates concerning “paternalism” and “colonialism” as competing explanatory concepts, but have glossed over the significance of contingencies, inconsistencies and political competition involved in elaborating a substantive federal policy toward native peoples during the Reconstruction era. Whilst the Grant Administration focused on well-meaning but limited goals of placing “good men” in positions of influence and convincing Native peoples of their fundamental dependency on the United States Government, attempts to forge a new departure in federal-Native relations were actually characterized by conflict and disagreement. The muddled creation of what has become known as the Peace Policy thus tells us much about the varied and divergent attitudes Americans had toward the consolidation of their empire in the west following the Civil War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses various aspects of the contradictions in the Canadian government's Indian band governance policy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Official intention of the policy; Prohibiting Indian leaders from engaging in politics; Contradictions identified; Politicizing the Indian people; Indian leaders as extensions of state authority.

Elaborates on the political pressures following World War II to get the federal government "out of the Indian business" by terminating trust responsibilities to tribes and "emancipating" them from the stifling paternalism of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Battle over termination began in January 1947 for Eastern Cherokees; Effects on the Eastern Cherokees; Former Indian Commission John Collier's New Deal programs; Postwar paranoia concerning the USSR and communism; Details.

Examines 107 federal court cases involving American Indian tribal sovereignty and federal pleary power rendered between 1870 and 1921. United States Supreme Court's Indian Law jurisprudence; Two separate braces of opinions; Deference to the legislative branches; Role in formulating public policy towards American Indian tribes; Abstract model of judicial decision-making.

Traces the means by which the Lakota people of Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota were internally pacified through the United States Office of Indian Affairs during the period from 1880 to the mid-1930s. State's construction of new kinds of bureaucratically knowable and recordable individuals; Administrative processes which are modes of subjection.