The Land Grab Continues

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Cover of Pamphlet Souvenirs of Tulsa-Indian Territory, 1906, courtesy National Archives

Cover of Pamphlet Souvenirs of Tulsa-Indian Territory, 1906, courtesy National Archives

Native Americans  forced out of their homelands by white settlers were relocated to land in the western United States, called Indian Territory. In a Congressional act of June 30, 1834, Indian Territory  was described as “all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi, and not within the States of Missouri and Louisiana, or the Territory of Arkansas.”

In 1890, unassigned lands in the center of Indian Territory were organized as Oklahoma Territory. In 1906, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were combined to form the state of Oklahoma, which was admitted into the union by Proclamation 780 on November 16, 1907. After that, Indian Territory no longer existed.

Map of Indian Territory, 1885, courtesy National Archives

Map of Indian Territory, 1885, courtesy National Archives

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Stuck Inside

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Few patients wanted to remain at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, and the staff (and sometimes townspeople) had to deal with a number of escapes. The April 28, 1905 edition of The Sioux Valley News, Canton’s weekly paper, mentioned that the superintendent of the asylum, O.S. Gifford, had “returned from the north and brought with him the runaway Indian who had escaped from the Indian asylum on Tuesday of last week.

“This is the same redskin who made his escape from the asylum several times before […] Judge Gifford said to a reporter for this paper on his return that it would be a warm day when the fellow would get the liberty enough to get away.” Unfortunately, the paper did not give the name of this determined patient.

Most escaped patients headed back to their reservations and families. The picture of Dirty John’s cabin represents the type of home they may have returned to.

Log Cabin Belonging to Dirty John, Flathead Reservation, 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

Log Cabin Belonging to Dirty John, Flathead Reservation, 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

The Badlands, S.D., courtesy Library of Congress

The Badlands, S.D., courtesy Library of Congress

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Who Came to Canton?

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Canton, S. D., 1907, courtesy Library of Congress

Canton, S. D., 1907, courtesy Library of Congress

Patients began to trickle into the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians after it opened the last day of 1902. From January 1, 1903 to the end of the first fiscal year on June 30, 1903, ten males (all over 18 years of age) and six females (two of whom were under 18) were admitted to the asylum. During the fiscal year, one  patient died and two recovered.

An additional female was admitted in July, and by the time asylum superintendent O.S. Gifford (see previous posts) made his annual report at the end of August, 24 insane Indians had been ordered to the asylum. Nine tribes were represented among these patients: Cherokee, Comanche, Osage, Pawnee, Mission, Winnebago, Chippewa, Shoshone, and Sioux.

Coe Crawford, S.D. Governor, 1908

Coe Crawford, S.D. Governor, 1908

View of Big Sioux River (which flowed past the asylum) 1911

View of Big Sioux River (which flowed past the asylum) 1911

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What’s Happening?

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Women's Fashions in 1908

Women's Fashions in 1908

Americans continued to see changes as the beginning of the 20th century marched on.  In 1908, five years after the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians opened:

— Life expectancy was 49.5  years for men and 52.8 years for women.

— Wilbur Wright flew a sustained 2 hours and 20 minutes.

— Henry Ford produced his first Model T.

— New baseball regulations ruled that spitballs were illegal.

— The first successful blood transfusion using blood-typing took place.

— The comic strip Mutt and Jeff was syndicated by King Features.

A man could go on an 80-day cruise to the Orient for $300, buy a cigar for a nickel, or purchase a two-jointed, double cork grip fishing pole for $1.29. His wife could buy White Lily face whitener for $.45, bake bread with flour costing $2.65 for a 98-pound bag, and enjoy strawberries for $.15 a basket.

Mutt and Jeff

Mutt and Jeff

Period Advertisement

Period Advertisement

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Another Pill to Swallow

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William A. Jones, Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1897-1905)

William A. Jones, Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1897-1905)

When Native Americans were forced to live on reservations, their health declined. Poor food quality led to malnutrition and put them at risk for disease and ill health. Two diseases in particular, trachoma and tuberculosis, devastated Indian populations.

Government Doctor Giving Trachoma Examination on Stillwater Indian Reservation

Government Doctor Giving Trachoma Examination on Stillwater Indian Reservation

Trachoma is an easily transmitted virus that infects the eyes, and is usually picked up in childhood. It thrives in congested, unsanitary conditions, which developed when tribes were crowded together and prevented from moving around and relocating camps. Children would be re-infected so often that scars made the eyelids turn inward, causing the eyelashes to scratch the cornea. Victims said the pain nearly drove them wild, “as though cinders were in both eyes.”  Permanent blindness often resulted.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial lung infection that causes  death by suffocation from excess fluid (blood or phlegm) or by respiratory failure. Tissue in the lung is killed by TB and eventually the patient simply cannot absorb enough oxygen. By the mid-1800s, the Navajo death rate was ten times the national average. Prior to 1935, most adult TB patients were left to fend for themselves, while children attending boarding schools were either segregated or institutionalized. In 1904, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, William Jones, ordered all infected children out of the schools. Most returned to their reservations and died a slow death.

Group Picture at the Tuberculosis Sanitorium, Phoenix Indian School circa 1890-1910, courtesy National Archives

Group Picture at the Tuberculosis Sanitorium, Phoenix Indian School circa 1890-1910, courtesy National Archives

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An Unstable Land

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Procession at White Earth Indian Reservation, circa 1908-1916, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

Procession at White Earth Indian Reservation, circa 1908-1916, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

Because most Native Americans were not U.S. citizens, they had few protections and were often cheated or defrauded of their valuables.  In the late 1800s, the Chippewa (also known as Ojibwe) lived on rich woodlands filled with hardwood and pines. These lands were coveted by timber interests,who took advantage of several Congressional acts designed to break up tribal ownership of land.

Ojibwe Indians Getting Land Allotments, White Earth Indian Agency, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Collection

Ojibwe Indians Getting Land Allotments, White Earth Indian Agency, courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Collection

Through these acts, particularly the Dawes Act (see 7/13/10 post) the Chippewa were each allotted only 80 acres of non-forest land, and told that the government would sell the land they didn’t need to white men, keep the money in the treasury with the Great Father, and give it to them when they needed it.

The allotments were made, and then the non-allotted Indian land was opened up and sold to timber companies, railroads and settlers. Delighted loggers began to clear-cut the forests. As the forests were systematically destroyed, concerned citizens moved to preserve some of the beautiful land that had belonged to the Chippewa. In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt created the Minnesota National Forest, composed of 225,000 acres of Chippewa land which had been lost through the allotment system. The land was renamed the Chippewa National Forest in 1928.

Leech Lake Chippewa Delegation to Washington, 1899

Leech Lake Chippewa Delegation to Washington, 1899

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Making Reservations

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Indian Reservations in Continental U.S., courtesy National Park Service

Indian Reservations in Continental U.S., courtesy National Park Service

When the U.S. negotiated treaties forcing Native Americans to move from their land, they obviously had to live somewhere else. Early treaties allowed tribes to keep a certain portion of ceded land to live on. This reserved portion was given as an “allotment.” After 1871, reservations were created by acts of Congress.

Reservations are concentrated in the western United States, but they exist in all parts of the country. Approximately 1.1 – 1.3 million (non-Alaskan) Native Americans live on or near 330 reservations.

Indians From Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

Indians From Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., 1909, courtesy Library of Congress

On the Indian Reservation, courtesy Library of Congress

On the Indian Reservation, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Homes, Moapa Reservation, Nevada, 1940, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Homes, Moapa Reservation, Nevada, 1940, courtesy Library of Congress

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A Dreadful Act

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Senator Henry L. Dawes

Senator Henry L. Dawes

Policy makers in the U.S. government thought that tribal ownership of land was inefficient and kept Indians from assimilating into American culture. In 1887, Congressman Henry Dawes of Massachusetts sponsored  the General Allotment Act (The Dawes Severalty Act).

Each head of a family would get 160 acres of land (or 320 acres of grazing land) and the surplus reservation land would be sold. (The Supreme Court had decided that the US government held title to Indian land and Indians enjoyed only a right of occupancy). The allotted land would be worked by Indian families, creating responsible farmers and ranchers who were self-sufficient and no longer dependent on government assistance.

The allotted land could not be sold for 25 years, and after that period, the Indian participants would become American citizens. Like much legislation of the period, it did not work out well for Indians, who were usually relegated to unprofitable land that couldn’t sustain them. They fell into poverty, sold or were cheated out of their land, and never became the prosperous small farmers that Congress had envisioned.

From 1887 to 1934, 90 million acres of Indian reservation land were transferred to non-Indian ownership and control.

Indian Teams Hauling Wheat to Market, 1900

Indian Teams Hauling Wheat to Market, 1900

One Result of the Dawes Act

One Result of the Dawes Act

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How to Make an Indian Vanish

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Cherokee Chief John Ross Fought Against Migration

Cherokee Chief John Ross Fought Against Migration

In 1830, a year after he took office, President Andrew Jackson (see 7/8/10 post) pushed a piece of legislation called The Indian Removal Act through Congress. The Act authorized Jackson to grant unsettled land in the west to Indians living in the east.

In his message to Congress, Jackson said:  “It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation.”

Though a few tribes migrated peacefully, many did not want to leave their lands. Jackson’s “happy consummation” came to a head during the winter of 1838 – 1839 when 4,000  Cherokees died on a forced 1,000-mile march to Indian Territory called “The Trail of Tears.”

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Map of Trail of Tears, courtesy National Park Service

Map of Trail of Tears, courtesy National Park Service

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Vanishing Land

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Daguerrotype of Andrew Jackson

Daguerrotype of Andrew Jackson

The U.S. government never hesitated to relocate Native Americans when it decided white people needed their land. In 1814, U.S. military commander Andrew Jackson (later, 7th president of the U.S.) divested the Creek nation of 22 million acres of land in Georgia and Alabama after its defeat at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

Jackson’s troops  later invaded Spanish Florida and took land from the Seminoles in 1818. He was ruthless in battle and was known as Sharp Knife by the Seminoles.

From 1814 through 1824, Jackson helped negotiate nine treaties that gave the government substantial Native American land holdings in the eastern United States. In exchange, tribes were given land in the west. Many of the treaties were little more than sanctioned arm-twisting. Tribes agreed to their terms because they wanted to appease the U.S. government and protect what little land they had left.

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend, courtesy National Park Service

Horseshoe Bend, courtesy National Park Service

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