Category Archives: Native American customs

Native Americans had created a rich cultural history that was usually disregarded, disdained, and rejected by the larger Anglo-centered population. Native peoples had their own languages, medical methods, religions, rituals and ceremonies, and world outlooks. When the federal government changed its policy from overt warfare, it did not stop trying to destroy Native Americans. The government pursued a policy called “assimilation” which tried to erase all Native American heritage and culture. Fortunately, Native peoples proved themselves stronger than these policies and held on to many of the cultural aspects the government tried to erase.

Clashes Between Indians and Whites

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Returning War Party, courtesy Library of Congress

Dakota Territory, where the city of Canton was eventually established, embraced the Mandan, Arikara, Kidatsa, Assiniboin, Crow, Cheyenne, Cree, and Dakota (Santee Sioux) tribes. The Lakota Sioux were openly hostile to white newcomers, and even the early trappers avoided their sacred land in the Black Hills. Things changed when pioneer families came in and railroads began to snake through the countryside. Railroad workers arrived in hordes to cut through previously untouched land. People who had heard rumors about gold sometimes sneaked into the Black Hills.

The Lakota Nations were important to peace in the region, and in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the U.S. government granted them a huge parcel of land west of the Missouri River. The government forbade settlers or miners to enter the Black Hills without permission, and the Sioux agreed to stop fighting with the newcomers.

Some people inevitably broke the treaty, and inevitably there were clashes. One Sioux retaliation tactic was to raid settlements and then retreat to the Black Hills where they were protected from pursuit by their treaty. The military wanted a fort in the area to better their chances of cutting off the Sioux before they could get to the Black Hills. That desire for a fort changed everything.

My next post will discuss what happened when the government pursued building a fort in the area.

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

Sioux Delegation, 1891, courtesy Library of Congress

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The BIA Field Matron Program

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Field Matron, Arizona

Field Matron, Arizona

Between 1890 and 1938, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employed women as Field Matrons. Their job was to go into Native American homes to teach domestic science (sewing, cooking, hygiene, etc.) according to middle-class white standards. This was a relatively peaceful way for the BIA to continue its work of assimilating Indians into white culture; they destroyed Indians’ old habits and ways of doing things and replaced them with the white man’s way.

Matrons taught mainly on reservations, since the feeling was that Indians still living in teepees or roaming the land wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the matrons’ lessons. Besides sewing and other practical accomplishments, matrons taught Indian women to decorate their homes, care for their animals and children like whites, and teach their children sports and Anglo games. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells urged matrons to stress the importance of legal marriage to Indians, and to try to increase their desire for material goods so that lazy Indians would work harder to provide them.

Typical Indian Home (Flathead Reservation, 1909), courtesy Library of Congress

Typical Indian Home (Flathead Reservation, 1909), courtesy Library of Congress

Interior of Teepee (1905-1907?), courtesy Library of Congress

Interior of Teepee (1905-1907?), courtesy Library of Congress

Field matrons were charged with “civilizing” Indians in their own homes. Though heavy-handed, it was preferable to tearing families apart and sending children away as the BIA’s boarding school program did. Though the BIA applauded their efforts, eventually devastating health problems among Indians prompted the agency to replace field matrons with nurses.

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Fooling Around

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Harvest Dance with Koshare, courtesy Library of Congress

Harvest Dance with Koshare, Santo Domingo Pueblo, 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

Native Americans were like most cultures, and used clowns and fools to make serious points through their absurd behavior. Koshare (a general term for clowns) were sacred fools who helped maintain fertility, rain, good health, and crops. Their antics also taught proper behavior, typically through their bad example. For instance, the Lakota Nation’s heyoka was a sacred fool who did everything backward.

Hopi Pointed Clowns, 1912, courtesy Museum of American Indian, Heye Foundation

Hopi Pointed Clowns, 1912, courtesy Museum of American Indian, Heye Foundation

Chifonete Pole, Taos, NM, 1902, courtesy Library of Congress

Chifonete Pole, Taos, NM, 1902, courtesy Library of Congress

During feasts and celebrations in New Mexico, painted Koshare would frighten and amuse their audiences with wild antics, culminating in a climb up a chifonete pole which had prizes like a slaughtered sheep, fruits, and bread at the top.

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Hippies Had Nothing on This

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Liberty and a Native American, Civil War-era pictoral envelope, courtesy Library of Congress

Liberty and a Native American, Civil War-era pictorial envelope, courtesy Library of Congress

Apparently, long hair has been an issue with authorities for quite some time. In 1902, the Office of Indian Affairs wanted to initiate a program that cut off rations to reservation Indians and paid them wages instead. W.A. Jones, commissioner of Indian Affairs, decided that for their labor to be effective, Indians needed to cut their hair. He issued a “short-hair order” that caused a great deal of resentment.

The order stated that the “wearing of short hair…will certainly hasten their [Indians] progress toward civilization.” The order suggested withholding employment until men complied. It also suggested throwing uncooperative men “in the guardhouse at hard labor,” to cure their stubbornness.

Unfortunately for the Indian Office, newspapers got hold of the document and published its contents. The public discussed those contents at length, sometimes with outrage, and the office was embarrassed by all the negative publicity. However, it continued to defend its position.

Specific records about the result of this order don’t seem to exist, but it met with approval within the Indian Office. It did give some leeway to older Indians, but expected the young males to follow the order.

Dr. Carlos Montazuma, Apache (1880-1900?), courtesy Library of Congress

Dr. Carlos Montazuma, Apache (1880-1900?), courtesy Library of Congress

Native American Children (1880-1910?), courtesy Library of Congress

Native American Children (1880-1910?), courtesy Library of Congress

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Prohibiting Drinking

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Demon Rum

Demon Rum

Prohibition did not go into effect in the U.S. until 1920, but the government was concerned early on with alcohol consumption by Indians. Some Indians groups (such as the Apaches) had used alcohol ceremonially before European contact, but after being introduced to it by traders and explorers, developed a liking for rum and other distilled spirits.

Traders, especially, liked to use alcohol when they dealt with Indians. Rum was something that Indians couldn’t make, but wanted, and it impaired their judgment during the subsequent trading. Because Indians were not used to drinking and were often prodded to consume too much, they frequently overindulged.

Traders Plying Alcohol
Traders Plying Alcohol

In 1832, a law was passed against giving “ardent spirits” to Indians, but the damage had already been done. Some Indians had developed a craving for alcohol, and greedy profiteers were willing to sell it to them. In 1910, Congress appropriated $60,000 ($1,400,000 today) for the suppression of “the liquor traffic among the Indians.”

Sign from 1919

Sign from 1919

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How Crazy Were Indians?

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Medicine Man Administering to a Patient, courtesy Library of Congress

Medicine Man Administering to a Patient, courtesy Library of Congress

Native Americans recognized mental illness, and had several descriptive names for different conditions. The Navajos called tremors and seizures “moth madness,” which was said to be caused by sibling incest. Some tribes considered violent mania to be the result of the evil spirit, windigo, which could possess someone’s body and eat souls.

Sometimes, Native Americans attributed insanity to the influence of an evil charm or to a enemy’s potion. Along with that belief was the counter-belief that a stronger charm or potion would effect a cure.

Ironically, an article in the October 1903 issue of the American Journal of Insanity (discussing a study of 7,600 cases of insanity in Connecticut over 32 years) noted that Native Americans had the lowest incidence of insanity in the population. This finding was backed up in a number of books of the period, in which missionaries and others who frequently traveled among a variety of tribes, declared that they had never seen any insane Indians.

Skull To Keep Evil Spirits Away, Montana, courtesy Library of Congress

Skull To Keep Evil Spirits Away, Montana, courtesy Library of Congress

Hupa Shaman, 1923, courtesy Library of Congress

Hupa Shaman, 1923, courtesy Library of Congress

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Black Indians

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Black Indians

Black Indians

Native Americans in the Five Civilized Tribes sometimes owned African slaves. The Cherokee freed their slaves in 1866 and gave them full tribal citizenship. These former slaves were called tribal Freedmen.

Many Freedmen lived as Native Americans through the ensuing years, having adopted their culture and languages.

Today, Freedmen face roadblocks in tribal enrollment, since proving their bloodline depends upon the 1906 census called the Dawes Roll, which excluded Freedmen. This proof of bloodline is very important, since it is required to qualify for a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. The CDIB and tribal membership entitles the holder to Native American monies and benefits.  

Black Indian Family

Black Indian Family

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Captive Workers

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The Nation Robbing An Indian Chief of His Wife, courtesy www.johnhorse.com

The Nation Robbing An Indian Chief of His Wife, courtesy www.johnhorse.com

The slave trade was not confined to Africans in the early history of the U.S. In the 1700s, for instance, the Cherokee  raided other tribal territories and carried off prisoners who became their slaves. When they did not retain slaves for themselves, they sold them to traders.

In 1713, the South Carolina Assembly asked the Cherokee for help in conflicts with the Tuscaroras. Cherokee warriors obliged, and captured or killed about 1,000 of their enemy. Their captives were later sold at the auction block.

Colonial Slave Market

Colonial Slave Market

Women and children were far more likely to be captured and held as slaves than men, who were more apt to be killed in battle. Sometimes a woman or child would be ransomed back to freedom, but this was not typical. At least 2,000 Indians were slaves in South Carolina during colonial times.

Renard (Fox) an Indian Slave, circa 1732

Renard (Fox) an Indian Slave, circa 1732

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One Big Family

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Six Indian Chiefs at Roosevelt's 1905 Inaugural Parade, courtesy Library of Congress

Six Indian Chiefs at Roosevelt's 1905 Inaugural Parade, courtesy Library of Congress

Beginning shortly after the Civil War, the U.S. government realized that it needed to solve the “Indian Problem.” Debate raged for years concerning the capabilities of Indians, but eventually the consensus was that Indians could be assimilated into American culture.

Many people sincerely believed that Native Americans would be best served by adopting white culture. That meant owning their own land, farming and raising their own food, going to school, learning a trade, and learning English.

Assimilation also meant giving up spiritual practices, tribal customs such as communal ownership of land, and leaving behind traditional ways of dress, speaking, and relating to the greater world. Native Americans were pressured to join the U.S. culture, but only on its terms.
Learning Carpentry at Haskell Indian Junior College (1900-1924) courtesy Library of Congress

Learning Carpentry at Haskell Indian Junior College (1900-1924) courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Boys Doing Laundry, Carlisle School, 1901, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Boys Doing Laundry, Carlisle School, 1901, courtesy Library of Congress

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Teach Your Natives Well

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Book for Indian Mothers

Book for Indian Mothers

There was no subject at all, it seems, in which the Indian could not benefit from a little instruction. The pamphlet at the left (created by the Department of the Interior) began with a friendly letter from the commissioner of  Indian Affairs, Cato Sells.

It advised Indian mothers not to feed their babies on demand, but by the clock. It also discouraged strapping babies into the traditional cradle, so they could be carried on the mother’s back.

The pamphlet did warn about serious diseases rampant within Indian communities, like smallpox and consumption. People who might be infected with consumption (TB) were advised not to swallow their spit, as it could then carry the disease to the stomach and bowel. With more practicality, it advised all Indians to get vaccinated for smallpox.

Baby in Cradle, Department of Interior pamphlet

Baby in Cradle, Department of Interior pamphlet

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