Many Feathers and Much Paint Don't Make an Indian

Indian Lectures - an educated Indian of the Pequot tribe, by the name of Gos-kuk-wa-na-kon-ni-di-yu, is delivering lectures in Ne York, on the Indian origin and character, and on the wars and treaties made by the red men with this country, the avails of which will go to aid the erection of an Indian academy. The Pequots were once the most powerful tribe of New England, and inhabited Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. They waged several bloody wars with the early settlers of those colonies. 1837 Feb 24, Public Ledger  We have seen an estimate in the Eastern papers, from which it appears, that the business of killing Indians in the South during this last year will cost the US not less than $15,000.000. [What cost $15,000,000. in 1837 would cost $329,841,781.00 in 2017] 1837 Feb 28, The Courier Journal 

starving Indians to die off like dogs up in Dakota. 1890 Feb 21, Wichita Eagle 

Tribes in Virginia in line for big changes after gaining federal recognition Posted: Tuesday, January 30, 2018     It's official -- there are now 573 federally recognized tribes in the United States. Some 400 years after welcoming the first settlers at Jamestown in Virginia, the Chickahominy Tribe, the Chickahominy Tribe - Eastern Division, the Monacan Nation, the Nansemond Tribe, the Rappahannock Tribe and the Upper Mattaponi Tribe gained formal recognition of their status on Monday. That's when President Donald Trump signed H.R.984, the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act, into law. “Today we celebrate a decade of hard work,” Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia), the sponsor of the House version of the bill, said in a press release on Monday. "Our ‘first contact' tribes of the Commonwealth of Virginia will finally receive the recognition they deserve." "Virginia’s tribes have loved and served this nation, and today our c

      Portland, Jan 18th - The following dispatch from Pendleton, dated 17th, via Walla Walla the 18th, is just received: Aps, the remaining Indians convicted of complicity in the murder of whites last summer, was hanged here today. The same precautions were observed to prevent trouble. A number of whites and Indians attended the execution. Several prominent Indians addressed the whites, assuring them of peace in the future. Two hours before the execution "Aps"  big farewell to his people. He said he died as an innocent man; he had killed no one; abjured his people to profit by his fate, to always remain steadfast friends to the whites and not harbor ill feeling towards them. In an interview with the principal chiefs, all displayed great anxiety to have it understood that they had no intention to retaliate, but would remain peaceful. They ask for even justice, and that the wholesale plundering of their horses by lawless whites be stopped. Regarding Commissioner Hoyt's re

Indians Must Cut Hair (January 1902) Commissioner Jones… hopes by the order to assist the wards of the government in their advancement toward civilization. It is addressed to the various Indian agents throughout the country and directs them to induce the male Indians under their charge to cut their hair, using force only when necessary. He says it will require considerable tact and perseverance to carry out the order, but suggests the withholding of supplies from recalcitrant Indians until they comply, and the discharge of those who are employed by the government unless they appear with shorn locks. No long haired Indians are to be employed. If any Indians “become obstreperous about the matter,” a short confinement in the guardhouse after clipping their hair, he thinks, will effect a cure. 1902, Jan 17, The Inter Ocean  1902 Jan 21, The Ottawa Daily Republic 

January 15, 1877 Standing Bear, a Ponca sub-chief, and White Eagle, Chief of the Poncas, and more than 700 others, refused to move to a reservation because it was within lands already given to the Lakota. After unscrupulous tactics were used to forcibly remove them from their treaty-protected homeland, they were marched to Kansas, and then Oklahoma, where up to a quarter perished. Standing Bear and a small band of people ran away from the reservation, where his people were still living in old military tents and freezing, sneaking through Oklahoma, Kansas and all of Nebraska, until reaching near the top of the state. They were captured and put on trail, where he was found to be "a person" under the law. He and his band could stay. He then was part of the first Indian-Indian lawsuit, where he sued the Lakota for the return of his land. Eventually, the Poncas were allowed to live on either reservation (Oklahoma or Nebraska), and some traveled between the two. Standing B

The Indian has Passed, Is Department Verdict 1925, Jan 13 - The Evening News        Washington, Jan 13 - Indians are all civilized; the wild redskin is no more.       "The tepee, most necessary of all the furnishments of the traditional aborigine, has vanished," the Indian Bureau of the Department of the Interior announces.        Battlegrounds of Geronimo, fiercest of the white man's antagonists, were the scene of the last stand of Indian life. The announcement says:                                     "Plans have been inaugurated for the erection of                                       houses to replace the tepees occupied by the                                       Apaches of Arizona, this tribe being the last to                                       give up their aboriginal mode of living."  1925, Jan 13 - The Evening News 

"security" for "freedom" can be found in the miserable plight of the once-proud Indian tribes of North America.       It proves that there is no acceptable alternatives to liberty and that the state cannot raise a standard of living, educate, or elevate. It can only take from one pocket and put into another, with the usual brokerage charge for the transaction.       Major problems of education, health and economic development of the American Indian remain unsolved, although the federal government has been in the Indian business for the past 185 years.       The Continental Congress declared its jurisdiction over Indian affairs in 1775, and the federal government began making payments to Indians in 1789.       Since then it has spent more than 3 billion on Indian programs. Of this, $1.1 billion has been spend during the past decade. If the present trend continues, Congress soon will be spending $200 million a year on Indian programs. ...     1960 Jan 11, The Br

Time To End 'Manifest Destiny" by Richard Reeves 1985 Jan 28, The Republic         New York - President Reagan's sweeping inaugural address was in the grand tradition of the meanest and most foolish rhetoric in American history: updated Manifest Destiny.       We are "this last best hope of mankind on earth," our president told us. "God - is the author of our song," our president told us. We have been called upon by him "to pass that dream on to a waiting and hopeful world."     Hope, Hope, world! We sinners, the Americans are coming to save you whether you want to be saved or not. Redemption is near! “We are a country manifestly called by the Almighty to a destiny that Greece and Rome in the days of their pride might have envied.” Those words weren’t from Reagan, although they could have been. Andrew Jackson said them in 1824.  “It is our ‘Manifest Destiny’ to lead and rule all other nations.” That was James Gordon Bennett, the edi

Reservations Are Last Frontier  1983 Jan 31 Arizona Republic        Editor:       Secretary of Interior James Watt, through his controversial comparison of Indian reservations with the worst socialistic failure, really opened a can of worms.       Native-Americans throughout the United States of America responded immediately and strongly.       We reservation Indians are obviously the first to be aware of our social problems. But a few hundred years of promises and broken treaties taught us to be wary and suspicious of the "Great White Father in Washington." It seems that each new president decides his own policies and what is best for the Indians.       President Reagan has not formulated any actual policy, but has steadily removed federal help designed to help the Indian tribes become more self-sufficient (housing, job development, health care, etc.)       As stated by Navajo Chairman Zah, we do not want a hand-out but a hand for, dismal as they might be, our r

Watt Remark Draws Anger From Indians   1983 Jan 20, The Pittsburgh Press       Washington – Angry Indian leaders are calling for the ouster of James Watt, accusing the Interior secretary of a racial slur by saying that Indian reservations represent the “failure of socialism.”       Watt said today his remarks were intended to help Indians “get the federal government off their backs” and end a century of shameful treatment by Washington bureaucrats.       But Rex Evans, executive director of the Nashville-based United South and Eastern Tribes, said there is a “ major outcry going across Indian country to call for Watt’s removal. It’s the most genocidal racial slur we’ve ever heard from a government official.”       James Billie, a Seminole Indian leader, labeled Watt’s position on reservations “racist” and also called for Watt’s resignation.        Watt said yesterday on TV that 1.4 million American Indians living on government-maintained reservations experience overwhelmin

Vine Deloria's battle to save the 'real' Indians from the myths and stereotypes of history  1983 Dec 14, Chicago Tribune       “ It is a well-known fact that if you went to Washington in an Indian costume for the inaugural, they would put you on a float and you’d get invited to a dance. And if you went to get a federal job that called for an Indian, and you looked more ‘Indian’ than the other candidate, you got the job.” – Vine Deloria, Jr.   1983 Dec 14, Chicago Tribune 

Minority achievements lacking  equal recognition in textbooks 1976 Feb 20, Newport Navalog    U.S. Army is Accused Of Trying To Whitewash Indian Massacre At Wounded Knee, 85 Years Ago 1976 Jan 1 The Cumberland News       Pierre, SD – A national coordinator of the American Indian Movement said this week the US Army is using a “hypocritical, false report” to try to justify the deaths of 146 Sioux Indian men, women and children at Wounded Knee, SD, 85 years ago.       “Frankly, I was shocked and struck by disbelief at the Army report that said the Wounded Knee incident in 1890 was not a massacre,” Vernon Bellecourt said.       The Army report released concluded that it is unfair and inaccurate to describe the incident on the Pine Ridge Reservation as a massacre.       Historians view Wounded Knee as the last fighting of the long Indian wars of the 19th century. It culminated efforts by the Army to force Indians, including a group led by a chief named Big Foot, to return t

Indians Need Good Orator by Don Oakley 1973 Jan 6, The Salem News        One thing the American Indian movement could use today is an orator with the power to articulate the soul of his people and, as Martin Luther Kind did as a black man, touch the hearts of all men.       Eloquence at one time was as much as requirement for Indian leaders as was prowess in battle, and their white opponents were not without their appreciation.       Not so very long ago, for example, the famous lament of Logan for his massacred family was required reading in public schools. But there is any number of other examples over the past four centuries of history.       Consider this statement by the Mohawk sachem Hendrick before the Battle of Lake George in 1755, in which the Mohawks reluctantly supported the British against the French. Looking despairingly at his small band of warriors, he said with a terseness worthy of a general of Caesar:       “If they are to fight, they are too few; if the

1973 - Rep. Benjamin Hanley, D-Window Rock (Arizona House) was upset about what he terms derogatory references to Indians in history books. He told the House members "Some of the texts have referred to Indians as savages and heathens and this has caused concern in schools at Window Rock." In a move to stop it, he tried to amend a minor measure on the floor to forbid school boards from buying texts which are "discriminatory" in nature... But the amendment was defeated. Some opponents said they didn't like the idea of rewriting history books..  1973 March 28, Arizona Republic  History gives distorted view of Indians, educator asserts 1973 July 27, Fort Collins Coloradoan       Those reading United States history could assume either that there were no Indians here when European settlers began arriving or that the Indians were not important.       This was one of the statements of Robert Delaney this week in one of the series of programs on the American We

American Indian is Finding More Sympathetic Ear in Modern America by Donald Finley  Part 3 of 3 in a Series  1973 Aug 1 Lebanon Daily News        Washington - Chiefs of the Delaware Tribe of Indians sat down with government agents in Washington on May 6, 1854, to sign a treaty ceding more than 550,000 acres of tribal lands in Kansas to the United States.              The treaty required the government to sell the land at public auction and turn the proceeds over to the Delawares.       But the United States did not keep that treaty promise. Instead of auctioning the land, the tract was appraised and sold at the appraised value of about $2 an acre.        Redress was more than 100 years in coming. The government’s Indian Claims Commission ICC ruled in 1969 that the United States must make things right for the Delaware Tribe.       The ICC ruled that the land was worth $5 an acre in 1854, not $2 an acre, and should have been sold for $2.5 million instead of the $1.058 mi

Sioux Treaty Claims Still Unresolved by Donald Finley Part 2 of 3         1973 July 31 Lebanon Daily News              Washington – Ninety-seven years ago Lt Col George Armstrong Custer made his last stand.       The Civil War hero and all 261 officers and men of his 7th US Cavalry Regiment were wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors under Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory on June 25, 1876.       The battle, one of the US Army’s most ignominious defeats, stemmed from violations of Indian treaty agreements by white men and the federal government after gold was discovered in South Dakota’s Black Hills on lands that an 1868 treaty had set aside for the sole use of the Sioux.       Enraged by Custer’s defeat, the government ignored the 1868 treaty and took the Black Hills and other big slices of land from the Sioux, who were relegated to smaller reservations on less desirable lands in South Dakota.       Fifty years ago,