Native American History
Origin Theories of Indigenous People
Bering Strait Theory:
- Suggests ancestors of Native peoples originated in Siberia.
- Crossed to Alaska via a land bridge (Beringia) over the Bering Strait.
- Proposed timeframe: 16,000 to 20,000 years ago (some archaeologists suggest 50,000 years ago).
- Increasingly challenged due to lack of sufficient archaeological evidence.
- Assumes the Bering Strait was the only possible route from Asia to North America.
- Alternative theories suggest coastal travel by boat.
- Genetic data is being analyzed to understand migration patterns (single wave vs. multiple migrations).
Indigenous Creation Stories:
- Some Native groups have creation stories that posit their origins in North America.
- Vine Deloria, Jr. (Dakota) challenged scientists to re-examine scientific theory through the ancestral world-view of Native Americans and to not dismiss oral traditions.
Archaeological Evidence:
- Improved dating techniques (radiocarbon tests) have been used on artifacts.
- Artifacts unearthed along the Savannah River in South Carolina are at least 50,000 years old, suggesting human habitation in North America predates the last ice age.
- Similar findings have been reported in other parts of the Americas.
Significance of Origin Theories:
- The Bering Strait theory has been used to discredit Indigenous land rights, portraying Native people as just an earlier set of immigrants.
- Native cultures were dynamic and changing over centuries before European arrival, with diverse adaptations to different environments.
- By 1492, North America was inhabited by millions of people with complex languages, technologies, and societies.
Initial Encounters: Discovery and Conquest
Christopher Columbus's arrival (1492):
- Columbus performed a ceremony on Guanahani Island (San Salvador) to claim the lands for Spain.
- He was authorized to take possession of lands not under Christian rulers.
- This followed a tradition of "discovery" and conquest.
Papal Bull Inter Cetera (1493):
- Pope Alexander VI granted Spain the right to conquer newly found and future discovered lands.
- Papal documents and 16th-century charters were used to justify colonization, dehumanizing Indigenous people and regarding their territories as inhabited only by "brute animals."
Doctrine of Discovery (DOD)
Became the legal foundation for the domination of Indigenous peoples by the United States and other nations.
The theological and political rationale behind appropriating Indigenous lands and resources.
Undermined the sovereignty of Indigenous nations.
Justified the African and Native slave trade, colonization, and genocides.
Johnson v. McIntosh (1823):
- The U.S. Supreme Court adopted the DOD into U.S. law.
- Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Christian people who "discovered" lands of "heathens" had the right of "ultimate dominion."
- Diminished Indian rights to complete sovereignty, granting them only the right to occupy their lands.
- This ruling remains in effect and is sometimes cited in legal decisions.
Timeline of Initial Encounters
- 1540: Hopi of Arizona and Huron of eastern Canada encountered Europeans.
- Late 1600s: Lakota of the Plains encountered Europeans.
- Mid-1700s: Wintu of Northern California and Unangan of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands encountered Europeans.
European Colonial Powers and Their Approaches
Spain:
- Considered Native people "pagans" and inferior.
- New Spain extended from Vancouver Island to the tip of South America, including the Mississippi River and Florida.
- Established St. Augustine, Florida (1565) and Santa Fe, New Mexico (1610).
- Sought wealth, converts, and slaves in the Southwest, ruling until 1821.
- Forced Indians to labor in mines, ranches, and public works but did not drive them from their territories.
- Missionaries aimed to convert Native people.
- Hostility developed with the Apache and Pueblo peoples, leading to revolts (e.g., the Pueblo revolt of 1680).
France:
- Also viewed Native peoples as pagan and inferior but were the most congenial.
- Primary interest was dominating the fur trade in Canada, requiring minimal land.
- Developed no permanent settlements in the interior and farmed little of mainland Canada.
- Depended on the friendship of Indian trappers and go-betweens for reciprocal economic benefits.
- The French integrated into Native life, adopting customs, dress, languages, and intermarrying.
- New France extended west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River and south from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
- Founded Quebec in 1608.
New Netherland (Dutch):
- Established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624, encompassing present-day New York City and parts of Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
- New Amsterdam grew on the southern tip of Manhattan Island.
- Initially negotiated for small pieces of land for trading posts.
- After the 1630s, shifted to agriculture and acquired larger chunks of Indian land through force and cajolery.
- The myth that the Lenape "sold" New York City for $24 is false; they signed a "lease" agreement.
- Warfare occurred between colonists and the Lenape, resulting in many deaths.
- In 1664, New Amsterdam passed to English control.
England:
- English colonists came to stay and transplant their civilization.
- Had little regard for Native peoples, whom they viewed as "savages" and "devil-worshippers."
- Wanted land for farming, disrupting Native economies and forcing tribes to move or assimilate.
- The British crown was unable to enforce uniform policy, leading to varied treatment of Indians.
- Indian affairs were put under the control of Indian superintendents in the mid-18th century, but lawless traders interfered with the system.
Russia:
- Established claims along the North Pacific Coast in the 1740s.
- Enslaved Aleut (Unangan) men, women, and children.
- Established a permanent settlement on Kodiak Island in 1783 to control Native people through bullying and torture.
- Maintained a fort in Bodega Bay, California, from 1812 to 1841.
- Ended rule in North America in 1867 when Russia ceded Alaska to the United States.
Sweden:
- Established a colony in present-day Delaware in 1638 by Peter Minuit.
- The New Sweden Company aimed to create an agricultural and fur-trading colony.
- Purchased lands that would become Delaware, Maryland, and part of Pennsylvania.
Native Perspectives and Early Encounters
Native leaders recognized the danger of being absorbed into European power struggles.
Most Natives found it impossible to maintain neutrality, influenced by bribes, trade alliances, and old enmities.
European settlement led to discrimination, exploitation, and wholesale destruction of Indian populations through disease and warfare.
Native Worldview:
- Differed from the European worldview, as Native people saw knowledge as infinite.
- New knowledge was accepted if useful.
- Europeans and their goods were initially accepted, but used according to Native cultural norms.
Early Positive Encounters:
- First arrivals were received with hospitality.
- Massasoit and Wahunsonacock (Powhatan) offered food and shelter and helped the English survive.
- Both maintained peace with colonists until their deaths.
Increasing Hostilities and Conflicts
English colonists pressured Native people to adopt European lifestyles and Christianity, often using repressive measures.
Deceit was used to acquire Indian lands.
As English settlements strengthened, they forced Indians to obey their laws and submit to their demands.
Almost every colony in New England witnessed Indian-white conflicts.
Many Indians resisted the seizure of their lands.
Key Conflicts:
- The Pequot War (1637) and King Philip’s War (1675–1676) led to bitter defeat for the Indians.
- Wars in Virginia (1622 and 1644) led to the decline of Indian political power in that region.
- By the end of the 17th century, tribes along the Atlantic seaboard were weakened by disease, destruction, dispersion, or subjugation.
- The Tuscarora War (1711–1712) and Yamassee War (1715) resulted in significant losses for Native populations.
The Fur Trade and Its Impact
The fur trade was a major business enterprise in North America.
European fashions demanded furs for hats, coats, and trimmings.
The French, English, and Dutch competed for exclusive trading privileges with Native groups.
Initially, the trade benefited Indians with guns, metal tools, and cloth.
Over time, traders' goods became necessities, disrupting Native economies and diminishing resources.
Native Americans became dependent on Europeans for commodities.
Exploitation and Land Loss:
- European traders sought Indian lands as well as pelts.
- Unscrupulous traders swindled Indians out of furs and land, often forcing tribes to trade under threat.
- Tribes gave up valuable land to cancel debts.
- Rival European traders manipulated tribal peoples into supporting their country.
- The increasing demand for furs led to tribal competition and intertribal conflicts.
- Wars between European powers exacerbated these conflicts.
Anglo-French Rivalry and The French and Indian War
Culminated in the French and Indian War (1754–1763).
Both the French and British competed to secure the allegiance of the Iroquois and Algonquian tribes through gifts.
The British acquired thousands of Indian allies through significant gifts.
Treaty of Paris (1763):
- The French lost control of Canada to England.
- The British reduced gift-giving to Indians and instituted high prices for goods, angering tribes.
Pontiac's Rebellion (1763):
- Led by Pontiac of the Ottawa, Guyashota of the Seneca, and others.
- Multi-tribal assault destroyed British forts west of the Appalachians, except for Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Pitt.
- Captured nine English forts and killed about 1,000 settlers.
- Pontiac agreed to peace on October 3, 1763.
Proclamation of 1763
- The British government forbade white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in an effort to avert further trouble with the Indians.
- Boundary line set along the Appalachian crests: immigrant settlements to the east, Native communities to the west.
- The British dispatched troops to evict squatters and burn their cabins.
- The British government itself planned to extend military outposts beyond the mountains.
- Settlers and land speculators ignored British regulations, invading the Indians’ domain in the “Old Northwest”.
Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768)
- Algonquian and Iroquoian representatives met with British officials to sort out land matters and to set a new “permanent” boundary west of the original line.
- Soon, the boundaries outlined in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix were erased.
- Native people from the Great Lakes to communities in the south struggled to hold on to their homelands.
- The British ministry argued that these outposts were for colonial defense and as such should be paid for by the colonies. From the American perspective, this amounted to a tax on the colonies to pay for a matter of Imperial regulation that was opposed to the interests of the colonies.
- These and other grievances led to the American Revolution.
American Revolution and Native Americans
Most Indians tried to stay neutral in the British civil war.
Aggressive Americans posed a greater threat to their land and way of life than a distant king.
Indian Involvement:
- The American War of Independence was an Indian war for independence as well.
- The new American Congress initially tried to secure Indian neutrality; later, it tried to engage them in the service of the United Colonies.
- Some Oneida and Tuscarora factions sided with the Americans.
- Most of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy took the British side.
- Individuals within nations chose their side.
- Southern tribes like the Creek, Cherokee, and Chickasaw supported the British, while the Catawba aided the Americans.
Consequences for Natives:
- Natives paid a high price for their involvement during and after the Revolution.
- Tribes and confederacies split in their allegiances.
- Colonial troops invaded Native communities, killing residents, burning houses, and ruining crops, using the war as an excuse to take more Native lands.
Treaty of Paris (1783) and Its Aftermath
The treaty ended the Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain.
Tribes allied with the British were not present at the signing.
The Crown recognized American independence and granted the Americans title to the entire “Northwest Territory”, trading Native property without their consent.
The Crown made no provisions for Indian allies who supported their cause.
British officials and the Americans both considered Natives as incidental to the past and future of North America.
Post-Revolutionary Period:
- The British extended favors to those Indians who moved to Canada.
- Indians who stayed were left to fend for themselves with the new American nation.
- New York Indians were treated harshly due to their British alliance.
- The British held onto frontier posts around the Great Lakes, trading English goods for Indian furs.
Post-Revolutionary Conflicts and Land Cessions
The U.S. claimed all land east of the Mississippi River after the Revolution.
Settlers poured onto Indian lands, ignoring Indian rights.
Indian Resistance:
- Chiefs like Little Turtle (Miami) reacted to land-hungry settlers.
- Between 1783 and 1790, Little Turtle and allies killed about 1,500 settlers.
- Little Turtle defeated General Josiah Harmar's force in 1790 and General Arthur St. Clair in 1791.
Treaty of Greenville (1795):
- Following defeat at Fallen Timbers in 1794, Indians were forced to sign away huge tracts of land.
- Cessions included present-day Ohio and part of Indiana.
- Dissatisfaction with land cessions led to leaders like Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (the Prophet) advocating for a united Indian front.
Tecumseh, The War of 1812, and Continued Land Loss
Tecumseh believed only a united front could withstand American power.
While Tecumseh was away, William Henry Harrison burned Tippecanoe to the ground.
The British listened to Tecumseh's complaints and hinted at support against American intruders.
War of 1812:
- A war between some of Tecumseh's followers and American troops began in 1811 and lasted through the War of 1812.
- Some Indians were pro-American, but most sided with the British.
- Tribes in the Old Northwest became auxiliaries for the British forces.
- Tecumseh became a brigadier general in the British army and was shot at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.
Southern Theater:
- A portion of the Creek called the Red Sticks fought against the Americans from 1813 to 1814.
- Andrew Jackson led military operations, leveling Creek towns.
- The tribe was defeated, ceding twenty-three million acres (nearly all Creek lands in Alabama).
Post-War of 1812:
- Tribes in the Northeast and Southeast, deprived of British allies, were coerced into signing treaties extinguishing their title to land.
- Tribes continued to occupy greatly reduced portions of their ancestral lands.
- The government forcibly removed the tribes to the west of the Mississippi River when Andrew Jackson became president in 1828.
Transformation of U.S. Federal Indian Policy - Early U.S. Policy (Late 1700s)
The U.S. government treated Indian tribes as independent sovereign nations.
Sought allegiance and support and negotiated with them as equals.
Articles of Confederation (1781):
- Addressed how to handle affairs between Indian nations and the United States.
- Established regional departments overseen by American commissioners.
Second Continental Congress (1775):
- Created three Indian departments: Northern, Middle, and Southern.
- Headed by commissioners reporting directly to Congress (e.g., Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin).
- Commissioners responsible for winning support during the American Revolution.
Articles of Confederation (1781):
- Stipulated that Indian affairs were to be handled by the national government by 1786.
- Three departments were organized into two regions, headed by superintendents reporting to the secretary of war.
Evolving Structure:
- The basic structure of what became the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) began to emerge.
- Indian agents in the field reported to superintendents, who reported to the secretary of war, who reported to the president.
- Affairs focused on negotiating treaties, acquiring land, regulating Indian trade, and arranging payments.
Constitutional Authority and Treaties
The U.S. Constitution gave Congress plenary power over Indian affairs.
Treaty-making was the principal instrument of federal Indian policy from 1778 to 1868.
- The first treaty was with the Delaware (Lenape) Indians in 1778.
- Nearly two billion acres of Native lands were lost through treaties.
Colonial Treaties (1600–1776):
- Period of independence and equality for most Indians.
- Indians held positions of power in the Western Hemisphere.
- Few European colonists.
- England and France sought military assistance from Indians and trade relations.
Treaties of Alliance and Peace (1776–1816):
- Indians still strong militarily, numerically, and economically.
- Indians could choose which European powers to align with.
- Increasing need to clarify boundaries between Indian government and U.S. arose.
- U.S. government recognized Indians owned their land in order to avoid constant warfare.
- Prevented powerful Indian nations from joining forces against the U.S.
Land Cessions, Removal Treaties, and Western Treaties
The Beginning of Land Cessions (1784–1817):
- Land cessions began in New England and mid-Atlantic states in exchange for annuities and services.
- Treaties began to legally extinguish Indian title to land.
- Methods included drawing boundaries between Indian Country and U.S. territory and securing “rights of way” and land for military forts and trading posts.
- The concept of reservation was introduced into American policy.
Treaties of Removal (1817–1846):
- The departures of France, England, and Spain diminished the possibility of Indians regaining power.
- The primary goal of the U.S. in making treaties became the removal of Indians from their lands.
- The primary goal was the removal of Indian nations in the East to lands west of the Mississippi River (now Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma).
Western Treaties (1846–1868):
- A new policy forced Indians to smaller, well-defined reservations.
Education Provisions in Treaties:
- The government began involvement in Native education, justified through the exchange of education for Native ownership of land.
- (1794) The first U.S. treaty to contain a provision for education was the 1794 treaty with the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge Indians.
- Early methods for educating Native Americans included forced assimilation.
- Missionaries were initially funded by the federal government to teach the “habits and arts of civilization” but were replaced by federal operations after legislation prohibited support for religious organizations.
- Congress passed the Civilization Fund Act in 1819, which provided annual allocations for the education of Indians. In the beginning, the funds were given to missionaries to allow them to expand their network of schools to teach the "habits and arts of civilization" to Indians.
Early Laws and Indian Intercourse Acts
Early laws of the U.S. government recognized the independent character of Native American tribes.
- Policy confirming Indian land ownership on areas they occupied, which could not be taken without their consent.
Indian Intercourse Acts (1790, 1793, 1796, and 1802):
- Governed Indian relations and attempted to control trade relationships between Indians and Euro-American traders.
- Specified geographic boundaries separating “Indian Country” from white settlements to restrain lawless frontier whites.
- Laws governed fur trade and sought to prevent the use of liquor by traders among Indians.
Indian Intercourse Act of 1790:
- Section 4 stipulated that no sale of lands made by any Indians would be valid unless executed at a public treaty held under the authority of the United States.
Land claims pursued by American Indian tribes on the East Coast during the twentieth century rested on the Nonintercourse Act of 1790.
Government Trading Houses and The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
1795 the government attempted to compete with the British and private fur companies by creating a system of government-operated trading houses.
- Seventeen trade factories were established between 1795 and 1821 in an attempt to help Indians secure goods at fair prices
- The system suffered heavy losses during the War of 1812.
By 1822, Congress closed down the factories after facing criticisms from Indians, agents, and private trading interests.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787:
- States that, the utmost faith shall always be observed toward Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent.
- Aims to prevent wrongs done to them and also preserve peace and friendship with them.
- One of the main duties of the superintendents was to arrange for treaty negotiations in which the United States could acquire land within a legal framework, and the Indian people would get something in return.
- Superintendents were also responsible for distribution of goods, money, and services to Indians as specified in treaties.
Bureaucracy, Annuities, and Indian Hostilities
The governmental process became increasingly bureaucratic as more and more treaties were signed.
- Treaties stipulated that Indian title to land was exchanged for a variety of things, most often money, goods, and/or services. It was often stipulated that a specified amount of money was to be distributed for a specified number of years, sometimes forever. The money payment was called an annuity.
Treaties stipulated money, goods, and services, and the procedure for appropriating money from Congress, acquiring the goods, non-Indians encroaching on Indian land, Indians demanding reparation for damages from attacks by Indians, etc.
The secretary was authorized to make payments to non-Indians whose property was damaged by the Indian attack. The money was to come from money owed to Indians as a result of land transfers. This meant that in addition to seeing that each tribe received its annuities, goods, and services, the secretary of war had to assess the validity of claims and make arrangements for payments from treaty money.
The secretary could not keep up with the work. By 1816, the War Department was eighteen years behind in settling the accounts of the Indian departments.
Creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
- 1824, John C. Calhoun upgraded the Indian Department to bureau status and appointed Thomas L. McKenny to handle the day-to-day business.
- Calhoun's reasoning was to create an independent branch in the War Department.
- John C. Calhoun, mentions “the Bureau of Indian Affairs” (BIA) for the first time in his letter of appointment to McKenny
- 1832, Congress passed an act that legalized McKenny's position to that of commissioner of Indian affairs
- 1834, Congress enacted a statute. The Act of 1834 is therefore considered the “organic act” of the Indian Office (the law by which an organization exists).
- This meant that the commissioner of Indian affairs could handle the daily business of the Indian Office under the supervision of the secretary of war.
- The Indian Office remained part of the War Department until 1849, when Congress created the Department of the Interior and transferred the Indian Office to its jurisdiction.
Shift in Government Policy
- Initially, the government was concerned with peace and land acquisition.
- By 1803, the policy switched from peaceful coexistence to aggressive destruction of the Indian way of life.
- This was to be accomplished either by the physical removal of Indians or by making Indians indistinguishable from white Americans.
- Both removal and assimilation became government policy for many years.
Influence of Religious Organizations, Assimilation, and Removal Policy
During the 1820s, government officials and religious and reform organizations who argued for the assimilation of Native Americans merged assimilation and moving eastern Native peoples to lands west of the Mississippi River.
President Thomas Jefferson first suggested the removal policy in 1803.
The Jeffersonian generation initially believed in civilizing Indians through secular and religious education to transform them into individual farmers, and that civilization would incorporate them into white society.
- Tribal and personal life disintegrated and there was renewed warfare, exposure to European diseases, and the influence of liquor.
- Some Jeffersonians argued that Indians in the East should be removed to west of the Mississippi River, where the “civilizing” program that failed in the East could be carried on.
* During the Jefferson era, there were three unsuccessful attempts to remove voluntarily Southeastern tribal groups to unsettled portions of the Louisiana Territory.
President James Monroe and John Quincy Adams were unwilling to use military force to remove tribes.
Doctrine of Discovery and U.S. Legal System
1823, the Doctrine of Discovery was adopted into U.S. law by the Supreme Court in the case Johnson v. McIntosh.
- Chief Justice John Marshall made references to claiming the “unoccupied lands” of America rightfully belonged to discovering Christian European nations. The term “unoccupied lands” referred to “the lands in America which, when discovered, were ‘occupied’ by Indians’ but ‘unoccupied’ by Christians.”
U.S. federal policy regarding Native peoples has been based on the DOD, even after the U.S. became independent of England. The new lawmakers chose to continue with the tenets of white Christian dominion and manifest destiny.
City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005):
- The U.S. Supreme Court cited the Discovery Doctrine when ruling against the Oneida who disputed the taxation of recently reacquired ancestral lands. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited the Discovery Doctrine
Today, many faith communities have called for repudiation of the doctrine including: the United Methodist Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Episcopal Church, the World Council of Churches, several Quaker meetings, and the United Church of Christ.
Cherokee Cases and the Indian Removal Act - Cherokee Cases and State Jurisdiction
From 1828 to 1830, Georgia passed laws imposing state jurisdiction over Cherokee Territory.
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832):
- The Supreme Court considered tribes to be largely autonomous governments retaining inherent powers not expressly ceded away by the tribes or extinguished by Congress.
Worcester v. Georgia:
- federal plenary power: “The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation is, by our Constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States”;
- trust relationship: “From the commencement of our government, Congress has passed acts to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indians, which treat them as nations, respect their rights, and manifest a firm purpose to afford that protection which treaties stipulate”;
- reserved rights: “The Indian nations possessed a full right to the lands they occupied until that right should be extinguished by the United States with their consent”;
- general exclusion of state law from Indian Country: “The Cherokee nation … is a distinct community, occupying its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force.”
Southeast: Settler Demands and the Indian Removal Act
Settlers demanded that tribes with extensive landholdings be cleared out of their way.
President Andrew Jackson supported removal, declaring that the only hope for the Southeastern tribes would be for them to give up all their land and move west of the Mississippi River.
- Jackson backed an Indian removal bill in Congress despite opposition citing treaty violations.
Indian Removal Act of 1830:
- Called for the forcible removal of Indian people from their homelands in the eastern United States to tracts of land west of the Mississippi.
- The act, designed to use Congress's exclusive authority over Indian affairs to gain further land cessions, spoke of securing the “consent” of Native nations to remove them to the West.
Tribes in the Northeast were also coerced to sign removal treaties.