Transcript 19th Century Indian Territory

Native American Indians
&
Oklahoma
Pre-19th Century Indian Territory
• Clovis – 9,000 B.C.E.
• Folsom – 8,500 B.C.E.
• Early Agricultural Settlements – 5,000 B.CE. To
500 A.D.
• Mississippian Period – Spiro Mounds
• Wichita – Southwestern Oklahoma
• Caddo – Southeastern Oklahoma
• Pawnee – North Central Oklahoma
• Plains Apache (Kiowa-Apache) – Western OK
Horse Culture
• Starting in the 1500s, the Kiowa,
Comanche, Cheyenne and Arapaho
receive the horse in the northern plains,
they begin to move south, following the
buffalo herds, ultimately arriving in the
area including what is now western
Oklahoma, but also encompassed parts of
modern NM, TX, CO, and KS.
Great Plains Region
Osage
• Osage – Oral history indicates they followed the
buffalo into northeastern Oklahoma for many
generations (maybe thousands of years).
• Forced southwest after interacting with the
French near St. Louis.
• Chief Clermont is the namesake for Claremore.
• First white settlement in I.T. 1796 near Salina.
1820s-1830s
• Arrival of Southeastern Tribes via removal
and trail of tears, or the long walk.
• Many stories about how bad this
experience really was. Thousands died.
• When the Cherokee arrive, the Osages
immediately start fighting them.
• Fort Gibson has to be established (1824)
to keep peace, receive removed people,
and begin western military action.
1830s-1865
• So-called golden era of the 5 "Civilized"
Tribes
• The “civilized” term is applied by nonIndians to tribes for the period in which the
five tribes from the SE formed
governments, built schools, allowed
missionaries into the nations, printed
newspapers, established trade, etc. in
Indian Territory.
Why did being “civilized” not
help?
• Even though the Cherokees did all they
could to be perceived as civilized, that did
not stop them from being removed to
Indian Territory where they had to start
over again.
• Then, the nations were destroyed again in
the Civil War.
1861-1865
• Civil war in Indian Territory was complicated
• Tribal members fought on both sides for different
reasons
• The ones that fought on the South's side wound
up penalizing the whole tribe as the five tribes'
land holdings were cut in half by the federal
government.
• Opening up more removals and setting the
stage for allotments and land runs.
Post-Civil War 1860s
• Treaties force tribes to allow railroads to
cross tribal boundaries.
• Carpetbaggers, settlers, and lawlessness
follow.
• Without any real federal jurisdiction, and
tribal jurisdiction with limited powers,
Indian Territory is the Wild West.
Medicine Lodge of 1867
• Begins the process of confining the Kiowa,
Cheyenne, Comanche, and Arapaho to
reservations.
• Reservation period is a dark chapter in
American History that includes the corrupt
agents who did not provide adequate
support materials for the people, and the
beginning of the federal attacks on
traditional lifeways.
1860s through 1880s
• The end of the Plains Indian wars in which
the "un-civilized" Plains Tribes are brought
in and put on reservations or sent to prison
in Florida.
• Battle of the Washita - Custer attacks
peaceful Cheyenne camp in what is now
western Oklahoma.
• The people are treated very much like
livestock during this time period.
Standing Bear
• 183? – 1908
• Ponca
• In 1879, successfully
argued in U.S.
Federal Court that
Native Americans
“are persons within
the meaning of the
law”.
• 1st Civil Rights Activist
Boarding School Movement
• Begins after the Civil War as Christians, with
what they perceive as good intentions, advocate
governmental assignment of Indian children to
boarding schools.
• Some youth had good experiences.
• Others suffered psychological, physical, cultural,
and long-term spiritual damage.
• Varying experiences: good, bad, tolerable, only
option during depression.
1883
• Courts of Indian Offenses established by
Federal Government, to be carried out by
agents.
• Bans all traditional ceremonies, making
criminals out of medicine people,
ceremonial leaders and participants.
• Tribal traditions go underground and are
kept active in secret or under the guise of
Christian activities.
Quanah Parker (Comanche)
• 1845-1911
• Refused to accept
Medicine Lodge Treaty
• Fought on to the Battle of
Adobe Walls in TX
Panhandle (1874).
• Symbolized cultural
synthesis
• Advanced modern form of
the Native American
Church
Dawes Act (1887)
• Provided for the allotting of collectively held tribal
lands to individual Indians.
• Once people were enrolled and allotted land, the
rest was opened up for sale or settlement.
Beginning of “detribalization process”.
• Strickland notes this process “transformed many
of these Indian people from proud, prosperous,
self-reliant citizens of their own small republics
into landless manipulated outcasts in a white
state” (36).
1890s
• Allotment period fraught with logistical
inconsistencies, racism, and exploitation of
Native people's misunderstanding of land
ownership.
• Descendants are still impacted by full bloods of
the period who enrolled as ¼ or 1/8 so they
would have control over their land.
• Federal benefits are denied to those less than
¼.
Chitto Harjo (Muscogee-Creek)
• 1846 – 1912
• Protested allotments.
• Defied the federal
courts and the U.S.
Army in their attempts
to enforce enrollment.
• Crazy Snake rebellion
• Exploits
sensationalized
Redbird Smith
• 1850 – 1918
• Kee-too-wah
traditionalist
• Protested allotment to
U.S. Senators,
showing them the
Cherokee land patent
given to his greatgrandfather at treaty
signing.
1890s
• Land runs (1889 – 1893)
• Territory unassigned to tribes after the
allotments opened for settlement.
• Once vast tribal domains were carved into
farm parcels and town plots within a very
short period of time (10 to 15 years).
• Hence, contemporary American Indians
not thrilled about celebrating land runs.
1907
•With Oklahoma
statehood,
tribal governments
are abolished.
Statehood Sentiments
• “Statehood was a bitter culmination of
decades of conflict and of self-righteous
programs to transform Indian Territory into
a white commonwealth and make the
American Indian a red farmer.”
• “Few whites ever understood the depth of
the Indians’ agony at the passing of their
nationhood.”
– Rennard Strickland, 54.
20th Century
• 1918 – With great distinction, American
Indians serve in World War I
• 1924 – Indian Citizenship Act
• 1930s – “Indian New Deal”
• Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
• Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (1934)
• Johnson O’Malley Act (1934)
Indian Reorganization Act
• The Indian Reorganization Act of June 18,
1934, also known as the Wheeler-Howard Act
or informally, the Indian New Deal, was a U.S.
federal legislation which secured certain rights to
Native Americans, including Alaska Natives. [1]
These include a reversal of the Dawes Act 's
privatization of common holdings of American
Indians and a return to local self-government on
a tribal basis (442).
• Two sides: (Traditional vs. Corporate Governmental structure)
Johnson O’Malley Act
• The Johnson-O’Malley act of 1934 was passed
on April 16th, 1934, to subsidize education,
medical attention, and other services provided
by States or Territories to Indians living within
their borders. The act came about as a federal
aid program during the Indian New Deal of the
1930’s to help offset costs of tax-exempt Indians
making use of State-owned and funded schools,
hospitals, and other services.
Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act
• The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936,
also known as the Thomas-Rogers Act, is a
United States federal law that extended of the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 which sought
to return some form of tribal government to the
many tribes in Indian Territory. This act
extended the law to include those tribes within
the boundaries of the state of Oklahoma which
had been divided up by a series of land
allotments known as the Oklahoma land runs.
1940s
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1940s
Boarding schools continue
Tribes reorganizing
With continued distinction, American
Indians serve in WWII.
–Thunderbird Division
–Codetalkers
20th Century
• 1950s – Urban Relocation Program in
which Native people are removed to urban
areas and given trade type jobs.
• 1950s – Tribal terminations
• 1960s – American Indian Movement
– Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, BIA Takeover
– brought awareness to Native
American issues
1970s
• New Federal Programs
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Housing
Education
Job Training
Tribal Governments Formed
Re-recognition of terminated tribes
Tribes begin to rebuild their governmental services
systems.
– ARPA (1979) Archaeological Resources Protection
Act
Indian Self-Determination Act
(1975)
• Public Law 93-638, or the Indian SelfDetermination and Education Assistance Act of
1975, often referred to simply as the Indian
Self-Determination Act, enacted authorization
for the Secretaries of the Interior and of Health,
Education and Welfare and some other
government agencies to enter into contract with
and make grants directly to federally recognized
Indian tribes.
1980s
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National Indian Gaming Association Forms
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988)
National Indian Gaming Commission
American Indian gaming now a $20 Billion
industry.
1990s
• NAGPRA – Native American Graves and
Repatriation Act (1990)
• IACA – Indian Arts and Crafts Act (1990)
• Irony of federal language preservation
programs.
2000s
• Economic Development
• Citizen Potawatomi Nation
– http://www.potawatomi.org/Enterprises/default
.aspx
Good News?
• Economic development of the
contemporary era with regard to gaming
and tribes being able to better take care of
themselves independent of the Federal
government.
• Cultural activities that are tribal identity
markers still continue, such as the Kiowa
Gourd Clan, Muscogee and Cherokee
ceremonials, Osage I'nlonshka, etc.
Currently in Oklahoma
• 38 Federally Recognized Tribes
Not including those who are enmeshed
legislatively with other tribes, such as the
Euchee, who are culturally distinct, but are
enrolled with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
Economic Impact
• Jobs (Cherokee Nation one of the biggest
employer in NE Oklahoma)
• Impact of Federal dollars on roads,
bridges, and other infrastructure
• “The Cherokee Nation has built more than
$32 million worth of roads over the last ten
years, and has more than $60 million more
in progress right now.” (cherokee.org)
Gaming
• Impact of gaming (positive/negative)
• Positive: Jobs
(construction/operation/nearby
businesses), money to the state of
Oklahoma, tribal self-reliance
• Negative: Stretching local non-Indian law
enforcement resources, organized crime,
problem gamblers.
Cultural Tourism
• American Indian Cultural Resource Center
• Cherokee Tourism
Emotional Evolution
• American Indian tribal history in Oklahoma
can evoke a multitude of emotional
responses.
• Anger (treatment by U.S. government and
contemporary popular culture)
• Sadness (loss of life, lifeways, and land)
• Pride (recovery from these losses)
• Hope (vision for a positive future)
A Few Important Sources
• Debo, Angie. And Still the Waters Run:
The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes.
Princeton: PU Press, 1974.
• Clark, Blue. Guide to the Indian Tribes of
Oklahoma. Norman: OU Press, 2009.
• Joyce, Davis, ed. “An Oklahoma I Had
Never Seen Before.” Norman: OU Press, 1994.
• Strickland, Rennard. The Indians in
Oklahoma. Norman: OU Press, 1980.