Monday Week 9
 Another religious revitalization movement in
the northwest
 Focused around Jake Hunt (Titcam Hashat)
 Klickitat
 The Waptashi or feather religion
 Hunt received a religious vision while
mourning the death of wife
 Saw Lishwailait, Klickitat Prophet
 Again focused on traditional dress and ideas
 Religion survives into the 20thc
 Final religious
conflict
 Peyote
 Peyote buttons, fruit
of
 Lophophora williamsi
 Grows primarily in
northern Mexico
 Dried and chewed in
religious rituals
 Used by Apaches and
others
 In 1880s moved into the
Indian territory
 Religion based around
Peyote grew
 Again Christianity with
Indian understanding
 Quannah Parker
 Credited with
introducing many to
church
 Ceremonies often took
place at night
 Away from prying eyes
 Indian Agents again
tried to outlaw it
 As did some Native
Americans
 Zitkal-Šu
 Navajo Tribal Council
banned it in 1940
 I haven’t touched a drop of
liquor for years . . . I have to
thank the Indian movement
for that, and Grandfather
Peyote, and the pipe.
 Mary Crow Dog
 1918 Native American
Church Formally recognized
in Oklahoma
 Many years of legal battles
over the use of Peyote
 Made its way into
popular culture
Exploiting the land and its
resources
 With allotment
 theft of Native American land
 Concurrent exploitation of
resources
 2 day before leaving office President
Theodore Roosevelt - 8 Ex orders
 Put 2,500,000 acres of land into
hands of the forest service
 They issued contracts to Lumber
companies
Oil and the Osage
 Osage made money from leasing their
lands to cattle people
 Late 1800 oil was discovered on their land
 Foster, Indian Territory Illuminating Oil
Company (ITIO)
 Wasn’t until early 20th C that real
exploitation began
 40 wells completed by 1903
 1904 pipeline constructed to the Standard
Oil Refinery in Neodosho, Kansas
 Reduced transport costs by nearly 40
percent
 Next year over 300 wells brought into
production.
 Over next two decades Osages'
"underground reservation" produced
more wealth than all American gold
rushes combined
 ITIO lost sole rights to drill in 1916
 Public lease auctions began in 1916
 record bid was $1,990,000 for a
single, 160-acre tract
 Osage retained collective
ownership of subsurface
mineral rights
 Tribal members received
"headrights“
 assured them equal share of
mineral rights sales equivalent
to income from 658 acres.
 Headright could not be sold
 Average Osage family of a
husband, wife, and three
children
 $65,000 a year in 1926
 1939 Osage individuals had
received a total of more than
$100 million in royalties and
bonuses
 William K. Hale
 self-proclaimed "King of the
Osage Hills”
 mastermind of a plot to acquire
Osage wealth through murder.
 1921 – 1924
 24 Osage Murdered
 FBI Brought in
Native Americans and Water
 As Americans expanded west water became
an issue
 Miners and other claimed water rights as part
of their stake
 Debate of water rights not settled until 1908
 Winters v. United States
 Supreme court
 Determined Indians living on reservations
retained the right to water for farming and
other business projects
 State governments, settlers and water districts
often ignored ruling
 1909 supreme court ruled federal treaties had
guaranteed water rights to tribes
 Still little respect
 1924 Secretary of Interior Hubert
Work assigned
 Porter Preston
 Bureau of Reclamation
 C.A. Eagle
 Bureau of Indian Affairs
 to investigate
 Preston-Engle Irrigation Report
 made many recommendations
 Not until the 1950s that the 1908
Winters decision began to be taken
seriously
 By this time many acre feet of water
had been stolen from Rivers
 Allotment turned Native Americans in
to farmers
 Ignoring Winters etc deprived them of a
vital resource need to be farmers
Pueblo lands
 During early 20th C
many squatters on
Indian land
 Pueblo lands suffered
like many
 Various Pueblo
communities attempted
to evict squatters
 State, county, and law
enforcement ignored
their request for helped
 Congress reacted by proposing the
Bursum Bill in 1922
 Under the terms of the bill
 Pueblo communities had to prove
ownership
 reversal of normal legal procedure
 If pueblos could not prove ownership to
the satisfaction of the government
 Real estate vested in non-Indians
 Both President
Harding and
Secretary of the
Interior Fall
supported bill
 Resistance came
from both Indian and
non-Indian sources
 John Collier was the
main figure from nonIndian society
 With Collier’s help the bill was defeated
 Collier also brought other non-Indians
into Indian reform
 D.H. Lawrence
 Zane Grey
 Carl Sandburg
 And importantly General Federation of
Women’s Clubs
 National organization with many active
members
 Pueblo people traveled across the nation
making their case
 Visited DC to talk to politicians
 Worked through the All-Pueblo Council
 1st time all Pueblo’s had worked together
since the Pueblo revolt in 1680
 Led to
 New legislation that recognized Pueblo land
titles
 Pueblo Land Board
 End monday
 Led to a new surge
in Indian support
 Columbus Day 1911
 Leaders from 18
nations met in
Columbus Ohio
 Formed Society of
American Indians
 Major figure in group
was
 Carlos Montezuma
 Wassaja (Montezuma) born c. 1866 in
Central Arizona
 Yavapai
 Captured by Pima Indians in 1871
 Sold to photographer named Carlos Gentile
for $30
 Given new name and Euro-American
education
 University of Illinois and Chicago Medical
School
 Favored hard individualism and hard work
 After visit to home reservation became
strong advocate for the abolishment of
BIA
 And taking pride in native ways
 Diagnosed with tuberculosis and
returned to live on Yavapai reservation
 Died in 1923
 One year before Government issued
citizenship to all Native Americans
Native Americans and American
Citizenship
 Certain Native Americans had been granted
citizenship in 19th C
 1901 citizenship awrded to all in Indian
Territory
 1906 Delayed by Burke Act
 Were not prepared so delayed
 1916 citizenship for those who were living
with Guardians
 1919 all Native Americans who served in
WWI gained citizenship
 Many Native Americans fort
in WWI
 Native Americans have the
highest record of service per
capita of all the ethnic groups
in America
 12,000 + in WWI
 Used native speakers in
communication department
 Cherokee and Choctaw
among others
 Note code-talkers, just used
their own language
 1924 finally citizenship to all Native Americans
 Who “may receive the news of their new
citizenship with wry smiles. The white race,
having robbed them of a continent, and having
sought to deprive them of freedom of action,
freedom of social custom, and freedom of
worship, now at last gives them the same legal
basis as their conquerors”
 New York Editorial July 7, 1924
 Some states withheld state citizenship
 Last to grant citizenship Arizona and New
Mexico
 1948
 Returning veterans also spurred on
change
 Together with people like Collier and
All-Pueblo Council and others
 1923 Secretary of Interior asked the
 Committee of One Hundred
 To investigate BIA
 December 1923 report sent in
 Little impact but indicative of push for
change
 1926 Secretary of Interior Work
 Asked the Board of Indian
Commissioners to investigate
 Board recommended that
 “non-government, disinterested
organization with a field force of
experts”
 Investigate condition of tribes
controlled by BIA
 W.F. Willoughby of Institute of
Government Research to
investigate
 Received grant from John D.
Rockefeller Jr.
 Appointed Scholar Lewis
Meriam to lead investigation
 Led to
 The Problem of Indian
Administration
 More often known as the
Meriam Report of 1928
 Pueblo people traveled across the nation
making their case
 Visited DC to talk to politicians
 Worked through the All-Pueblo Council
 1st time all Pueblo’s had worked together
since the Pueblo revolt in 1680
 Led to
 New legislation that recognized Pueblo land
titles
 Pueblo Land Board
 Led to a new surge
in Indian support
 Columbus Day 1911
 Leaders from 18
nations met in
Columbus Ohio
 Formed Society of
American Indians
 Major figure in group
was
 Carlos Montezuma
 Wassaja (Montezuma) born c. 1866 in
Central Arizona
 Yavapai
 Captured by Pima Indians in 1871
 Sold to photographer named Carlos Gentile
for $30
 Given new name and Euro-American
education
 University of Illinois and Chicago Medical
School
 Favored hard individualism and hard work
 After visit to home reservation became
strong advocate for the abolishment of
BIA
 And taking pride in native ways
 Diagnosed with tuberculosis and
returned to live on Yavapai reservation
 Died in 1923
 One year before Government issued
citizenship to all Native Americans
Native Americans and American
Citizenship
 Certain Native Americans had been granted
citizenship in 19th C
 1901 citizenship awrded to all in Indian
Territory
 1906 Delayed by Burke Act
 Were not prepared so delayed
 1916 citizenship for those who were living
with Guardians
 1919 all Native Americans who served in
WWI gained citizenship
 Many Native Americans fort
in WWI
 Native Americans have the
highest record of service per
capita of all the ethnic groups
in America
 12,000 + in WWI
 Used native speakers in
communication department
 Cherokee and Choctaw
among others
 Note code-talkers, just used
their own language
 1924 finally citizenship to all Native Americans
 Who “may receive the news of their new
citizenship with wry smiles. The white race,
having robbed them of a continent, and having
sought to deprive them of freedom of action,
freedom of social custom, and freedom of
worship, now at last gives them the same legal
basis as their conquerors”
 New York Editorial July 7, 1924
 Some states withheld state citizenship
 Last to grant citizenship Arizona and New
Mexico
 1948
 Returning veterans also spurred on
change
 Together with people like Collier and
All-Pueblo Council and others
 1923 Secretary of Interior asked the
 Committee of One Hundred
 To investigate BIA
 December 1923 report sent in
 Little impact but indicative of push for
change
 1926 Secretary of Interior Work
 Asked the Board of Indian
Commissioners to investigate
 Board recommended that
 “non-government, disinterested
organization with a field force of
experts”
 Investigate condition of tribes
controlled by BIA
 W.F. Willoughby of Institute of
Government Research to
investigate
 Received grant from John D.
Rockefeller Jr.
 Appointed Scholar Lewis
Meriam to lead investigation
 Led to
 The Problem of Indian
Administration
 More often known as the
Meriam Report of 1928
 committee of internationally
known experts
 Both white and native
 Most prominent native
 Henry Roe Cloud
 Ho-Chunk
 1927 Committee spent 7
months on several
reservations
 Reviewed documents from
boarding schools and
health clinics
 Major problem for committee
 lack of records
 1884 Congress passed a law required
BIA to keep vital statistics on
reservations
 Universally ignored
 Yet the field work combined with
fragmentary statistics was enough for
a solid condemnation
 Became a landmark document
 Chronicled problems among Native
Americans
 Allotment Act and Indian education
 Based on acculturation and assimilation
 To be failures
 Average Indian income $100 - $200
 Average income in the US as a whole
$1350
 One of major elements of Report was
health
 “taken as a whole practically every
activity undertaken by the national
government for the promotion of
health of the Indians is below a
reasonable standard of efficiency”
 “falls markedly below the standards
maintained by the public health
service, the veterans bureau, and the
Army and Navy”
Birth Rates and the Meriam
Report
 One area which highlighted health crisis
 Fetal and infant mortality
 White U.S. infant mortality rate 70.8/1000
 African American infant mortality rate
114.1/1000
 Indian infant mortality rate 190.7/1000
 An average Some reservations much
worse




Yakama Reservation
1925-29
US infant mortality 65/ 1000
State of Washington infant mortality
51/1000
 Yakama Reservation
 Arizona
 Death rate among Native Americans
due to tuberculosis was 17 times that
of US in general
 1930 death from pneumonia 20 times
that of the US in general
 Reason for this appalling figures
 50c per Indian per year in health care
from BIA
 Few hospitals, doctors, or nurses
 Boarding schools had poor sanitation, lack of
medical care and poor food
 Weakened by these factors became susceptible
to disease
 When students became ill – sent home
 Spreading disease within home community
 1929, Secretary of Interior ordered agents to
 allow state and county health official to enter the
reservation
 A direct result of the Meriam report
Meriam report
Not a revolutionary document
Many recommendations made in earlier reports
But pulled together huge amount of data in a
comprehensive report
A document that all could rally behind
Congress, BIA, Reformers, and General Public
Became foundation for the next level of Indian reform
Changed Indain history for the remainder of 20th C
John Collier
 Social Worker in New York
 1919 - California Housing and
Immigration Commission
 Concerned with the adverse effects of
the industrial age on mankind.
 American needed to reestablish a
sense of community and
responsibility
 1919 visited Taos Pueblo in New Mexico
 spent time there frequently
 Collier left Taos in 1921
 Had an transformational experience
 Indians only people in western hemisphere
who still possessed
 “the fundamental secret of human life –
the secret building of great personality
through the instrumentality of social
institutions”
 Rejected assimilation and Americanization
 Demanded cultural pluralism be accepted
when dealing with Indians
 Identified Indian survival with retention of
land base
 Lobbied for the repeal of Dawes Act
 Directly attacked the Bureau of Indian
Affairs
 Prior to Collier, criticism directed at corrupt
and incompetent officials
 He aimed at actual policies implemented.
 Crash of 1929 worsened
conditions for most
Americans including
Native Americans
 President Hoover
reorganized the BIA
provided it with major
funding increases
 More and greater reform
and help came with the
election of Franklin D.
Roosevelt and the New
Deal
 Roosevelt nominated John Collier as Commissioner of
Indian Affairs in 1933
 Collier set up Indian New Deal Indian
 Indian Civilian Conservation Corps, provided jobs to
Native Americans in
 soil erosion control, forestation, range development, and
other public works
 Instrumental in passing Indian
Reorganization Act of 1934
 one of the most influential and lasting pieces
of legislation relating to federal Indian policy.
 Also known as Wheeler-Howard Act
 Reversed years of assimilation policies
 Emphasized Indian self-determination
 Return of communal Indian land
 Johnson-O'Malley Act
 Allowed the Secretary of the Interior to sign
contracts with state governments
 to share responsibility for the social and
economic well-being of American Indians.
 While Collier emphasized and vocally
expressed support for Indian selfdetermination
 Policies were often seen by American Indians
as
 another paternalistic program forced upon
them by the federal government
 Criticism aside, Collier did more to protect
Native American land and culture than any
other Indian Affairs Commissioner
 resigned as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in
1945.