RESERVATIONS, INDIAN. 





a tribal government to State authority (a contro- 

 versy decided in their favor by the Supreme Court 

 of the United States), led to the execution of the 

 project, the first definite plan of which was sub- 

 mitted to Congress Jan. 27, 1825, and was that of 

 the Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, looking to 

 the establishment of two Indian reservations one 

 in the Northwest for Indians of the Algonquin and 

 Iroquois tribes, and a second for Appalachians in 

 the Southwest. This was followed by a report of 

 Hon. James Barbour, Secretary of War, to the 

 Indian Committee of the House, Feb. 3, 1826; and 

 tin' " Indian Country," acquired by treaty with 

 Kansas Osage Indians several years previously, was 

 defined by act of May 30, 1830. To 1834 17 tribes 

 of Indians, numbering 77,497, were removed to this 

 country, nation, or territory as it was successively 

 termed and a few thousands were afterward added 

 in completion of an experiment that proved "as 

 costly to national honor and treasure as to the life 

 and happiness of its victims." 



From 1834 Indians have existed in the tribal 

 relation and possessed of specific tracts of lands in 

 hut 3 of the 13 original States Massachusetts, 

 North Carolina, and New York the citizens of the 

 last-named State having petitioned against the re- 

 moval of the remnant of the Six Nations within its 

 borders. The example of the New York Indians is 

 cited as proof of the capacity of Indians for civili- 

 zation on small reservations and surrounded by 

 whites. 



Lands patented to the emigrated tribes were by 

 treaty assured to them forever; but the tide of 

 emigration setting toward the West on the annexa- 

 tion of Texas and the acquisition of Western terri- 

 tory led to the establishment in 1854 of the Terri- 

 tories of Kansas and Nebraska by consent of various 

 tribes, native or removed thither, who ceded their 

 lands in trust or unconditionally with the excep- 

 tion of 1,300,000 acres, reserved to themselves as 

 homes. But the stipulations were not respected by 

 the United States. The executive office of Kansas 

 was established within the Shawnee country, the 

 Legislature meeting at that nation's mission, and 

 intrusions of settlers (notably in the case of the 

 site of the present city of Leavenworth) led to the 

 removal after 1866 of all adjacent tribes within the 

 boundaries of the lands patented to the Cherokee, 

 Choctaw, and Creek nations respectively Dec. 31, 

 1838, March 23, 1842, and Aug. 11, 1852. These 

 lands included what was known as Indian Territory 

 prior to the opening of Oklahoma (with others in 

 Kansas afterward relinquished), in which had been 

 included the Chickasaw nation, confederated with 

 the Choctaws in 1837, and the Seminples, becoming 

 part of the Creeks after the Florida war. The 

 reservation occupied by the Seminoles from about 

 1842 was changed to its presbnt location, in 1866, 

 and the five constitute what are known as the 

 'Civilized Tribes." Under the treaties of 1866, 

 removals of other tribes to the Indian Territory 

 have taken place at intervals (until Feb. 17, 1879, 

 by executive order merely, but after that date by 

 authority of Congress), and the advocates of seclu- 

 sion retained the hope of a final concentration 

 therein of all the Indian tribes of the Union and 

 the formation of the ideal Indian State. The ques- 

 tion was set at rest by the admission of whites 

 into the interior in 1889, and the erection. May 2, 

 1890, of the Territory of Oklahoma, severed its en- 

 tirety. 



The plan of a single large reservation in the 

 Northwest for tribes "of that region was prior to 

 1887 also often revived. Commissioners in Cali- 

 fornia, Oregon, and Washington secured reserva- 

 tions to Indians, but they were invaded with im- 

 punity, the peaceful Indian population of the coast 



having suffered and continuing to suffer outrage 

 which led at last to warfare. Treaties entered into 

 ,n Fort Laramie in 1851 with the wild Indians of 

 the plains and mountains (across which the United 

 States army protected emigrant trains) established 

 boundaries and assigned reservations, which, espe- 

 cially in Colorado, the Government proved unable- 

 to protect; and wars, often wantonly provoked by 

 the whites with hostile Sioux, Cheyenne*, and 

 Arapahoes, and other tribes (in Arizona and New 

 Mexico amounting to wars of extermination), were 

 carried on from 1854 till the appointment of a 

 peace commission in 1867-'68. with an appropria- 

 tion of $500,000 to carry out its intent. Wars 

 since that date have been principally with the 

 Apache, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, Kiowa, 

 Comanche, Piegan, Northern Cheyenne, Nez Perec-, 

 Modoc, and Sioux Indians, to the outbreak of the 

 last nation in 1890-'91 ; the origin or result of all 

 being the reduction of territory that had been 

 guaranteed to the tribes. 



In 1875 the benefits of the homestead act of 

 May 30, 1862, were extended to Indians, with pro- 

 vision against alienation of patents for a period of 

 five years by act of July 4, 1884, changed to 

 twenty-five years. The renunciation of tribal rela- 

 tions was made necessary for homesteading. 



Strenuous objection to" the allotment act of 1887 

 was made by the Five Civilized Tribes in the interest 

 of the Indians, although they are by treaty rights 

 themselves excepted from its provisions. But it 

 has been deemed a necessity by the Government to 

 imbue the Indian with an idea of property, and to 

 accustom him to self-support. 



For the question that has been raised whether 

 the number of Indians in the United States has 

 decreased since 1882, or whether it is not possibly 

 as large as when the first settlements were made by 

 Europeans on the North American Continent, it 

 seems to be shown by figures that the race is de- 

 creasing. The largest nation is that of the Sioux, 

 in the two Dakotas. The enumeration of all the 

 tribes is practically impossible. 



The following is the distribution of Indian area 

 and population by the report of the Commissioner 

 of Indian Affairs for 1895 : 



Arizona. Ten reservations, under five agencies, 

 with an area of 22,029 square miles. Population, 

 37,723, of which 215 are not under an agent. The 

 largest tribe is that of the Navajos, numbering 20,- 

 500, who occupy 12,029 square miles, partly in this 

 Territory and partly in New Mexico and Utah. 

 The Navajos are a peculiar tribe, differing from 

 other Indians in that they are almost exclusively 

 engaged in pastoral pursuits, owning vast flocks of 

 inferior sheep anil goats and great herds of ponies, 

 but few cattle. They are peaceable, self-support- 

 ing, and independent, and are almost the only In- 

 dians who ask nothing from the Government. Pre- 

 viously to 1893 they were extremely conservative 

 and distrustful of any attempts to educate their 

 children, resisting all "appeals to allow them to be 

 sent away to school, while it was impossible to 

 plant schools in their midst. Fifteen of their rep- 

 resentative men were taken to the Chicago Exposi- 

 tion in 1893. and returned amazed at their glimpse 

 of civilization. This created an intense enthusiasm 

 and desire for education, so that parents brought 

 their children voluntarily to the only school on tin- 

 reservation, which was not capable of receiving 

 more than 150 pupils, and the attendance at whieh 

 had previously been 15. Many were refused admis- 

 sion for want of accommodations, and some went 

 away crying. The other tribes in the Territory 

 are principally Apaches of various bands, Moquis. 

 Papagos. Pimiis, Maricopas, Mohaves, Chimehuevis, 

 Hualapais, and Suppais. 



