(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Indians 101: American Indians and the federal government 100 years ago, 1923 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-03 American Indians, according to the non-Indian social philosophers, bureaucrats, and politicians of the nineteenth century, were going to simply disappear. Many history books about Indians stop their histories at the end of the nineteenth century, adding to the illusion that Indians somewhat stopped being Indians when the twentieth century began. The reality of the twentieth century was that Indians didn’t disappear but increased in numbers. One hundred years ago (1923) it was evident that: (1) Indians weren’t going to disappear; (2) Indians, particularly those on reservations, were economically disadvantaged (their poverty level was extremely high); and (3) the federal government’s American Indian policies from the nineteenth century weren’t working. In the governmental structure of the United States, Indian affairs were administered through the Department of the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior, a politically appointed position, was the highest-ranking government official responsible for Indian affairs. The actual running of the Indian Office (later known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) was the responsibility of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, another politically appointed position. In 1923, Charles Henry Burke, a former Congressman from South Dakota who had been on the House Committee on Indian Affairs, held that position. Briefly described below are some of the federal government’s actions regarding American Indians 100 years ago, in 1923. Committee of 100 In Washington, D.C., an elite panel known as the Committee of 100 was convened by the Secretary of the Interior to advise on Indian policy. The Committee supported the goal of assimilation but called for a greater sensitivity to Indian customs and the protection of tribal land. Among those serving on the Committee was Winnebago educator Henry Roe Cloud. Indian Offenses The Commissioner of Indian Affairs updated thelist of Indian offenses—activities for which Indians could be punished. These activities included participation in Indian dances, sweat lodges, vision quests, and anything seen as hindering the acculturation of Indians into American culture. The Commissioner suggested that maypole dances be used as a substitute for traditional Indian dances at Indian schools. He was apparently unaware that maypole dances are survivals of European pagan fertility dances around phallic icons. Indian Labor The Indian Office sent an agent to Arizona to establish a program which would bring Indian laborers to Phoenix to work on irrigation projects, roads, and railroad tracks which would connect Phoenix with agricultural fields. Federal Bureau of Investigation In 1886, Congress had passed the Seven Major Crimes Act which extended federal jurisdiction over reservations regarding the crimes of murder, manslaughter, rape, assault with intent to kill, arson, burglary, and larceny. These crimes were not to be investigated or prosecuted by the state but by the federal government. In Oklahoma, the Osage tribal council in 1923 requested that the Federal Bureau of Investigation look into a series of murders of tribal members. The FBI, in response, opened an investigation. National Monument In Arizona, Pipe Spring National Monument was created under the authority of the 1906 Antiquities Act. The forty acres for the monument were entirely within the Kaibab Paiute reservation. The monument, however, was to serve as a memorial of western pioneer life by preserving a place of refuge from hostile Indians. While the National Park Service was to administer the Monument, the executive proclamation creating it declared that: “The Indians of the Kaibab Reservation, shall have the privilege of utilizing waters from Pipe Spring for irrigation, stock watering and other purposes, under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.” Glacier National Park In Montana, at Glacier National Park, park officials assumed that the Blackfoot Indians were subject to state law, and they attempted to end hunting near the eastern border of the park. Montana state game wardens, at the request of the National Park Service, arrested Blackfoot and Cree hunters for killing elk on reservation lands east of the park boundary. The judge, however, released the men and returned the elk to them. State officials were angered by the judge’s decision and demanded further prosecution. The National Park Service then advised the Indian agent in Browning, the capital of the Blackfoot Nation, that the elk in Glacier National Park were not native, but had been imported from Yellowstone National Park and therefore the Indians did not have the right to hunt them. The Blackfoot, who had hunted elk on their tribal lands for many centuries before the creation of Glacier Park, found this statement ridiculous. More twentieth-century American Indian histories Indians 101: Some American Indian events 100 years ago, 1923 Indians 101: American Indian art and heritage 100 years ago, 1923 Indians 101: The U.S. Government replaces the Navajo Council in 1923 Indians 101: Reservations 100 years ago, 1923 Indians 101: the 1923 Posey's War in Utah Indians 201: Suppressing Indian religions, 1921-1922 Indians 101: The Grand Coulee Dam and the Colville Indians Indians 101: Hopi Indians as tourist attractions in the early 20th century [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/3/2196705/-Indians-101-American-Indians-and-the-federal-government-100-years-ago-1923 Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/