Surviving Marginalization, 1890s-1920, Ch. 9, through page 263

Surviving Marginalization, 1890s-1920 
1. natives were seen as insignificant in Canada & in USA 
a. boarding schools disrupted family relations
b. damaged culture & language
c. trained Indian students for non-existent jobs
d. mixed young people from various tribes together
e. W. Canada: natives joined trade unions to participate in economic life
f. Society of American Indians: pantribal organization
g. natives from reservations experienced bitter prejudice
h. Navajos learned white legal practices while conservative Hopis retained traditional cultural practices
i. politicians became increasingly anti-Indian by 1900
j. only a white teacher could “teach the Indian out of the students”
k. natives were unwilling to make long range plans
l. Pueblos conservatism limited their ability to acculturate
m. force could be used to send natives to boarding schools
n. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, non-denominational schools were set up
o. all aspects of Indian’s lives were controlled
p. natives wanted secular, non-church based education but governments wanted churches to take care of those things
q. most Indians were taught at day schools
r. boarding schools were more efficient
s. 1870s: Hampton Institute in Virginia & the Carlisle Indian school in Pennsylvania offered off-reservation secondary schooling
t. residential schools could break down tribal identity, customs & language
u. Stanley Hill, wanted Indian children taught in their native languages
v. Leupp, classes should be held outside 
w. Leupp tried to get kids into day schools & close boarding schools
y. the principal of the Hampton Institute believed natives were intellectually inferior to whites
z. Reel, superintendent on Indian education, taught practical skills like bed-making & simple plowing

1. 1905, Leupp establishes an Indian Employment Office
2. natives did unskilled, manual labor jobs
3. 1909, Robert Valentine & Cato Sells: successors to Leupp
4. 1916: Sells established primary, prevocational & vocational schools
5. 1891, Commissioner Thomas Jefferson Morgan integrated native schools 
6. Morgan demanded equal treatment for Indian children, 4 of 45 districts remained

Institutionalized Paternalism, p. 250
1. bureaucrats chipped away at Indian self sufficiency & feelings of competence
2. Trutch: natives lacked legal rights to the land
3. Indian’s title to the land was denied
4. BC officials tricked Ottawa into accepting limited future land grants for tribal reserves
5. 1887, Indians became very angry about unjust BC policies
6. Nishga & Tsimshian chiefs visited government leaders in Victoria
a. asked for more land & access to documents published a decade earlier that would support their case
b. Victoria refused to accept any tribal land claims
c. 1900: Canadian bureaucrats sought to reduce the Indian land base whenever possible in order to open S. Saskatchewan & Alberta
d.1902, Indians objected to selling any of their land
e. Dawes Act, allowed federal bureaucrats to separate Indians from much of their land base
f. 1890-1910: the tribal land base shrunk considerably
g. Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, government COULD move ahead rapidly
h. 1880s-WWI, collapse in tribal populations in Plains & Blood tribes
i. 1912, steady increase in Indians in Canada
j. the Census Bureau did not cooperate fully: many people counted twice or not at all
k. 1900: 237,000 natives

254 Indian Participation In World War I
1. 1914, Canadian Indians had to hunt more for food, fur trading went down
a. noncitizen Indians were exempted from military service
b. Sam Hughes, minister of militia & defense permitted Indians to enlist
c. 35% of eligible Indians enlisted
d. 1915, battalion from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario
e. 1916, Six Nations battalion was kept intact
f. enlistment officials didn’t keep ethnic or racial data
g. some Indians enlisted out of loyalty to the king
h. Indians joined the reserves to escape poverty & boredom
i. Indians that joined the army gained the right to vote without the unpopular terms of enfranchisement
j. 1917, Parliament passed the Military Service Act, mandating the registration of all young men for the draft

2. Indians in US were in worse shape
a. the US stayed out of the war until 1917
b. Congressmen Carl Hayden(AZ) promoted all-Indian militia units
c. American Indian magazine denounced segregation
d. Oklahoma Indians, preferred segregated units
e. Indian participation in the war effort was high
f. The Selective Service Act of May 18th, 1917 applied to all citizens, applied to a majority of Indians
g. war Commissioner Cato Sells bragged that at least 6,000 of the 18,000 men in the service had enlisted
h. Gosiutes, Shoshones, Utes, Navajos, Mission Indians opposed the draft
i. most of the eligible Gosiutes ended up registering
j. Indian resistance to registering was partly confusion 
k. tribal elders blessed would-be soldiers
l. Sells believed the military would civilize the Indians

Increasing Agricultural Efforts, Decreasing Land
1. natives served in the armed forces
2. bureaucrats looked to the tribes for increased food production
3. 1914, Duncan Scott persuaded the Indians to increase their food & livestock production
4. 1918, Scott wanted boarding school students as laborers on nearby farms
5. 1917, the Greater Production effort to increase crop size even more was launched
6. tribes who refused to sell their surplus land would have to lease it to white farmers or ranchers
7. government could spend bank funds to increase crop/livestock production
8. William Graham, longtime bureaucrat, supervised agricultural production efforts on the reserves in the prairie provinces
9. bureaucrats were in control of reserve lands with little checks on their actions
10. 1918, the Blood Tribe didn’t want to sell 90,000 acres of land
11. fraud, intimidation & bribery to achieve the bureaucrat’s goals
12. tribal people lost 1/3 of their production in 2 years
13. economic potential of the land was damaged
14. 1917 Soldier Settlement Act, resulted in further land losses
15. 160 acres of dominion owned land
16. veterans could acquire land in the “Railway Belt”
17. 1919, New Soldier Settlement Act, 160 acres of land to former servicemen, a 1906 amendment kept Indians from being able to use it
18. 1/10 Indian applicants got loans for land purchases
19. 1920s, worldwide drop in agricultural prices
20. a) soil conservation, b) proper choice of crops, c) ways to raise more food per acre
21. bureaucratic agents said there was more unused land than their actually was
22. Sells, reported large scale increases in Indian acreage
23. “By 1920 tribal people in both the United States and Canada had endured continued cultural, economic, and demographic battering by the societies in both countries. Government policies reduced the land base of many groups, as fraud and bribery often accomplished what formal actions did not. World War I led some Indians to leave their reservations for military service, but when the conflict ended they returned home to face increased poverty. Veteran’s benefits helped many young men, but rarely did tribal members get much assistance. The continuing efforts of educators, missionaries, and bureaucrats hurt tribes more than helping them. As a result, the postwar decades would bring even more difficulties and problems for reserve dwellers.”(263)