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Historical Background

Coincident with the Plains wars of the late 1860's, a growing sentiment for the reform of Indian policy spread through eastern humanitarian and philanthropic circles and found advocates among Government officials and lawmakers. This sentiment held that the Indian should be conquered and removed from the paths of expansion by kindness rather than by military force. By treating him justly, honorably, and generously, it was contended, by setting aside reservations to be held inviolate against intrusion as his permanent home, by assisting him to learn new means of supporting himself, and by providing for his wants while he was learning, the bloody warfare of the past could be avoided and more humane relationships established.

Responding to these sentiments, Congress created the Peace Commission of 1867. In treaties concluded that year and the following year with the Plains tribes at Medicine Lodge Creek, Kans., and Fort Laramie, Wyo., and with the Navajos at Fort Sumner, N. Mex., the commission planted the seeds of the new philosophy. They flowered in the Peace Policy that President Grant inaugurated shortly after taking office in 1869.

The Peace Policy did not open an era of harmony. The Indians saw nothing humane in exchanging their territory and freedom for reservations and confinement; no matter how engineered, the exchange was still compulsory. Moreover, the Government proved unable to keep whites off the reservations. Settlers, cattlemen, miners, and railroads all intruded, and a succession of "agreements"—the treaty system was discontinued in 1871—opened especially coveted tracts to settlement. Nor were the authors of the Peace Policy able to improve the management of the reservations, even though church groups now nominated the agents and superintendents. Finally, graft and corruption, a source of great irritation to the Indians, continued to diminish the quantity and quality of issue goods and rations, in poor supply anyway because of inadequate appropriations. And so the fighting went on.