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The Prairie band of Pottawatomie Indians and federal Indian assimilation policy, 1871-1934
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The Prairie band of Pottawatomie Indians and federal Indian assimilation policy, 1871-1934
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Description
Author
Schinstock
,
Bradley
Title
The
Prairie
band
of
Pottawatomie
Indians
and
federal
Indian
assimilation
policy
,
1871-1934
Degree Program
History
Abstract
In
late
summer
1847
, the
United
States
signed
a
treaty
that
formed
a
new
Indian
reservation
in
northeast
Kansas
. The
treaty
was
necessary
because
the
Pottawatomie
Indians
living
in
Iowa
were
no
longer
wanted
in that
area
;
Iowa
had
recently
become
a
state
and
white
political
leaders
there
wanted
the
Indians
removed
. The
United
States
typically
solved
this
type
of
problem
by
negotiating
treaties
which
forced
Indians
farther
west
where
they would not
impede
the
progress
of
white
settlement
.
Once
placed
on
reservations
in the
west
,
Indians
were
supposed
to be
assimilated
into the
dominant
culture
by
learning
the
white
man's
agricultural
methods
, as
well
as
accepting
the
white
man's
language
,
religion
, and
culture
.
While
some
Indians
assimilated
rather
easily
,
others
proved
more
difficult
, as was the
case
with a
band
of
Pottawatomies
who
were
put
on the
reservation
in
Kansas
. This
group
, the
Prairie
band
,
resisted
United
States
efforts
to
turn
them into
white
farmers
,
preferring
instead
to
maintain
their
traditional
language
and
customs
. By
1871
, they were the
only
Pottawatomies
left
on the
reservation
who
continued
to
resist
assimilation
;
other
bands
of
Pottawatomies
had
become
assimilated
and
accepted
their
own
individual
allotments
of
land
.
Most
of these
assimilated
Pottawatomies
soon
lost
their
land
to
greedy
white
speculators
, and they
ended
up
signing
a
treaty
with the
United
States
that
sent
them to
Indian
Territory
(present
day
Oklahoma)
As
it
turned
out
,
allotments
of
land
in
severalty
to
Indians
became
official
United
States
policy
;
beginning
in the
1870s
,
many
politicians
favored
a
comprehensive
allotment
law
that
gave
all
Indians
individual
title
to their
land
.
Reformers
who
espoused
Indian
causes
also
favored
such
policies
; a
comprehensive
allotment
law
seemed
to be the
quickest
way
to
integrate
Indians
into
white
society
.
White
reformers
did
not
understand
that
Indians
rarely
saw
land
as
something
to be
possessed
; the
concept
of
land
ownership
was
completely
alien
to
most
tribes
.
Indians
typically
believed
in
land
usage
,
where
the
land
existed
to
benefit
the
entire
tribe
.
Conflicting
views
such
as this
one
were
common
when
Indians
and
whites
tried
to
deal
with
each
other
. In
February
,
1887
Congress
passed
a
comprehensive
piece
of
legislation
, the
General
Allotment
Act
,
which
made
land
allotments
in
severalty
a
reality
.
Commonly
called
the
Dawes
Act
, the
new
law
gave
specified
amounts
of
land
to
Indians
as
individuals
and
provided
United
States
citizenship
for
Indians
once
they were
considered
competent
.
Several
Indian
tribes
delayed
the
application
of the
Dawes
Act
,
one
of
which
was the
Prairie
band
of
Pottawatomies
in
Kansas
. The
Prairie
band
had
leaders
who
understood
the
effects
of
land
allotment
even
before
passage
of the
Dawes
Act
. The
first
of these was the
Kickapoo
prophet
Kenekuk
,
whose
teachings
affected
many
Prairie
band
Pottawatomies
as
early
as the
1830s
.
One
of his
closest
disciples
was
Nozhakum
,
who
assumed
spiritual
leadership
of the
Prairie
band
after
Kenekuk
passed
away
in
1852
. By
1887
,
leadership
had
passed
to the
warrior
Waquaboshkuk
.
who
preached
against
the
evils
of
land
ownership
as his
predecessors
had
done
. From
1887
to
1895
,
Waquaboshkuk
fought
implementation
of the
Dawes
Act
on the
reservation
,
using
varied
methods
including
physical
violence
,
speeches
,
trips
to
Washington
D.C.
, and the
United
States
legal
system
.
United
States
Indian
agents
on the
reservation
,
who
were
primarily
responsible
for
getting
the
Prairie
band
to
accept
individual
land
allotments
,
found
a
worthy
adversary
in
Waquaboshkuk
.
It
was
leadership
such
as that
shown
by
Kenekuk
,
Nozhakum
, and
Waquaboshkuk
that
separated
the
Prairie
band
from
other
Pottawatomie
Indians
.
Unfortunately
for the
Prairie
band
, the
Dawes
Act
was
forced
on them
without
their
acceptance
by a
presidential
executive
order
in
1890
;
once
this was
done
,
all
members
of the
Prairie
band
had
received
(though
not
accepted)
allotments
by the
end
of
1895
.
Waquaboshkuk
and his
followers
pretended
that
allotments
had
never
been
made
and
tried
to
make
sure
that
all
the
Prairie
band
believed
the
same
way
, at
times
resorting
to
violence
against
fellow
tribesmen
.
Reservation
Indian
agents
were
empowered
to
use
whatever
means
were
necessary
to
counterract
Waquaboshkuk
,
even
confining
him to the
agency
stockade
.
Allotments
in
severalty
continued
to be the
policy
in
force
on the
reservation
,
thus
Prairie
band
resistance
proved
futile
.
Most
Prairie
band
members
lost
their
allotments
through
provisions
in the
Dawes
Act
and
related
legislation
that
made
it
easy
for the
land
to
fall
into
white
hands
. This
trend
continued
throughout
the
United
States
for the
next
thirty
years
or
so
; in the
late
1920s
,
many
reformers
and
politicians
were
forced
to
critically
reexamine
the
allotment
policy
. In
1926
, the
Bureau
of
Indian
Affairs
hired
the
Brookings
Institute
, a
non-partisan
research
organization
, to
study
problems
of
Indian
administration
. The
Brookings
Institute
published
the
results
of their
research
in the
1928
Meriam
Report
. They
concluded
that
assimilating
Indians
was a
bad
policy
; their
evidence
also
illustrated
the
disasters
associated
with
land
allotment
policies
.
Reformers
like
John
Collier
had been
demanding
the
abolition
of
land
allotments
throughout
the
1920s
and they
used
the
results
published
in the
Meriam
Report
to
help
change
United
States
Indian
policy
in the
early
1930s
.
Hastening
these
changes
was the
appointment
of
Collier
as
Commissioner
of
Indian
Affairs
in
1933
.
Collier
was the
administrative
force
behind
the
Indian
Reorganization
Act
(Wheeler-Howard
Act)
of
1934
; this
new
legislation
attempted
to
reverse
the
assimilationist
policies
of the
past
not
only
by
eliminating
allotments
but also by
encouraging
and
funding
the
existence
of
tribal
governments
and
corporations
on the
reservation
.
Collier
hoped
that
all
Indians
would
accept
the
provisions
of the
Indian
Reorganization
Act
, but he
made
participation
optional
for
each
Indian
tribe
. In
1934
the
Prairie
band
held
a
special
election
; they
voted
on
whether
or not to
accept
the
Indian
Reorganization
Act
on their
reservation
. They were a
tribe
in
disarray
;
most
had
lost
their
allotments
and had
little
to their
name
. The
only
leaders
among
the
tribes
were a
new
generation
of
mixed-bloods
who
wanted
to
seize
all
the
decision-making
power
within
the
tribe
for
themselves
.
Because
the
Prairie
band
had
little
faith
in the
United
States
, the
new
leaders
successfully
campaigned
among
the
tribesmen
to
vote
down
the
Indian
Reorganization
Act
.
Ironically
, the
Prairie
band
rejected
the
anti-assimilationist
legislation
that was
supposed
to
repair
the
injustices
of the
past
. The
quality
of
leadership
among
the
Prairie
band
had
declined
to the
point
that the
Prairie
band
no
longer
protested
policies
because
they were
unfair
, but they
protested
merely
for the
sake
of
argument
.
When
studying
the
history
of
relations
between
the
Prairie
band
and the
United
States
,
it
can
be
argued
that in
many
ways
the
experience
of these
Indians
was
typical
.
Because
Indians
had
no
political
voice
,
no
one
in
Washington
listened
when
the
Prairie
band
protested
their
mistreatment
in the
late
nineteenth
and
early
twentieth
century
. As a
result
,
Indians
of the
Prairie
band
were
forced
to
accept
land
allotments
in
severalty
despite
repeated
efforts
to
resist
by
Waquaboshkuk
. The
Prairie
band
of
Pottawatomies
'
resistance
to
federal
Indian
assimilation
policy
is
a
remarkable
story
of the
endurance
of a
people
to
retain
their
cultural
identity
and to
reject
assimilation
into
mainstream
society
.
Date Original
1997
Publisher
Fort Hays State University
Relation
Digital reproduction of the Fort Hays State University Theses Collection.
Type
Text
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
SchinstockBradley_1997_web.pdf
Source
LD2652 .T5 H5 S34 1997
Language
eng
Relation-Requires
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Rights
Copyright 1997 Bradley Schinstock
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