Lecture 71: Treaties and Proclamations, 1850-1887

Introduction

The vast lands acquired by the United States in the 1840s were inhabited by more than 200,000 Indians. Mineral discoveries and the wave of westward expansion encouraged by the concept of “Manifest Destiny” made it imperative for the government to deal ‘with those Indians immediately. One of the first concerns was California, where, by 1850, non-Indians outnumbered the dwindling Indian peoples, and scattered hostilities threatened to erupt in a statewide campaign to “exterminate” the Indians. The government’s second immediate concern involved the lands around the heavily traveled emigrant routes through the new western territories, where loss of Indian lives and damage to Indian resources soon began to provoke Indian resistance. Accordingly, the government quickly began to negotiate treaties and establish relations with the tribes of the West.

Within a few years, the number of western settlers and consequently the demands for Indian land had increased, and the government began to negotiate treaties which required large land cessions. From 1853 to 1856 alone, the Indians of the West were forced to cede 174 million acres of land in 52 treaties. Although Congress ended treaty-making with the Indians in 1871, the process of dispossession continued by means of proclamations, executive orders, and agreements. The settlement of the West and the dispossession of the western tribes were far more rapid than the earlier American occupation of the East: in fewer than 30 years, the Indians west of the Mississippi River were forced to cede the bulk of their lands, Indian resistance was broken, and the Indians were assigned to reservations.

Lecture 71: Treaties and Proclamations, 1850-1887

I. The vast land acquisitions of the l840s virtually doubled the number of Indians under the jurisdiction of the United States, placing a new responsibility on the administrators and developers of Indian policy.

A. Between 1845 and 1848, the United States acquired jurisdiction over an additional 1,202,286 square miles and approximately 200,000 Indians (Tyler, p. 70).

B. The Indian Appropriation Act of 1851 designated funds for negotiations with these Indians (Trennert, p. 59).

1. The tribes would be asked to cede lands bordering the emigrant trails in the West.

2. Negotiation would specify the boundaries of each tribe’s lands.

II. Between 1851 and 1871, the United States government negotiated treaties with the tribes of the Plains, Great Basin, Southwest, Northwest, and California. The initial treaties concentrated on securing the peace; subsequent treaties required enormous land cessions. Between 1853 and 1856 alone, the United States negotiated 52 treaties which provided for the cession of 174,000,000 acres of Indian land (Tyler, p. 74). After the Civil War, a series of punitive treaties was forced on the tribes of “Indian Territory.”

A. California (Ellison, pp. 57-65)

1. In 1850 three commissioners were appointed to negotiate with the Indians of California. In 1851 the three men negotiated 18 treaties with 139 tribes or bands and set aside 7,488,000 acres as reservations for these Indians.

2. In 1852 the Senate rejected all of these treaties in secret session.

3. The same year, a superintendent of Indian affairs was appointed his instructions were to pacify the dispossessed Indians until some provision could be made for them.

4. In 1853 Congress authorized the superintendent to set aside five small reservations for all of the Indians of California.

5. By 1856 four small reservations had been established with congressional approval.

6. In 1860 California was divided into two districts under the supervision of two
superintending agents. The Indian department was authorized to relocate the Indians on
small reservations, but no treaties were to be signed. Instead government representatives
would work out agreements with the tribes.

7. In many parts of California, the disregarded treaties and new proposals of removal provoked
Indian resistance.

a. The most intense fighting occurred in the northern half of the state.

b. Paid volunteers conducted what became, in many cases, a war of extermination against
the Indians. One of the most infamous incidents in that “war” was the Humboldt Bay
Massacre of 1860, in which as many as three hundred peaceful, innocent Indians were
slaughtered in their sleep.

8. By the 1890s only a tenth of California’s original Indian population remained; many of these
Indians were relocated on miniscule reservations.

B. The Plains (Debo, pp. 150-67, 184-200, 233-35)

1. In the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, Crow, and other Plains
tribes agreed to the establishment of roads and military posts in their territory.

2. In 1853 a series of treaties with fourteen tribes in Nebraska and Kansas reduced their land-
holdings by nearly seventeen million acres.

3. In 1851 the Treaty of Horse Creek defined the territory of the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

4. In 1861 the Treaty of Fort Wise (Fort Lyon) redefined Cheyenne and Arapaho territory to
exclude Colorado mining areas and townsites.

a. In exchange for their vast territory, the Cheyenne and Arapaho were assigned to a small
reservation in southeastern Colorado.

b. The treaty, however, was signed by only a few of the Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders,
and the Cheyenne and Arapaho refused to settle on the small, barren reservation.

5. In the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, the Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and
Comanche ceded their lands in exchange for three small reservations in “Indian Territory.”
They insisted, however, that the treaty be amended to allow them to hunt in their traditional
territories.

6. In the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the boundaries of Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and
Arapaho land were defined.

a. The Indians agreed to a reservation located in North and South Dakota, augmented by
the unceded Powder River country.

b. At Indian insistence, the government agreed to close its forts in the Powder River
country and to abandon the Bozeman Trail. The Sioux leader Red Cloud refused to
sign the treaty until he saw that the forts had actually been demolished.

c. The treaty did, however, provide for the establishment of roads and railroads within the
Indian lands.

C. The Northwest (Debo, pp. 158, 260-62)

1. In 1853 a group of Nez Perces, Flatheads, and Blackfeet signed a treaty which defined
their territory and permitted the establishment of roads and military posts.

2. The end of the Yakima War in 1858 marked the end of Indian territorial integrity in the
Northwest; in the following years, most tribes were assigned reservation lands and forced
to cede their traditional territories.

3. In 1863 the Senate ratified a fraudulent treaty, repudiated by the Nez Perces, which
severely restricted Nez Perces land.

4. In 1864 the Klamath, Modoc, and other Northwest tribes ceded much of their land by
treaty.

D. The Southwest and the Great Basin (Debo, pp. 160-64, 199-200; Newe, pp. 33-58; Nuwuvi,
p. 140; O’Neil and MacKay, pp. 10-11)

1. In 1855 the Western Shoshone signed a treaty of “peace and friendship” with the United
States; they relinquished no land, but promised to keep the peace and allow emigrants a
right of way.

2. A second Western Shoshone Treaty in 1863 defined the boundaries of Shoshone land and
provided for the eventual settlement of the Shoshone on a reservation.

3. In 1865 sixteen Utah Ute leaders signed the Treaty of Spanish Fork, in which they
relinquished all Utah land except the Uintah Valley Reservation set aside by Congress in
1864. The treaty was never ratified. A second unratified treaty provided for the relocation
of the Southern Paiute.

4. In 1863 one band of Colorado Utes agreed to a non- representative treaty which
relinquished the Colorado lands of other Ute bands; a second treaty negotiated in 1868
reaffirmed the provisions of this treaty and provided for the cession of even more
Colorado Ute land.

5. After a military campaign, the Navajo were forced to relocate on the Bosque Redondo in
1864. In 1868 they signed a treaty which allowed them to return to a reservation in their
homeland.

6. In 1871 the government first appropriated money to remove all of the Apaches to
reservations.

E. “Indian Territory” (Debo, pp. 168-83)

1. The Civil War divided the Indians of “Indian Territory” into factions, some allied with the
Confederacy, some serving the Union, and others attempting to maintain neutrality.

2. Factionalism, civil strife, Civil War battles, and withheld annuities took a tremendous toll
on the Indians in “Indian Territory” and the surrounding lands.

3. The battle of Honey Springs in 1863 was the decisive Civil War engagement for the
peoples of “Indian Territory”; the defeated Creeks, Cherokees, and Seminoles became
refugees after this battle.

4. In 1866 the United States negotiated a series of largely punitive treaties with the tribes in
“Indian Territory.”

a. Many, including the Creeks and Seminoles, were forced to admit war guilt although
they had supported the Union.

b. They were required to cede the western half of “Indian Territory” as a home for other
Indians.

c. The treaties provided for the construction of two railroads across “Indian Territory,”
and Congress subsequently awarded these routes, with additional land grants, to
railroad companies.

III. In 1871 Congress voted to end the negotiation of treaties with Indian tribes.

A. The House, resenting the Senate’s exclusive power to approve or reject the treaties, hoped to abolish the system.

B. The elimination of treaties was another means to minimize the importance of Indian tribes and Indian governments. Proponents of assimilation thus favored this change.

C. After 1871 the government carried out its relations with Indian tribes through legislation, executive orders, and agreements.

IV. In the post-treaty period from 1871-1887, the government used orders, proclamations, and
agreements to bring about Indian land cessions. During this period, the last serious Indian resistance
collapsed (Debo, pp. 235-80).

A. The history of land-reduction, resistance, and eventual confinement is illustrated by the experience of the Sioux.

1. In 1875 the Sioux were ordered to vacate the Powder River country; their lands were further reduced by the seizure of the Black Hills.

2. Sioux resistance culminated in the defeat of General Custer on July 5, 1876.

3. By August 1876 the government had demanded that the peaceful Sioux relocate in “Indian Territory”; federal troops followed and harassed the militants. By winter all of the hostiles except the group led by Sitting Bull and Gall (who crossed the Canadian border) had surrendered and settled on the reservation.

B. Throughout the l870s many of the tribes of the Great Basin, Plains, and Southwest were forced
onto reservations and compelled to make further land cessions. Among them were the
Comanche, Ute, Nez Perce, Bannock, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Apache.

1. In 1877 the Nez Perces led by Chief Joseph surrendered and, in violation of the provisions of their surrender, were sent to “Indian Territory.”

2. In 1886 the last Apache warriors outside the reservation, led by Geronimo, surrendered. He
and other hostile leaders were confined in Florida prisons.

Bibliography

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