Native America-White Relations—U.S., 1831-1870
Native American and White relations in the United States from 1831 to 1870 were marked by significant transformation, characterized by a shift from viewing Indigenous tribes as independent nations to regarding them as wards of the state. This period saw the U.S. government implementing policies that systematically diminished Native American rights and freedoms, culminating in forced removals, such as the Trails of Tears, which displaced tribes from their ancestral lands to designated territories in the west. The Five Civilized Tribes, despite some efforts at acculturation, faced severe prejudice and were often classified as "savages," leading to widespread dispossession and loss of autonomy.
As westward expansion intensified, fueled by the ideology of Manifest Destiny, tensions escalated. Incidents such as the Whitman Massacre and the outbreak of conflicts like the Dakota War of 1862 reflected the growing perception of Native Americans as obstacles to American progress. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, often plagued by corruption and inefficiency, played a central role in shaping policies that favored white settlers, further exacerbating distrust between the two groups. The Civil War altered the dynamics, as many tribes seized the opportunity to resist, leading to increased military interventions and violence.
By the late 1860s, the shift in U.S. policy recognized tribes less as distinct entities deserving of treaties and more as groups to be managed or exterminated, foreshadowing a dangerous turn in the struggle for Native American rights and existence. This era set the stage for ongoing conflict and the tragic consequences of colonization that would continue into the 1870s and beyond.
Native America-White Relations—U.S., 1831-1870
Tribes affected: Pantribal
Significance: In the 1830’s, U.S. policy toward Native Americans changed from treating tribes as “separate nations” to forcing integration into white society; European Americans began to view Indians as threatening rather than annoying
The nineteenth century represents a pivotal point in Indian-white relations. Indian tribes went from being independent nations to being treated as wards of the United States. The U.S. government reduced Indian rights and freedoms until they almost disappeared.
1830’s
During the 1830’s, the U.S. government and its citizens generally viewed Indians as a disposable nuisance. Despite the acculturation of the Five Civilized Tribes, many whites viewed them as dispensable “savages” who failed to utilize “properly” the land under their control. Many Indian groups suffered from white misconceptions. Where whites once searched for the “noble savage” or the Indian with whom they could discuss politics and religion, now whites viewed Indians as “wretched” and as an annoyance.
U.S. policy reflected these changes in attitudes. Beginning in the 1830’s, when the U.S. government forcibly removed the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeast (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, and Seminole), the government no longer treated tribes as independent foreign nations. They became “domestic, dependent nations.” This meant that treaties could be made with them but that the government treated the land as being held in escrow for the Indians. The Five Civilized Tribes were moved to Oklahoma (then known as Indian Territory) and forced to live in a different climate from the one they knew. Forced to leave behind their farms, tools, and buildings, they faced death and disease in their new homes.
The U.S. government considered removal the best policy for settling disputes between whites and Indians. During the 1830’s, the U.S. government removed the Winnebagos from Wisconsin, the Potawatomi from Indiana, and the Sauk and Fox from Wisconsin, as well as removing the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeast. Removed Indians lost their land, their ways of life, and their political freedoms. Tribal factions erupted over whether to accept removal. Tensions arose again after removal over how to cope with the change. Removal attacked Indian autonomy.
Removal also increased intertribal tensions. Tribes from the east were moved into lands already occupied by western tribes. This meant that more tribes vied for the same resources. Removal upset the tribal balance of power that had existed in the Plains. Eventually, whites joined the fray over the land in the west.
Americans aggressively pursued the policy of Manifest Destiny, taking the Oregon territory from the British in the 1830’s. Missionary Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and the H. H. Spauldings accomplished this by leading settlers into Oregon territory with congressional approval. Though originally sent to Christianize the Cayuse Indians, they focused instead on populating the region so that it could be claimed by the United States. The Cayuse and other groups in the area resented this intrusion by settlers. The British had simply traded with the Indians; they had not brought settlers. Clashes over land and animals erupted constantly as the two groups tried to live together. The Whitmans and the Spauldings ignored warning signs that Indian discontent was rising. Tensions rose steadily throughout the 1830’s.
1840’s and 1850’s
Attitudes toward the Indians changed dramatically during the 1840’s. Indians were considered a threat and an impediment to American development of the west. Two incidents particularly influenced this change in attitude: the Whitman Massacre and the Mexican-American War.
By 1845, five thousand settlers a year were moving into the Oregon Territory. The Indians in this region watched as whites subdivided the land with fences and houses. In 1847, frustrated with the tide of white settlers and disease, the Cayuse rose up and massacred the Whitmans and several other whites. Spaulding, who missed the attack, became an opponent of the Indians. The massacre shocked and horrified Americans in the East. It brought back colonial period images of the Indians as bloodthirsty savages. All Indians west of the Mississippi suffered from this characterization.
After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), according to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the western border of the United States jumped from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast. It destroyed what the government considered the “Indian barrier” of the Mississippi, opening the western half of the U.S. to white “civilization” and settlement. This altered Indian-white relations on the Plains, in the Southwest, and on the Pacific coast. Until the end of the Mexican-American War, most of the Indian groups west of the Mississippi had avoided subjugation to the Spanish and had traded with the French. They did not expect to be subjugated by the Americans. The introduction of whites interested in settlement into western territory increased tensions between Indians and whites.
During the 1840’s and 1850’s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) shared the responsibility of defining policy with the military. The BIA represented one of the most mismanaged of government offices. It was a favorite spot for placing beneficiaries of the spoils system—newly elected senators and congressman placed their political allies in the BIA as a reward for service. Graft and corruption existed at every level, from the agents in the field to the commissioners in Washington. Additionally, these administrators turned over with every new election. Yet the U.S. government placed the BIA in charge of defining long-term Indian policy.
To aid westward expansion, the BIA sought to extinguish Indian land titles during this period. As whites took over more and more western land, it became apparent that removing Indians to unoccupied land would no longer be feasible. The BIA considered treaties and annuity payments to be the fastest and most efficient way to end titles. Often BIA negotiators lied to Indian representatives to get them to sign the treaties. They withheld annuities from previous treaties to force Indian leaders to sign new treaties. In addition, Congress changed the treaties before ratifying them. Such deceptions led to poor relations between whites and Indians.
The paying of annuities for relinquished land created more tension. Many agents embezzled parts of the annuity payments. Moreover, there was often confusion about who was to receive the payments, a specific chief or each individual Indian in that tribe. Agents also sometimes acted as traders, overcharging for goods so that the goods always equaled the annuity payments. These policies increased the tension between Indians and whites.
As more whites moved west, the “taming of the Indian” became an integral part of Manifest Destiny. To enforce this concept, the military became the second executor of Indian policy. Military protection had to be provided for white citizens moving west. Despite friendly or indifferent receptions by Indians on most parts of the trail, the few incidents of Indian attack appeared in newspapers and books everywhere. Many westward settlers considered the trail to be full of “bloodthirsty savages” looking for scalps and white women. The settlers demanded protection. The U.S. government established forts across the frontier to be able to control and eliminate the perceived Indian menace.
Civil War
The Civil War changed Indian-white relations. First, the U.S. government withdrew the army regulars from the frontier and replaced them with volunteers who resented serving on the “Indian frontier.” President Lincoln kept these troops in the West to protect the gold routes and the whites moving westward. Many tribes saw the Civil War as a sign of weakness in the American government. The Sioux, the Five Civilized Tribes, and others chased missionaries and Indian agents from their territory.
Two incidents during this period damaged Indian-white relations for the next several years: the decision by the Five Civilized Tribes to join the Confederacy and the Sioux Uprising of 1862. The Five Civilized Tribes sided with the Confederacy after being convinced that it would treat them as equals after the war. Some leaders, such as John Ross of the Cherokee, feared Northern reprisals if the South lost. Unfortunately, during battles such as Pea Ridge, the Indian units were accused of committing savage atrocities which reinforced negative attitudes towards them. The Sioux Uprising of 1862 frightened western settlers, as newspapers portrayed it as an unprovoked massacre of innocent women and children. (In reality, BIA politics and poor management ignited the massacre.) The aftermath influenced generations of western settlers who remembered only the women and children murdered by Indians.
Tensions between whites and Indians increased during the Civil War. White settlers distrusted the volunteers who had replaced the army regulars and expected the Indians to take advantage of the lack of men and muscle on the frontier to chase the settlers out. Indians also distrusted the volunteers; they tended to be trigger-happy, undisciplined, and unsure of the nature of their mission. The volunteers were unprepared for conflict on the Plains. They were unused to guerrilla warfare. Between the lack of trust of the army and the reinforced fear of the “savage Indians,” tensions increased on the frontier.
Post-Civil War
After the Civil War, the War Department and the military fought to gain control of the BIA in order to exterminate the Indians, but the cost of a military solution deterred Congress from this policy. Reformers, including missionaries, moved in to try to take control of the policy and to pacify the Indians.
In 1867, a Senate report changed policy for one year. The report stated that the Indian population was declining rapidly because of disease, war, and malnutrition. Additionally, it accused the military of starting most conflicts with the Indians, thereby reinforcing the idea that military officers were inadequate as agents of peace. The report suggested that the reservation system was the only humane policy. It would allow the Indians to become integrated into American society by teaching them farming and the rules of white society. It would also protect them from the military and from each other.
As punishment for siding with the Confederacy, the U.S. government forced the Five Civilized Tribes to surrender their westernmost lands, abolish slavery, grant the railroads rights-of-way through their territory (which would inevitably bring whites into the territory), establish U.S. military posts, and allow the creation of U.S. territorial governments within their territory. Exhausted after the war, the tribes accepted the terms of surrender.
In 1868, as new battles between Indians and the military raged in the West, the Indian Commission announced that it was no longer necessary to recognize tribes as “domestic dependent nations.” This effectively meant the end of treaty negotiations. Additionally, the BIA was transferred back to the War Department, temporarily giving the military more control of policy. These policy changes resulted from the violence that existed on the Plains both during and after the Civil War. The government now considered all tribes untrustworthy and limited their rights accordingly. As the 1870’s approached, Indian policy and Indian-white relations entered a new and dangerous phase: war and open extermination.
Bibliography
Berkhofer, Robert F., Jr. Salvation and the Savage. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1965. This work focuses on how missionaries portrayed white culture to the Indians and on the policy behind these presentations.
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. New York: Henry Holt, 1970. This work represents the Indian perception of Indian-white relations in the nineteenth century.
Dippie, Brian. The Vanishing American. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1982. Dippie examines the concept of the extinction of the Indian in the nineteenth century.
Kelley, Robert. American Protestantism and United States Indian Policy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. Discusses how Protestant reformers influenced Indian policy and Indian-white relations.
Utley, Robert M. The Indian Frontier. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984. Examines, through vignettes and traditional narrative, Indian-white relations on the military and political frontiers.