Native American Indians

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Native American IndiansOklahoma
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Pre-19th Century Indian Territory

• Clovis 9,000 B.C.E.
• Folsom 8,500 B.C.E.
• Early Agricultural Settlements 5,000 B.CE. To
  500 A.D.
• Mississippian Period Spiro Mounds
• Wichita Southwestern Oklahoma
• Caddo Southeastern Oklahoma
• Pawnee North Central Oklahoma
• Plains Apache (Kiowa-Apache) Western OK

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Horse Culture

• Starting in the 1500s, the Kiowa, Comanche,
  Cheyenne and Arapaho receive the horse in the
  northern plains, they begin to move south,
  following the buffalo herds, ultimately arriving
  in the area including what is now western
  Oklahoma, but also encompassed parts of modern
  NM, TX, CO, and KS.

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Great Plains Region
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Osage

• Osage Oral history indicates they followed the
  buffalo into northeastern Oklahoma for many
  generations (maybe thousands of years).
• Forced southwest after interacting with the
  French near St. Louis.
• Chief Clermont is the namesake for Claremore.
• First white settlement in I.T. 1796 near Salina.

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1820s-1830s

• Arrival of Southeastern Tribes via removal and
  trail of tears, or the long walk.
• Many stories about how bad this experience really
  was. Thousands died.
• When the Cherokee arrive, the Osages immediately
  start fighting them.
• Fort Gibson has to be established (1824) to keep
  peace, receive removed people, and begin western
  military action.

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1830s-1865

• So-called golden era of the 5 "Civilized" Tribes
• The civilized term is applied by non-Indians to
  tribes for the period in which the five tribes
  from the SE formed governments, built schools,
  allowed missionaries into the nations, printed
  newspapers, established trade, etc. in Indian
  Territory.

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Why did being civilized not help?

• Even though the Cherokees did all they could to
  be perceived as civilized, that did not stop them
  from being removed to Indian Territory where they
  had to start over again.
• Then, the nations were destroyed again in the
  Civil War.

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1861-1865

• Civil war in Indian Territory was complicated
• Tribal members fought on both sides for different
  reasons
• The ones that fought on the South's side wound up
  penalizing the whole tribe as the five tribes'
  land holdings were cut in half by the federal
  government.
• Opening up more removals and setting the stage
  for allotments and land runs.

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Post-Civil War 1860s

• Treaties force tribes to allow railroads to cross
  tribal boundaries.
• Carpetbaggers, settlers, and lawlessness follow.
• Without any real federal jurisdiction, and tribal
  jurisdiction with limited powers, Indian
  Territory is the Wild West.

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Medicine Lodge of 1867

• Begins the process of confining the Kiowa,
  Cheyenne, Comanche, and Arapaho to reservations.
• Reservation period is a dark chapter in American
  History that includes the corrupt agents who did
  not provide adequate support materials for the
  people, and the beginning of the federal attacks
  on traditional lifeways.

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1860s through 1880s

• The end of the Plains Indian wars in which the
  "un-civilized" Plains Tribes are brought in and
  put on reservations or sent to prison in Florida.
  
• Battle of the Washita - Custer attacks peaceful
  Cheyenne camp in what is now western Oklahoma.
• The people are treated very much like livestock
  during this time period.

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Standing Bear

• 183? 1908
• Ponca
• In 1879, successfully argued in U.S. Federal
  Court that Native Americans are persons within
  the meaning of the law.
• 1st Civil Rights Activist

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Boarding School Movement

• Begins after the Civil War as Christians, with
  what they perceive as good intentions, advocate
  governmental assignment of Indian children to
  boarding schools.
• Some youth had good experiences.
• Others suffered psychological, physical,
  cultural, and long-term spiritual damage.
• Varying experiences good, bad, tolerable, only
  option during depression.

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1883

• Courts of Indian Offenses established by Federal
  Government, to be carried out by agents.
• Bans all traditional ceremonies, making criminals
  out of medicine people, ceremonial leaders and
  participants.
• Tribal traditions go underground and are kept
  active in secret or under the guise of Christian
  activities.

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Quanah Parker (Comanche)

• 1845-1911
• Refused to accept Medicine Lodge Treaty
• Fought on to the Battle of Adobe Walls in TX
  Panhandle (1874).
• Symbolized cultural synthesis
• Advanced modern form of the Native American Church

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Dawes Act (1887)

• Provided for the allotting of collectively held
  tribal lands to individual Indians.
• Once people were enrolled and allotted land, the
  rest was opened up for sale or settlement.
  Beginning of detribalization process.
• Strickland notes this process transformed many
  of these Indian people from proud, prosperous,
  self-reliant citizens of their own small
  republics into landless manipulated outcasts in a
  white state (36).

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1890s

• Allotment period fraught with logistical
  inconsistencies, racism, and exploitation of
  Native people's misunderstanding of land
  ownership.
• Descendants are still impacted by full bloods of
  the period who enrolled as ¼ or 1/8 so they would
  have control over their land.
• Federal benefits are denied to those less than ¼.

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Chitto Harjo (Muscogee-Creek)

• 1846 1912
• Protested allotments.
• Defied the federal courts and the U.S. Army in
  their attempts to enforce enrollment.
• Crazy Snake rebellion
• Exploits sensationalized

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Redbird Smith

• 1850 1918
• Kee-too-wah traditionalist
• Protested allotment to U.S. Senators, showing
  them the Cherokee land patent given to his
  great-grandfather at treaty signing.

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1890s

• Land runs (1889 1893)
• Territory unassigned to tribes after the
  allotments opened for settlement.
• Once vast tribal domains were carved into farm
  parcels and town plots within a very short period
  of time (10 to 15 years).
• Hence, contemporary American Indians not thrilled
  about celebrating land runs.

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1907

• With Oklahoma statehood,
• tribal governments are abolished.

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Statehood Sentiments

• Statehood was a bitter culmination of decades of
  conflict and of self-righteous programs to
  transform Indian Territory into a white
  commonwealth and make the American Indian a red
  farmer.
• Few whites ever understood the depth of the
  Indians agony at the passing of their
  nationhood.
• Rennard Strickland, 54.

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20th Century

• 1918 With great distinction, American Indians
  serve in World War I
• 1924 Indian Citizenship Act
• 1930s Indian New Deal
• Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
• Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (1934)
• Johnson OMalley Act (1934)

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Indian Reorganization Act

• The Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934,
  also known as the Wheeler-Howard Act or
  informally, the Indian New Deal, was a U.S.
  federal legislation which secured certain rights
  to Native Americans, including Alaska Natives.
  1 These include a reversal of the Dawes Act 's
  privatization of common holdings of American
  Indians and a return to local self-government on
  a tribal basis (442).
• Two sides (Traditional vs. Corporate
  Governmental structure)

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Johnson OMalley Act

• The Johnson-OMalley act of 1934 was passed on
  April 16th, 1934, to subsidize education, medical
  attention, and other services provided by States
  or Territories to Indians living within their
  borders. The act came about as a federal aid
  program during the Indian New Deal of the 1930s
  to help offset costs of tax-exempt Indians making
  use of State-owned and funded schools, hospitals,
  and other services.

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Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act

• The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936, also
  known as the Thomas-Rogers Act, is a United
  States federal law that extended of the Indian
  Reorganization Act of 1934 which sought to return
  some form of tribal government to the many tribes
  in Indian Territory. This act extended the law to
  include those tribes within the boundaries of the
  state of Oklahoma which had been divided up by a
  series of land allotments known as the Oklahoma
  land runs.

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1940s

• 1940s
• Boarding schools continue
• Tribes reorganizing
• With continued distinction, American Indians
  serve in WWII.
• Thunderbird Division
• Codetalkers

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20th Century

• 1950s Urban Relocation Program in which Native
  people are removed to urban areas and given trade
  type jobs.
• 1950s Tribal terminations
• 1960s American Indian Movement
• Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, BIA Takeover brought
  awareness to Native American issues

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1970s

• New Federal Programs
• Housing
• Education
• Job Training
• Tribal Governments Formed
• Re-recognition of terminated tribes
• Tribes begin to rebuild their governmental
  services systems.
• ARPA (1979) Archaeological Resources Protection
  Act

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Indian Self-Determination Act (1975)

• Public Law 93-638, or the Indian
  Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act
  of 1975, often referred to simply as the Indian
  Self-Determination Act, enacted authorization for
  the Secretaries of the Interior and of Health,
  Education and Welfare and some other government
  agencies to enter into contract with and make
  grants directly to federally recognized Indian
  tribes.

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1980s

• National Indian Gaming Association Forms
• Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988)
• National Indian Gaming Commission
• American Indian gaming now a 20 Billion
  industry.

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1990s

• NAGPRA Native American Graves and Repatriation
  Act (1990)
• IACA Indian Arts and Crafts Act (1990)
• Irony of federal language preservation programs.

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2000s

• Economic Development
• Citizen Potawatomi Nation
• http//www.potawatomi.org/Enterprises/default.aspx
  

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Good News?

• Economic development of the contemporary era with
  regard to gaming and tribes being able to better
  take care of themselves independent of the
  Federal government.
• Cultural activities that are tribal identity
  markers still continue, such as the Kiowa Gourd
  Clan, Muscogee and Cherokee ceremonials, Osage
  I'nlonshka, etc.

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Currently in Oklahoma

• 38 Federally Recognized Tribes
• Not including those who are enmeshed
  legislatively with other tribes, such as the
  Euchee, who are culturally distinct, but are
  enrolled with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

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Economic Impact

• Jobs (Cherokee Nation one of the biggest employer
  in NE Oklahoma)
• Impact of Federal dollars on roads, bridges, and
  other infrastructure
• The Cherokee Nation has built more than 32
  million worth of roads over the last ten years,
  and has more than 60 million more in progress
  right now. (cherokee.org)

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Gaming

• Impact of gaming (positive/negative)
• Positive Jobs (construction/operation/nearby
  businesses), money to the state of Oklahoma,
  tribal self-reliance
• Negative Stretching local non-Indian law
  enforcement resources, organized crime, problem
  gamblers.

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Cultural Tourism

• American Indian Cultural Resource Center
• Cherokee Tourism

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Emotional Evolution

• American Indian tribal history in Oklahoma can
  evoke a multitude of emotional responses.
• Anger (treatment by U.S. government and
  contemporary popular culture)
• Sadness (loss of life, lifeways, and land)
• Pride (recovery from these losses)
• Hope (vision for a positive future)

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A Few Important Sources

• Debo, Angie. And Still the Waters Run The
  Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes. Princeton
  PU Press, 1974.
• Clark, Blue. Guide to the Indian Tribes of
  Oklahoma. Norman OU Press, 2009.
• Joyce, Davis, ed. An Oklahoma I Had Never Seen
  Before. Norman OU Press, 1994.
• Strickland, Rennard. The Indians in Oklahoma.
  Norman OU Press, 1980.