Summary

In 1824, Congress established the Office of Indian Affairs, which became the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947. The OIA was supposed to protect Indians from fraudulent transactions but often engaged in them itself. The first Native American to head the OIA was Ely Parker, appointed by President Grant in 1869. The OIA was reorganized in 1909, and a new mission, assimilation, aimed “to turn Indians into Americans through private ownership, religion, and education” (113).

In 1871, Congress declared that the U.S. would cease to regard the tribes as sovereign and would consider them wards of the state. In 1877, the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph fought their way 1200 miles from a reservation in Idaho toward Canada to join Sitting Bull’s Lakota. U.S. forces captured them 40 miles from the border. Chief Joseph’s speech to a Washington, D.C. audience in 1879 is one of the most...