1830-1900

Native American Removal, Relocation,

Re-education

Indian Removal Act of 1830“In 1830, just a year after taking office, Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian

Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions. But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave.

Jackson's attitude toward Native Americans was paternalistic and patronizing -- he described them as children in need of guidance. and believed the removal policy was beneficial to the Indians. Most white Americans thought that the United States would never extend beyond the Mississippi. Removal would save Indian people from the depredations of whites, and would resettle them in an area where they could govern themselves in peace. But some Americans saw this as an excuse for a brutal and inhumane course of action, and protested loudly against removal…..

By 1837, the Jackson administration had removed 46,000 Native American people from their land east of the Mississippi, and had secured treaties which led to the removal of a slightly larger number. Most members of the five southeastern nations had been relocated west, opening 25 million acres of land to white settlement and to slavery.”

www.pbs.org – People and Events – Indian Removal – 1814-1858

Trail of Tears – 1830-1858

Wovoka and Zitkala Ša Timeline• 1830 - Indian Removal Act

• 1831-1838 - Trail of Tears

• 1856/57 - Wovoka (Jack Wilson) born in Nevada Territory (Paiute Indian Tribe)

• 1876 - Zitkala Ša (Gertrude Simmons Bonin) born in Missouri Territory (Dakota Indian Tribe

- Custer’s 7th Calvary is defeated in Montana Territory by Sioux and Cheyenne Tribes. Afterwards, these tribes are

rounded up and driven onto reservations.

• 1884 - Zitkala Ša (age 8) heads East to Indiana for education.

• 1889 - New Year’s Day – Wovoka has a vision (scarlet fever/solar eclipse)

• 1890 - December – Wounded Knee Masacre at Pine Ridge Rez (South Dakota)

• 1891 - New Year’s Day – Mass Burial (white settlers paid to bury bodies)

- Cheyenne version of “The Messiah Letter” dictated by Black Short Nose to his daughter after visiting with Wovoka.

• 1892 - Wovoka speaks his letter to American Ethnography James Mooney, who writes a “free rendering.”

• 1896 - Zitkala Ša completes in oratory copitition in Indiana as Earlham College rep.

• 1900 - Zitkala Ša publishes “Impressions of an Indian Childhood,” “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” and “An Indian Teacher amount Indians” in

Atlantic Monthly

Wovoka, The Ghost Dancers, and

the Massacre of Wounded Knee

The Ghost Dancers:Believers gather to carry-out Wovoka’s instructions.

The Ghost Dancers, cont.:For three consecutive days, believers dance and sing in

ceremonial dress.

The Ghost Dance Shirts:Many Ghost Dancers (and some Quakers) believe these

shirts make their wearers bulletproof

Living Conditions on the Reservations:Ration Day at the fort of the U.S. Indian Service

(today the Bureau of Indian Affairs – BIA)

December 29, 1890 :The Massacre of Wounded Knee Ensues:

Because of a blizzard, the bodies are left on the field only to be removed (after being photographed) four days later.

New Year’s Day of 1891:The bodies of almost all of the 120 men and 230 women once living in

the camp lie strewn across the field, frozen in place where they had fallen four days prior.

Historical Iconography:Popular Images of the “Battle” of Wounded Knee:

Chief Big Foot’s Dead and Frozen Body

The Gathering of the Dead:White settlers are paid two dollars for each corpse they

retrieve from the battlefield.

The Mass Graves:The bodies of the dead are “buried” in mass graves

(again, that is, after they are photographed with soldiers standing above in “victory”).