A Century of Dishonor  

  Native American Nations                   

A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with some of the Indian Tribes

The great difficulty with the Indian problem is not with the Indian, but with the Government and people of the United States. Instead of a liberal and far-sighted policy looking to the education and civilization and possible citizenship of the Indian tribes, we have suffered these people to remain as savages, for whose future we have had no adequate care, and to the consideration of whose present state the Government has only been moved when pressed by some present danger. We have encroached upon their means of subsistence without furnishing them any proper return; we have shut them up on reservations often notoriously unfit for them, or, if fit, we have not hesitated to drive them off for our profit, without regard to theirs; we have treated them sometimes as foreign nations, with whom we have had treaties; sometimes as wards, who are entitled to no voice in the management of their affairs; and sometimes as subjects, from whom we have required obedience, but to whom we have recognized no obligations.

• Preface

• Introduction

• Introductory

  • Question of the Honorableness of the United States

  • Right of Every Nation to Just Treatment

• Deleware Indian Tribe

  • History of Campaigns

  • 1854 Influx of White Settlers to Kansas

• Cheyenne Indian Tribe

  • Congress Bad Faith with the Indians

  • I. H. Leavenworth, Trusted Friend

  • Testimony of Cheyenne Prisoners

• Nez Percé Indian Tribe

  • Moral Courage Shown by Indians to Whites

  • Joseph Chief of the Non-Treaty Band of Nez Percé

• Sioux Indian Tribe

  • Government's Disregard of Treaty Stipulations

  • Summer of 1857, Remembered by Citizens of Minnesota

  • Important Events in Sioux History

• Ponca Indian Tribe

  • Crops Destroyed by Locust

  • Story of Removal

• Winnebago Indian Tribe

  • The Annual Report of the Interior Department, 1862

  • Winnebago Home Truly Delightful

  • June 1838, Ceded to the United States all Their Land East of the Mississippi

• Cherokee Indian Tribe

  • President asks for Advise from the Senate

  • Georgia Takes a Strong Stand

  • Indians at a Great Disadvantage in Making Treaties

• Massacres of Indians by Whites

  • The Conestoga Massacre

    • The Paxton Boys

  • The Guadenhütten Massacre 

  • Massacres of Apaches

• Conclusions

• The Sand Creek Massacre

  • Letter from Wm. N. Biers

    • The Whole White River Band Guilty

  • Letter Number Three, Anonymous

  • Second Letter from Mr. ByersRe

• The Ponca Case

  • Mrs. Jackson to Secretary Schurz

  • Secretary Schurz to Mrs. Jackson

  • Mrs. Jackson's Second Letter

  • Reply of Secretary Schurz to The Second Letter

  • Review of the letters by New York Times Editor

  • Condition of the Ponca in the summer of 1880

  • The Legal Aspect of the Case

  • Report of the Attorneys

• Testimonies to Indian character

  • Character of Northwestern Indians

• Outrages committed on Indians by Whites

  • From Report of the Indian Bureau for 1851

  • Simon Kenton Narrative

• Extracts from the Report of the commission sent to treat with the Sioux Chief Sitting Bull

• Account of some of the old Grievances of he Sioux

  • Interview Between Red Iron, Chief Of The Sisseton Sioux, And Governor Ramsey, In December, 1852.

  • Removal of the Sioux and Winnebago from Minnesota in 1863

  • Food of the Indians at Crow Creek, Dakota, in the winter of 1864

• Letter from Sarah Winnemucca, An educated Pah Ute Woman

• Laws of the Delaware Nation of Indians

• Account of the Cherokee who invented the Cherokee Alphabet

• Prices paid by White men for Scalps

• Extract from Treaty with Cheyenne in 1865

• Wood-cutting by Indians in Dakota

• Sequel to the Walla Walla Massacre

• An account of the numbers, location and social and industrial condition of each Important tribe and band of Indians within the US

This site includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes implied.

Source: A Century of Dishonor, By Helen Hunt Jackson, New York, Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 1885

Native American Nations