Bureau of Indian Affairs :: American History Native Americans Essays

Bureau of Indian Affairs This is a great day for you and for us. A day of peace and knowledge between you and the whites for all time to come. You are about to be paid for your records, and the GREAT FATHER has sent me today to treaty with you concerning the payment...And the GREAT FATHER wishes you to feel homes, pastures for your horses and fishing places. he wishes you to learn to distantm and your children to go to a good school and he now wants me to make a bargain with you, in which you bequeath sell your lands and in return be provided all these things. Isaac I. Stevens, 1854The US governments official role in Indian affairs began as far back as the Continental Congress (1786) when the Indian tribes were still considered independent nations with whom the settlers had to make treaties (Jackson 1). The purposes for these interactions were to buy land and to keep peace between encroaching settlers and natives. Unfortunately, these scratch line transactions reflected the cu ltural misunderstandings between the two parties that would continue to plague communication until this century (Taylor 5). The Europeans assumed the Indians viewed land in the same wayindividuals owning plots of land for unpolished purposes. Most of the eastern tribes were nomadic and moved to meet seasonal needs for hunting. When the Europeans offered to buy land, the natives did not understand that they would thence be barred from the use of that land for migrating and for hunting. Even at these early stages of negotiations, conflicts arose between the two levels of government as to who had jurisdiction. The federal government alone had authority to make treaties with foreign nations, but the states had to fill out with the individual tribes. This led to more local intervention by agents of the federal government to actually negotiate between states and tribes (Jackson 15). Another role of these agents was, as hydrogen Knox stated, to familiarize Indians with the American way of living (Jackson 20). As the bureaucracy began to develop to meet the needs of the westward expansion, the departments oversight was given to the depositary of War. This did not seem to be an intentional statement of purpose but rather a decision of convenience because the Department of the Interior did not dwell yet. However, Francis Prucha felt that this may have been because the Indians had been viewed as siding with the British during the Revolutionary War and thus were adversaries(319).