CRE 151- Religion and Native American Assimilation, Resistance and Survival notes

 Religion and Native American Assimilation, Resistance and Survival

1)      Since the 19^th century -the expansion of the American empire constrained Native American autonomy and cultural expression

a.      NA history cannot be told without discussion of the violent disposition of land, languages, and lifeways

b.      Pressures exerted on NA by U.S. colonialism so intense and far-reaching

                                                              i.      Us officials sought no less than the complete eradication of Native cultures through assimilation policies devised in the 19^th century and beyond

c.      Efforts never went uncontested

d.      Native Americans developed a range of strategies to ensure the survival of their communities

e.      Activism meant that U.S. colonialism operated as a dynamic process that facilitated various forms of cultural innovation

f.        Responses mapped on a continuum of resistance in which accommodation and militancy exist as related impulses

g.       Native Americans deployed various expressions of resistance according to the political circumstances faced

2)      Religion provided the language and logic of U.S. colonial expansion and Native American resistance

a.      Provided a powerful medium for cross-cultural communication and exchange in the American colonial context

b.      Religion facilitated engagement with white  (mostly Protestant) Christian missionaries

c.      Allowed Native Americans to embrace some aspects of white American culture while rejecting others

                                                              i.      Even in the context of Native American conversion to Christianity

d.      Allowed flexible responses to U.S. consolidation policies intended to constrain Native autonomy still further extending the reservation system

                                                              i.      Missionary oversight of Indigenous communities and land use in the late 19^th century

e.      Tribes fought consolidation through armed rebellions of the 1870s could find reasons to accept reservation life once continued military action became untenable

f.        Once settled on reservations, tribes developed resistance strategies to make reservation life more tolerable

g.       In this environment of religious innovation and resistance -new religious movements like the Ghost Dance and peyote religion arose to challenge the legitimacy of U.S. colonialism directly through their revolutionary combinations of Native and Christian forms

3)      Christian Missions and American Colonialism

a. U.S. Indian policy focused on removing Native American tribes from their homes east of the Mississippi River and resettling them on western lands acquired through the Louisiana Purchase in the 1830s.

b.      And then in the 1830s again, the Native Americans were removed to accommodate white settlement

c.      These policies were not aimed to limit conflict but to eradicate Native cultures by forcing Native Americans to live on isolated reservations where land and resources would be shared among different tribes.

d.      U.S. officials expected these changes would break down existing tribal identities an undermine traditional customs over time

e.      They hoped this would lead to consolidation, resulting in the total assimilation of Native Americans to U.S. culture

f.        Christian missionaries partnered with the U.S. government in this enterprise

                                                              i.      Christian missionaries and federal officials worked collaboratively to transform Native societies to conform to these cultural standards

                                                             ii.      Intended to force cultural practices to align with interests of American colonialism and expansion

                                                           iii.      Native Americans who converted to Christianity and American civilization simultaneously

                                                           iv.      Would result in a speedy transition from traditional to new customs/cultures

                                                             v.      New ways of dressing, hairstyles, clothing, monogamous family structures, and new gendered division of labor in which men would farm individual homesteads while women tended their homes.

                                                           vi. Missionaries' efforts to transform Native cultures were made as ministers, farmers, teachers, and eventually federal bureaucrats charged with administrating U.S. Indian policy, not separate from the American colonial projects to dominate Native peoples.

                                                         vii.      Policy is often seen as humane and progressive reform at the time

1.      but they actually supported and extended the U.S. colonial project by privileging U.S. interests over Native rights

a.      coercing Native assimilation to white cultural norms through aggressive missionary tactics

b.      threatening forceful retaliation if Native peoples resisted U.S. authority

2.      Popular among most Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War

3.      They hoped to secure lasting peace through moral reform rather than military intervention

a.      As advocated by US. Grant, former Union general, now president in 1868

b.      Following the Civil War, he reconstructed a new Indian policy in what was termed benevolent reform

c.      Leading to total assimilation of Native peoples

4.      Initially sought to end political patronage in Indian affairs

a.      Convinced that corruption represented impediments to Native assimilation

b.      Sought to hire Quakers as Indian agents

c.      Charged with the management of northern and Central Superintendencies

d.      Granted them army officers to oversee remaining Indian agencies

                                            

    i.      Later bared by Congress from accepting civil appointments

    ii.      Which led to reservations being under religious oversight

e.      Peace policy in 1870 expanded to other Protestant denominations

 f.        Thus, missionaries became U.S. Indian agents, teachers, farmers, and other employees on the reservations assigned to management positions.

 g.       They established churches and schools on reservations, instructed in English, agriculture, and various domestic skills deemed necessary for civilized life

            h.      Dispersed government funds and rations to ensure compliance, economy and promote Native industry, leading to self-sufficiency

            i.        The whole process was disappointing Violence surged in the American West throughout the 1870s as Native Americans forcibly resisted the federal government’s demand to abandon homes and customs for life on remote reservations.

5. The U.S. government increasingly doubted the process, and therefore, under Grant’s Peace Policy, it became more militaristic during the Great Sioux War and the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.

6.      Watching Colonial George Custer and five companies of 7^th Calvery being annihilated, Congress appropriated funds for additional troops and forts to support expansion efforts to police Native American resistance in the West.

a.      This ultimately forced Native peoples to accept government control over their lives on reservations.

7. The government was unsatisfied; in the 1880s, it implemented even more policies and procedures to govern reservation life.

a.      Code of Indian Offenses in 1883 identified Native customs as a great hindrance to the progress of civilization and outlined methods for their suppression

b.      Attacked Native religion

c.      Banned traditional dances and feasts, gift exchanges, funeral rites, and polygamy

d. Sought to constrain the influence of medicine men by suppressing healing rites and other rituals.

e. Penalties for those who printed and practiced Native customs ranged from imprisonment to loss of government rations.

f.        The Code of Indian Offenses was amended in 1933 as part of reforms associated with the Indian New Deal

8.      The Dawes Severity Act of 1887 converted all communal tribal land into individual property allotments

a.      Native Americans who renounced their tribal affiliations and assimilated to white cultural norms would receive up to 160 acres and full citizenship

b. Legislation reflected the emphasis of American Protestants on individual conversion as the most effective means of reforming society.

c.      Senator Henry Dawes -its author-wanted to change Indian policy to treat the Indian as an individual, not as an insoluble substance that the civilization of this country had been unable to digest.

                                                              i.      Individualism, hard work, thrift, self-sufficiency, and respect for private property would transform Native Americans into good Americans.

d. Dawes Act destabilized communal forms of social organization with Native tribes and dramatically reduced land on which Native peoples could live and hunt.

e.      Coercive measures aimed to force Native peoples to adopt farming to avoid starvation.

f.        Many tribes in the 20th and 21st centuries sought redress in the courts, arguing for restoration of or compensation for lands lost under the Dawes Act.

 

III). Indian New Deal -Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

1.      Profoundly altered U.S. Indian policy

2.      Under John Collier -commissioner of Bureau of Indian Affairs -1933-1945

a.      U.S. government reversed previous assimilationist policies

b.      Attempted to halt allotment, establish procedures for the creation of tribal governments and recognition of tribal constitutions, and repealed prohibitions on the performance of traditional Native American customs

c.      Provided grants to create local school districts (in partial reform of existing boarding-school program), hospitals, and social service agencies to assist in NA sustaining and strengthening their cultures.

d.      Results mixed -it did slow down but not halt the practice of allotting tribal lands to individual tribal members

e.      Made no attempt to restore tribal lands held by individuals to tribal groups

f.        Left the reservations a patchwork of privately owned and communal lands, which continues today.

g.       It only provided for limited Native self-rule, and suspension of bans on Native customs provided relief from oppressive assimilationist agendas.

h. But it still imposed new forms of social and political organization through the Indian New Deal that still impacted Native people.

3.      1940s and 1950s..congress rejected much of the Indian New Deal by passing a series of laws that sought to return to the assimilationist policies of the past

a.      A new policy that called for the legal dissolution of Native American tribes

b.      The U.S. government terminated over 100 tribes by revoking their status as sovereign dependent nations and ending all forms of federal aid associated with that designation.

c.      Relocation functioned as a key component of the termination policy

                                                              i.      Encourage Native Americans living on reservations to relocate to urban areas.

1.      Offered job training and housing assistance.

2. More than 33,000 Native Americans entered the relocation program between 1953 and 1970.

3.      Termination and relocation seen as assimilation mechanisms to facilitate Native Americans assimilating into White America.

4. It led to the emergence of the American Indian Movement and other Red Power groups in the 1960s.

a.      Also fueled Native religious and political dissent in the late 20^th century

                                                                                                                                      i.      And gave many the skills to agitate for their civil rights.

5.      Response -The government in the late 1960s and 1970s repudiated termination, changed federal policy to favor Native self-determination rather than total assimilation

6.      Some tribes fought termination in courts and delayed its implementation to avoid the dissolution of their tribal identities.

7.      Some survived due to technical errors in processing their legal termination.

8.      Many regained their legal status as federally recognized Sovereign states

9.      While others are still seeking restoration.

 

4.      Negotiating Strategies for Survival on the Continuum of Resistance.

 

a.      Still determined to control their destinies -religion played a critical role in the formation and execution of various strategies of survival for NA communities.

b. Powerful medium for cultural innovation and communication -facilitated various responses.

c.      NA resistance to total assimilation dynamic, shifting continuum ranging from accommodation to militancy or some combination utilized to address political situation.

d.      For some, Conversion to Christianity functioned to produce resources to help negotiate new relationships and identities

                                                              i.      Resist colonialism

                                                             ii.      Learning English to read the Bible helped them understand and negotiate trade, government oversight, and the ability to communicate tribal shared concerns.

                                                           iii. Hymn societies flourished, allowing Ojibwe singers to express “age-old values of reciprocity, subsistence and seasonal round” in the new context of reservation life. Ritualized hymn singing flourished and allowed Ojibwe singers to express “age-old values of reciprocity, subsistence, and the seasonal round..in a new context of reservation life.  Allowed them to be fully Christian and fully Ojibwe.

1.       Thus, it helped them preserve their culture under the guise of Christianity.

 

5.      The Ghost Dance and Peyote religions arose in the 19th century to more directly challenge the legitimacy of U.S. colonialism by combining Native and Christian religious forms.

a.      Proved profoundly unsettling to U.S. officials and Christian missionaries.

6.      Peyote Religion -beginning in the 1870s.

a.      Involved ritual consumption of peyote among NA confined to reservations in western Indian territory

                                                              i.      Became one of the significant Pan-Indian movements in American history

                                                             ii.      Peyote -small, spineless cactus produces visual and auditory hallucinations when ingested

1.      Long history in rituals of NA living near the Mexican border where placing grew while

                                                           iii. Peyote religion emerged as a distinct phenomenon as the U.S. government sought to consolidate its power through an aggressive campaign to assimilate Native peoples to white Christian cultural norms in the late 19th century.

                                                           iv.      Its embrace was the transformative power of the rituals developed to facilitate cultural changes and resist assimilation.

b.      Most noted in the development of peyote religion Quanah Parker

                                                              i.      First or only peyote roadman to serve the Comanche people

                                                             ii.      Played oversized role in the diffusion of new religion within own tribe and among other Native peoples

                                                           iii.      Son of Comanche chief named Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker (European American woman kidnapped as a child and assimilated to Comanche culture).

                                                           iv.      Parker refused to honor Traty of Medine Lodge of 1867, which stipulated Comanche people accept reservation life

                                                             v.      He sought spiritual power through innovative religious practices before leading a series of devastating raids into Texas

                                                           vi.      Worked as a medicine man and prophet named Isa-tai

1.      Parker participated in the first Sun Dance conducted among Comanche

2. Forged alliances with other Comanche and Cheyenne warriors through millennial prophecies fueled rebellion against U.S. authority.

3.      Conceded to white rule only when military resistance appeared futile and embraced Integration with whites with intense interests once settled on the Kiowa Comanche reservation in Southwestern Indian Territory in 1875.

4.      He adopted those practices that offered spiritual and material benefits to him and his people and rejected others.

5.      The strategy allowed Parker to work closely with white Christian missionaries and businessmen in support of Western-style education and commerce for his people while rejecting the Protestant religion

a.      Especially the emphasis on monogamous marriage

b.      Which Christian missionaries viewed as necessary for assimilation.

                 vii.      Although history is inconclusive on why Parker first consumed peyote, we know it occurred as part of a healing ritual in the mid-1880s, and he attributed his cure to its power.

                 viii. From this point -he advocated the Peyote religion aggressively to revitalize Native communities and work to protect the new religion from federal suppression.

                    ix. His activism proved instrumental in securing a privileged place for the Half Moon ceremony within the Peyote religion known as the old way.

1.      Took its name from the shape of the altar on which peyote rested

2.      Emphasized the use of traditional Native mythology and tobacco in its prayers.

3.      Has a tradition of blending Native and Christian forms

a.      Addressing Jesus and the presence of the Bible

4.      Less pronounced than that of the Crossfire or other competing versions of religion.

                                                             x. Christian missionaries and Indian agents realized that Native Americans were slipping from their control and immediately tried to suppress the practice and use of peyote.

             xi. Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a general ban on peyote consumption in 1890, but this did little to diminish the popularity of the peyote religion or limit the availability of peyote among Native peoples.

  xii.      New religion only grew in popularity

                 xiii. Typically, the very people charged with enforcing the rules and bans were the very people who disseminating it.  Such as Quanah Parker, who served on and dominated the Court of Indian Offenses    

         xiv.                  The government tried to enact a federal statute criminalizing its transportation and use  

1.      Activism resulted in congressional hearings on peyote use among NA in 1918.

2. Ethnologist James Money defended the peyote religion during the hearings.

a. He had lived and conducted extensive fieldwork with western Plains Indians, participated in numerous peyote rituals, and insisted that the religion and the use of peyote were not unhealthy, heathenism, uncivilized, or dangerous.

b.      His testimony helped turn public opinion, producing a narrow victory over their opponents.

c.      He assisted in the chartering of the Native American Church in Oklahoma in 1918.

d.      He lost his job when the interior secretary banned his ethnographic research.

e.      When the church continued the practice of peyote religion within the Protestant traditions.

7.      Ghost Dance Religion -multiple versions emerged in the 19^th century as Native Americans forcefully contested white rule in the American West and sought to shape new social identities

a.      Ghost dance fused Christian and Native American traditions in their new religious movement to offer a potent message of hope for cultural renewal.

b. Teachings focused on expectations for the imminent return of dead friends and relatives on restored earthly paradise and the disappearance of white newcomers who had intruded on their lands.

c.      Attempted to hasten the arrival of millennial glory through an elaborate dance ritual

d.      Wodziwob -Principal prophet of the 1870s

                                  i.      Articulated transformative message of Native renewal through his prophetic ministry in the Walker Lake region of western Nevada during the 1860s – early 1870s

                ii.      Teachers subverted U.S. consolidation policies aimed at eradicating Native autonomy through claims that Native Americans could change their present circumstances by practicing ceremonial dances and other rituals.

1.      Allow them to access extraordinary powers

        iii.      Prophesized the collapse of existing social order, predicted an earthquake would soon destroy white settlers or create necessary social conditions to end racial distinctions between whites and Indians.

                            iv. A new order would be established to revitalize all aspects of American culture.

                                                             v.      Bring dead ancestors back to life

                                                           vi.      Restore earth to paradise long gone.       

                                                      vii.      Focused on Native identity and opposition to U.S. authority

                                 viii.      Sharpened existing racial distinctions between Native Americans and whites.

e.      Wenyuga apocalypticism resonated, especially with members of the Modoc tribe in California.

f.        Embroiled in dispute with U.S. government over efforts to contain their tribe on the Klamath reservation in Oregan

             i.      Modoc Ghost Dancers looked to new religions to provide spiritual and political resources to increase resistance

1. Modoc War erupted in the fall of 1872, frustrating U.S. attempts to contain the tribe for several months.

2.      After a sustained series of defeats, the U.S. government appointed peace commissioners to treat with Modoc leaders to end conflict

3.      Some Modoc resistance fighters attacked peace commissioners,

4. The U.S. government pursued Modoc rebels with renewed vigor

5.      Military losses caused some Modoc warriors to doubt Ghost Dance's prophecy

a.      They feared Christian bullets more than the Ghost dancers.

6.      The war ended with the capture of Modoc rebels in June of 1873

7.      U.S. military executed Modoc chief Kientpos and three other leaders on Oct. 3, 1873

8. Two condemned rebels were reprieved at the last minute and were sent to serve life sentences at Alcatraz Island.

9.      Remaining Modoc prisoners lived in exile at the Quapaw Agency in Indian Territory until 1909.

a. They were allowed to return to the same reservation at Klamth that they had fought so hard to leave.

10.  Ghost Dancing remains among the Modoc even after the U.S. put down their rebellion.

a. Their religion helped them mediate political opposition to white rule, which was manifested as militancy or quietism at different times depending on their problems.

b.      Continued to rapidly spread from California to Oklahoma in the late 1880s.

c.      U.S. officials became more disgruntled, seeing it as a direct challenge to the union religion and politics supporting their colonial authorities

d.      Most distressing was the idea that Christ identified with the suffering Native peoples and would come back to earth to live with them..the chosen people

e.      Their reinterpretation contested the authority of the United States government and transformed the religion itself.

f.        Their religion contained powerful messages of religious dissent, political resistance, and the promise of a reestablished Native autonomy in the American Wet.

g.       This was a resistance to white rule through songs and actions that served to defy colonial authority

h. At the risk of new sanctions, they continued forcing the U.S. to deploy thousands of troops to occupy the reservations, the largest military operation since the Civil War.

i.        Sitting Bull (a Lakota holy man)  was murdered in a botched attempt to arrest him

        i.      Intensified Lakota fears of an imminent attack

                   ii.      Stoked fears on both sides of conflict

j.        Big Foot, leader of the Minicongjou band, offered sanctuary to some of Sitting Bulls’s followers after his death and was also a supporter of the ghost dance religion

.       Decided to surrender to soldiers at Pine Ridge

l.        He hoped to restore order to the region by returning to the reservations.

m.    U.S. troops intercepted the Mixed Minicongjou Lakota band at Wounded Knee Creek on December 28, 2890

                                i.      They found Big Foot severely ill with pneumonia   and moved him to an army ambulance for the night

                                                               ii.      Members of Big Foot’s party camped along the creek

VI)                Again, mixed reports suggest that the medicine man urged ghost dancers to resist the soldiers, promising that no bullets would harm them..blowing in the dust

                             iii. A deaf Lakota man refused to hand over his gun when a soldier tried to disarm him

IV Accidently discharging the weapons, the men struggled

                            v.      The soldier shot the medicine man when he blew dust in the air

                             vi.      Fearing that his action was a signal for the warriors to attack the U.S. troops

            V) The 7th Calvary opened fire, killing men, women, and children. Close to three hundred died at the massacre.

11.  Many believe that the Ghost Dance ended with violence at Wounded Knee

a.   But this is a mistake

a.. Caddo and some other Native American peoples still continue the ghost Dance religion to this day

b.      The American Indian Movement restored the Ghost Dance during its occupation of Wounded Knee inb 1973

c.      Ghost Dance and other native traditions allowed urban Indians to be dislocated from reservation cultures through termination and relocation programs to reengage in new forms of religious innovation intended to ensure the continual survival of Native American cultures.