The Wild Frontier

by William M. Osborn

  Seminole chairman Buffalo Tiger has said that his people live in dependence on the United States government and are in effect living in a welfare state. He hopes, however, in the future to be able to refuse government grants so that his people can “return once again to independence,” according to Peter Matthiessen.25 The chairman clearly recognized that accepting federal money prevents independence.

  The Indians have more than adequate room for economic activity. Their reservations in the lower 48 states total about 52,000,000 acres, an area about the size of Minnesota. The Indians in Alaska own an additional 44,000,000 acres there. Although they constitute less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, Indians own nearly 5 percent of the United States.26

  ARE THE Indians dying out? The answer to this question is yes and no. There are fewer full-blooded Indians all the time, and in that sense the answer is yes. There are more people with some Indian blood all the time, and, to that extent, the answer is no. In 1970, more than 33 percent of all Indians were married to non-Indians, compared to just 1 percent of all Americans who married outside their race. By 1980, the number had grown to 50 percent, and it continues to climb. A 1986 congressional study estimated the percentage of Indians with one half or more Indian blood would decline from about 87 percent in 1980 to only 8 percent by 2080.27 This mingling of Indian bloodlines obviously has important consequences for Indians and Indian culture.

  “It is estimated that one-third to one-half of the Indians now live in cities.”28 James Wilson has said that figure is now 60 percent.29 Indians moving to the cities have reduced the Indian population on reservations. The 1990 Census indicates 437,358, or only 22.32 percent, of the Indians live on the reservations.30 More recent government statistics, however, according to a July 1999 AP press release, indicate that “there are 1.43 million Indians living on or near reservations.”31 If this is true, the figure for Indians living in cities is much smaller than the estimates stated above.

  The Bureau of the Census has published statistics showing Indian education, employment, family income, and poverty figures for 1979 compared with those of the total population. Four years of high school were completed by 56 percent32 of the Indians and by 67 percent of the total population (which, of course, includes Indians). Four years of college or more were completed by 8 percent of the Indians and by 16 percent of the total population. Participation in the labor force was 59 percent33 by Indians and 62 percent by the total population. Median family income was $13,680 for Indians and $19,920 for the total population. Families in poverty (a family of 4 making less than $7,412) were 28 percent for Indians and 12 percent for the total population.34

  The Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service, has published figures comparing Indian health with that of the entire population. They are dismal. Indian mortality from several causes is compared with mortality figures for all races for 1987. Indian deaths are 780 percent greater for tuberculosis, 667 percent greater for alcoholism, 295 percent greater for accidents, 268 percent greater for diabetes mellitus, 134 percent greater for homicide, 95 percent greater for suicide, 77 percent greater for gastrointestinal diseases, 9 percent greater for cerebrovascular diseases, 1 percent greater for diseases of the heart, and 12 percent less for malignant neoplasms.

  WE KNOW where the Indians have been. Where are they going? There is disagreement. Wilcomb E. Washburn said that “it is conceivable that the Indian will be able to retain his special status within the American nation and convert its former deficiencies into future advantages.”35 Indian arts and crafts are enjoying a renaissance. Tribes are being restored. Indians have new pride.36 It is said that since 1917, the Indians “have shown gradual improvement in education, health, and economic well-being.”37 Indian leadership is coming of age. The Indian problem is not as complex as it was 200 years ago.38 Some others say that the future of the Indian is not bright because most Indians are wholly dependent wards of the government.

  Three tribes illustrate different directions the Indian could take. The first is the path of the Oglala Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The reservation has a population of 20,000. It is in Shannon County, the poorest county in the United States. Unemployment is at least 50 percent; some say it is even higher.39 Jobs tend to be held with the tribal or federal government. Housing is scarce and poor. Many houses have no indoor toilets. There is no bank, no pharmacy, and a small taco stand is the closest thing to a restaurant. Tourist development is hampered by tribal infighting. The traditionalists oppose a gaming house on the ground that a casino with a liquor license is the last thing the town needs, but one was recently established there. Tribal council chairman John Yellow Bird Steele no longer thinks economic development can be handed to the tribes by the federal government or by firms bribed into the reservation by grants and loans. He insists that “Indians have to do things for themselves.” A growing number of Indians and economists agree. Former Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller spoke to tribal leaders in 1992, saying, “We have gotten too used to the BIA doing everything for us…. Getting away from the BIA is a major step for Indians. Self-government is an act of faith in ourselves.”40 The Economist has said that “traditionally, the Oglala Sioux have been thought of as a ‘difficult’ tribe.”41 Surely few Indians would take their path by choice.

  Contrast the Oglala Sioux with the Choctaw tribe of Mississippi. Over the last few decades, the tribe has transformed itself from a welfare culture into one of the largest employers in the state. Its factories assemble wire harnesses, telephones, and audio speakers for blue-chip corporations. A greeting-card plant hand-finishes 83 million cards every year. Only 15 years ago, unemployment was 80 percent, but now the tribe is fully employed and half of the tribe’s employees are white and black, not Indian. The tribe has its own television station, casino, golf course, conference center, and a 314-room hotel. By 1995, tribal sales were more than $100 million annually. The average income for a family of 4 is now about $22,000. The new Choctaw Health Center is among the state’s best hospitals. Teachers’ salaries in elementary schools are 25 percent higher than neighboring non-Indian schools.

  These achievements were brought about primarily by the managerial skills of Phillip Martin, a high school graduate, Air Force veteran, and chief of the tribe. Almost everything once carried out by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the Choctaw is now done by the tribal government, including law enforcement, schooling, health care, social services, forestry, credit, and finance.42

  Further contrast the Oglala Sioux with the Wascos, the Warm Springs, and the Paiute tribes of Oregon, whose 2,300 members constitute the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Indians. Their reservation consists of 355,000 acres of Douglas fir and ponderosa pine. They were removed from the Columbia River in 1855. A settlement for loss of their fishing rights was made with the government in 1958 for $4,000,000. Instead of dividing it up, they paid Oregon State University $100,000 to make an economic feasibility study of their reservation. They purchased a sawmill and a plywood plant and built a luxury lodge with golf course, tennis courts, sauna baths, trout fishing, horseback riding, and an Olympic-size swimming pool fed by hot springs. There is a new trout and salmon hatchery. Wild horses are raised; the most unruly are rented to rodeos. The building of a $30,000,000 hydroelectric plant is being considered. The gross income of the confederation is nearly $50,000,000 annually. Profits provide a monthly dividend of $75 for every Indian (including children) and a Christmas bonus of $1,200 each. The confederation employs more than 1,000 people, with a combined payroll of $12,000,000 each year. Tribal pensions begin at age 60. Tribal funds are available for medical and psychiatric care, alcohol and drug therapy, and educational and vocational training. Low-interest loans help pay for modern houses and mobile homes. Members of the confederation are financially better off than many of the whites around them. Reservation college graduates fill important positions. Nevertheless, there is a great need for doctors, psychiatrists, and especially teachers.

 
There are problems at Warm Springs. Alcoholism is prevalent. The young generation is turned off, and some of them turned on to drugs. The school dropout rate is high—fewer than half graduate from high school. There is a foster-care program for children with severe family problems and a center for troubled teenagers. Both are staffed by Indians.

  James Cornett, the Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent on the reservation, comments that “this is the most viable Indian society in the country.” What is the key to the confederation’s success? General manager Kenneth L. Smith says his grandparents inspired him to get an education because “we’re in the white man’s world … and you’re gonna have to learn to play the ball game.”43 Substantially all the confederation’s customers for the sale of its forest products, hotel services, and fish hatchery products are white.

  General manager Smith and the confederation did assimilate to some extent to the great benefit of the tribes without destroying their Indian way of life and without impairing their culture.44 The confederation has followed the advice of tribal council chairman John Yellow Bird Steele of the impoverished Oglala Sioux, who realizes now that “Indians have to do things for themselves.”

  WILL INDIANS follow the path of the Oglala Sioux, the path of the Warm Springs and the Choctaw Indians, or some other path? The answer to that question does not lie in the hands of the federal government and its Bureau of Indian Affairs, in the hands of whites, or in the hands of Indian advocates. The answer lies almost exclusively in the hands of the Indians themselves. Some of those who decide to do things for themselves and who accept the fact that they can accommodate to the white man’s world without losing their culture as many other cultures have done may be able to achieve the Warm Springs and Choctaw results and live a dignified and productive life.

  There are elements of classic Greek tragedy at work in the relationship between whites and Indians. The federal government over the years alternately has tried to harm and to help, but on balance has treated the once proud tribes in such a way that many of them are now characterized by their own leaders as welfare-state wards.

  No doubt the best of times in this country are yet to come. The descendants of the settlers, the descendants of the Indians, and all other Americans would be wise to join in that future just as Thomas Jefferson invited Indians in 1808 to join with the settlers and “spread with us over this great island.”45 Jefferson’s invitation is appropriate today. No atrocities have been committed by present-day whites against present-day Indians or vice versa. No one at the Santee Sioux Uprising, the Sand Creek Massacre, or the Wounded Knee Massacre is alive today. The time has come to go forward together, unhindered by the mutual atrocities growing out of the war.

  APPENDIX A

  Intertribal Indian Wars

  Events indicated by an * are those where members of one tribe fought another as scouts for an army.

  Intertribal Wars Before the 1600s

  1400s: Some Indian villages in America were found to be palisaded or fenced, a sign of “intensifying conflict.”1

  Before 1492: There were “fierce intertribal conflicts” for several reasons, including fights over women, material possessions, hunting rights, plunder, adventure, revenge, and sometimes territory.2

  1519: When Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés marched on the Aztec capital near Mexico City, he found “ever-warring” city-states in the empire.3

  1531: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro invaded Peru and found a civil war among the Incas.4

  1534: Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River. The Algonquin tribes told him their Iroquois enemies had been driven from that region several generations earlier.5

  The Iroquois invaded Algonquin territory before the settlers came. Many Algonquin lives were lost. That fighting continued after the settlers arrived.6

  Around 1560-70: The first explorers of the American coast and settlers as well found many Algonquin fighting one another and the Iroquois.7

  1584-90: The Powhatans fought the Chesapeakes.8

  1500s: The Sioux were driven out of Minnesota and Wisconsin by the Chippewa.9 The Sioux went west and took land from the Kiowa, Crows, Pawnee, and other tribes.10

  Intertribal Wars in the 1600s

  Early 1600s: The Pequots attacked and conquered the Montauks.11 Early 1600s: The Apache fought the Pimas.12

  1607: The Shawnee and the Iroquois fought before the settlers arrived. John Smith reported that they were engaged in a “fierce war” at that time.13

  1608-09: French explorer Samuel de Champlain found the Hurons and some Algonquin-speaking tribes fighting the Iroquois.14

  Before 1621: There were about 40 tribes in the Chesapeake Bay area. Powhatan, the predecessor of Opechancanough, was chief of several dozen of these tribes. Years before the settlers arrived, he had been “consolidating his hold on the lesser tribes of the area while warding off the inland tribes of the Piedmont.”15

  1621: The Wampanoags and the Narragansets fought. They made a treaty with the Pilgrims for trade and mutual assistance. Miles Standish and other Pilgrims aided the Wampanoags against the Narragansets.16

  Fighting among Indians continued after the settlers arrived up to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. It first occurred in the war between the Powhatans and the settlers, which began with the incident involving Morgan’s hat in 1622.17

  1624: The Mohawk fought the Mahican and Ottawas.18

  1626: Four Dutch traders joined the Mahican in a raid on the Mohawk. All 4 were killed.19

  The Mohawk raided the Mohegans, Pequots, Narragansets, Wampanoags, Massachusetts, and Pennacooks to such an extent that, out of fear, some of them paid yearly tribute.20

  1629: The Massachusetts and Pawtucket Indians agreed to exchange land with the Pilgrims for protection against their enemies, the Micmac.21

  The Navajo had raided and harassed the Hopi “from earliest times.”22 There was a land dispute between the 2 as late as 1960.23 Shortly after 1630: The Five Nations commenced fierce attacks against the Hurons.

  The attacks went on for 45 years.24

  At the same time, the Iroquois defeated the Algonquin allies of the Hurons to such an extent that they too paid yearly tribute.25

  1636: Massachusetts Bay militia with Mohegan allies killed some Pequot Indians.26

  1637: Mohegan and Narraganset Indians destroyed a Pequot town.27

  1638: The Five Nations fought the so-called Iroquoian Beaver Wars against the Hurons, Tobaccos, Neutrals, Eries, Ottawas, Mahicans, Illinois, Miamis, Susquehannocks, Nipissings, Potawatomis, Delaware, and Sokokis.28

  1639: The Hurons captured and burned 113 Iroquois.29

  1643: The Mohegans fought the Narragansets.30

  1647: Non-Christian Indians fought the Christian Apalachee.31

  1649: A party of 1,000 Mohawk and Seneca attacked a large Huron village.32 1649-79: The Iroquois fought the Hurons and their allies in wars of annihilation.33

  Before 1650: The Sioux fought the Chippewa for more than 200 years. That war ended about 1850.34

  Around 1650: The Sioux fought the Hurons. Thousands were killed in that war. The Hurons were eliminated as an independent tribe.35

  The Shawnee became involved in a series of fights with the Iroquois.36

  1660: The Five Nations made attacks in the west against the Tobaccos, the Neutrals, and the Eries. All 3 tribes were practically wiped out. The Five Nations then fought the Ottawas.37

  1660: The Oneidas and the Piscataways fought.38

  Around 1661: The Susquehannocks had an intense war with the Seneca, Onondaga, and Cayuga.39

  1662: The Mahicans and Ottawas fought the Mohawk.40

  Around 1670: The Iroquois of New York invaded the western country, what is now Indiana and Illinois.41

  1671: In an attempt to curry favor, when the Englishman Nathaniel Bacon said he was going to fight the Susquehannocks, the Occaneechis offered to do the fighting for him. They captured some Susquehannock prisoners and furs; they gave the prisoners to Bacon, but kept the fur
s. Bacon’s men attacked the Occaneechis, then retreated.42

  1671: The Illinois fought the Winnebagos. The Winnebagos were badly beaten. The tribe was reduced from 4,000 to a single village.43

  Before 1674: The Westos raided Guale, Cusabo, Cherokee, and Creek communities, taking slaves.44

  *1675: Wampanoag chief Metacom was called King Philip by the settlers. Three of his tribe were hanged for murdering a Christian Indian. Settlers were killed in raids. The Nipmuc and Narraganset tribes and other warriors joined King Philip. The settlers used Mohegans, Pequots, Niantics, Sakonnets, and Massachusett Indians to assist them as warriors, spies, and scouts. The settlers employed friendly Indians in this war to fight hostile tribes.45 Benjamin Church, commander of the settler troops, even recruited into his army some Indians he had captured.46

  Connecticut offered a bounty to the Narragansets for Wampanoag scalps or prisoners, and when the Narragansets attacked a Wampanoag village, 207 militia, perhaps 500 Indian warriors, and as many women and children were burned to death.47

  1675-80: Susquehannocks and Iroquois raided against the Piscataways and Matta-woman.48

  By the close of the seventeenth century all of the tribes of the north-central woodlands were facing destruction, mainly because they could not forget their petty feuds and present a united front to oppose the intrusion of Europeans into their lands.49

  1670s: The Cree and their allies forced the Sioux from the Mississippi headwaters into southern Minnesota.50

  The Iroquois destroyed the last of the Erie Indians.51

  The Iroquois fought the Susquehannocks.52

  1676: The Piscataway and the Mattawoman fought the Susquehannocks.53

  1680: The Sioux fought the Cheyenne and the Kiowa.54

  1680: The Carolina planters contracted with a wandering group of Shawnee to fight the Westos. At the end of 3 years, there were fewer than 50 Westos left. The rest had been killed by the Shawnee or sold into slavery.55 1680s: The Winnebagos were crushed by disease and by a war they started with the Illinois.56 The Iroquois attacked the Illinois, the Potawatomis, and the Miami.57 They also fought the Algonquin, Ottawas, Delaware, Mahicans, and Wappingers.58