VII. Documents and Source Materials
Most of the documents included in this packet are unabridged to give teachers the widest amount flexibility in deciding how to use the materials. Many of the reports include information that may suggest lessons that further students’ understanding of Indian history and experience beyond the negotiation of treaties and the establishment of reservations. They may also provide insight into the experiences and attitudes of the white agents who implemented the policies developed in Washington, D.C.
Supreme Court of the United States, The Cherokee Nation vs. The State Of Georgia (5 Peters, 1), March 18, 1831. This is the complete text of Chief Justice John Marshall’s decision.
Chinook Dictionary and Chinook Dictionary Abridged
George Gibbs. Dictionary Of The Chinook Jargon, Or, Trade Language Of Oregon (New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863). Excerpts from the English-Chinook portion of the dictionary. The unabridged version contains language that adolescents may find titillating.
Congressional Globe, 31st Congress, 2nd Session, p. 26-29. This report by Commissioner Luke Lea summarizes the reasons the government gave for moving to a reservation policy.
Charles J. Kappler, ed. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. I, Laws (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904). Edited reprint of the executive orders that established the reservations on Olympic Peninsula.
Roscoe R. Hill, ed. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. XXXII, 1787, January 17–July 20 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1936), p. 334-343. This is the full text of the Northwest Ordinance of 1797. It spells out how new states would be admitted to the nation and also how Indians should be treated in the process.
Report of Governor Isaac I. Stevens, 1854
Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1854 (Washington, D.C.: 1854), p. 447-457. Excerpts from Governor Stevens' much longer report giving his initial impression of the Indians in Washington Territory and outlining his proposed plans and policies for treaty-making.
Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1858 (Washington, D.C.: 1858), p. 230-232. This is an excerpt from a much longer report made by Indian Agent Michael T. Simmons on June 30, 1858. The agent discusses the Indians’ eagerness to have their treaties ratified and describes their attitudes toward whites.
Agency Reports are the reports that the agents filed each year summarizing the progress made by the Indians under their care. The reports often highlighted achievements—including numbers of Indians on the reservations or children in school, the quantities of harvests, fish caught and the like. They also recorded problems and conflicts such as land disputes, Indian complaints, illnesses, or agent concerns about new policies. In some years the reports were lengthy and detailed; in other years they provided minimal information.
Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1862 (Washington, D.C.: 1862), p. 407-412.
Superintendency Reports were prepared by the Indian superintendents of Washington Territory. Like Agency Reports (above) they summarize activities of the reservations under the superintendent’s administration but also provide a broader overview of Indian affairs in the region. Sometimes, as in the examples included below, they singled out specific problems the superintendents wanted to call to their superiors’ attention.
Report of the Washington Superintendency, 1862
Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1862 (Washington, D.C.: 1862), p. 384-401.
Report of the Washington Superintendency, 1871
Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, for the Year 1871 (Washington, D.C.: 1871), p. 270-278.
Report of the Washington Superintendency, 1872
Office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1872 (Washington, D.C.: 1872), p. 328-345.
Treaties are defined simply as contracts between nations. Until the United States unilaterally decided in 1871 to stop making treaties with Native Americans, these contracts were how the United States negotiated its relations with Indian tribes. The treaties secured Native lands for American expansion in return for promises of goods and services and established the rules that would govern the ongoing relationship between whites and Indians—although these rules were often violated by the government, its citizens, and, less frequently, the Indians. This selection of treaties can be used to trace the evolution of the treaty-making process and provides the full texts of the treaties made on the Olympic Peninsula in 1855.
Treaty with the Delawares, 1778
Charles J. Kappler, ed. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. II, Treaties (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), p. 3-5.
Treaty with the Delawares, 1804
Charles J. Kappler, ed. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. II, Treaties (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), p. 70-72.
Charles J. Kappler, ed. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, vol. II, Treaties (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), p. 682-85.
Bibliography
Berkhofer Jr., Robert F. The White Man’s Indian, Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Boxberger, Daniel L. Handbook of Western Washington Indian Treaties. Lummi Island, Washington: Lummi Indian School of Aquaculture, 1979.
Boyd, Robert T. “Demographic History, 1774-1874,” in Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant, vol. 7, Northwest Coast, 135-48. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990.
Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004.
Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.
Debo, Angie. A History of the Indians of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1970.
Garretson, Charles Edwin. “A History of the Washington Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1853-1865.” MA thesis, University of Washington, 1962.
Gates, Charles H. Messages of the Governors of the Territory of Washington to the Legislative Assembly, 1854-1889. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1940.
Gibbs, George. Indian Tribes of Washington Territory. Fairfield, Wash.: Galleon Press, 1967.
Gunther, Erna. Indian Life on the Northwest Coast of North America, as Seen by the Early Explorers and Fur Traders During the Last Decades of the Eighteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.
Gunther, Erna, and Ann M. Renker. “Makah,” in Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant, vol. 7, Northwest Coast, 422-30. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990.
Harmon, Alexandra. Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and Indian Identities around Puget Sound. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Hine, Robert V., and John Mack Faragher. The American West: A New Interpretive History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
James, Justine E., Jr., and Leilani A. Chubby. “Quinault,” in Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula, Who We Are, ed. Jacilee Wray. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.
Marino, Cesare. “History of Western Washington since 1846,” in Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant, vol. 7, Northwest Coast, 169-79. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990.
Morganroth, Chris, III. “Quileute,” in Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are, ed. Jacilee Wray, 134-49. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.
Moziño, José Mariano. Noticias De Nutka, an Account of Nootka Sound in 1792. Translated by Iris H. Wilson Engstrand. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.
Nash, Gary B. Red, White, and Black; the Peoples of Early North America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.
Perdue, Theda, and Michael D. Green. The Cherokee Removal, a Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books/St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Peterson, Melissa. “Makah,” in Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are, ed. Jacilee Wray, 150-67. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.
Pettitt, George Albert. The Quileute of La Push, 1775-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950.
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Richter, Daniel. Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
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Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo. The Pacific Northwest, an Interpretive History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
Seeman, Carole. “The Treaty and Non-Treaty Coastal Indians,” in Indians, Superintendents, and Councils: Northwestern Indian Policy, 1850-1855, ed. Clifford E. Trafzer, 37-67. Lanham: University Press of America, 1986.
Sturgis, William. “A Most Remarkable Enterprise”: Lectures on the Northwest Coast Trade and Northwest Coast Indian Life. Marstons Mills, MA.: Parnassus Imprints, 2000.
Thomas, Cyrus. “Introduction,” in Indian Land Cessions in the United States, ed. Charles C. Royce. Washington: GPO, 1899.
Trennert, Robert A. Alternative to Extinction: Federal Indian Policy and the Beginnings of the Reservation System, 1846-51. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1975.
Wagner, Henry R. Spanish Explorations in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Santa Ana, CA: Fine Arts Press, 1933.
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