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Indians 101: American Indians 100 years ago, 1925 [1]
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Date: 2025-06-17
According to the non-Indian social philosophers, bureaucrats, and politicians of the nineteenth century, Indians were going to simply disappear. Many history books about Indians stop their stories at the end of the nineteenth century, adding to the illusion that Indians somewhat stopped being Indians when the twentieth century was born.
In his chapter in Indian Self-Rule: First-Hand Accounts of Indian-White Relations from Roosevelt to Reagan, Roger Buffalohead writes:
“When the twentieth century began, most Americans who thought about Indians at all did so in the past tense. Like a photograph, the image of Indian culture was frozen in time. Yet, for Indians, the twentieth century was to become a time of recovering. Instead of a photograph, Indian life and culture was like a motion picture and the way the story line moved on, transcending the ending which American history seemed to have confirmed for Native Americans.”
In 1925 the American public was interested in American Indians as a part of the nation’s mythical past. Movies, books, magazines, and public speakers marketed Indian stories. Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance (Lumbee Indian), pretending to be a Canadian Blackfoot chief, gave talks in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. Those who attended the talks reported that he captured the hearts of his listeners and presented a great deal of interesting information.
The reality of the twentieth century was that Indians didn’t disappear but increased in numbers. The actions of the government toward the Indians during this century can be summed up in single word: schizophrenic. Briefly described below are some of the American Indian events of 1925.
Yellowstone National Park
America’s first national park, Yellowstone, covers parts of Wyoming and Montana. For millennia, American Indians had utilized the resources of this area, including animals, plants, and the hot springs. While the Park Service literature claimed that Indians feared the area and stayed away from it, and the Park Service unofficially discouraged Indians from entering the park, there were times when Indians were invited to participate in park events.
In 1925, a group of Shoshones from the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, under the leadership of Chief Tyhee, took part in ceremonies opening the new West Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
In 1925, officials from Yellowstone National Park invited a group of Crow Indians from Montana to assist in a roundup of the Yellowstone buffalo herd. The Indians wore traditional dress and attracted tourists who watched the riders chase the buffalo through the Lamar Valley.
American Indian Art and Museums
In New Mexico, the Indian Arts Fund was established in Santa Fe in order to collect and promote American Indian pottery.
In 1925, the State of New Mexico adopted the Zia Pueblo sun symbol for the state flag. The state did not ask for permission to use the sacred symbol, nor did it offer any compensation for its use.
In New York, Arthur Caswell Parker (Seneca) became director of the Rochester Museum. He began to revolutionize how museum exhibits present American Indian heritage.
The Denver Art Museum established a department of Indian art.
In California, the Riverside Municipal Museum was established. The museum would include American Indian exhibits.
Little Bighorn Battlefield
A Cheyenne woman, Mrs. Thomas Beaverheart, asked the Army to mark the place where her father was killed on the Little Bighorn Battlefield. The Army ignored her request.
Land
Since the very beginning of the European invasion, there had been conflicts over land between American Indians and the invaders. The land conflicts between American Indians and the federal and state governments continued in 1925.
In Oregon, Indian people from the western Oregon tribes met with Senator Robert Stanfield to discuss payment for five million acres of land which had been taken from them through unratified treaties. It was estimated that the Indians were owed $12.5 million for their land. Senator Stanfield convinced the Indians to submit their claim directly to Congress rather than going through the courts. Nothing resulted from this.
In Montana, the Indian Protective Association met in Helena and called for the resignation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. There was concern over the amount of Indian land which was being lost to non-Indians. Representatives for each of Montana’s seven reservations signed the petition.
In North Carolina, the federal government assumed trusteeship for Eastern Cherokee land and informed county officials that they could not tax Indian property. This was the first time since the Eastern Cherokees acquired these lands in the nineteenth century that they had not had to pay property taxes.
In New Mexico, the Pueblo Lands Board filed its first reports for the Pueblos of Tesuque, Jemez, and Nambé.
Tribal Governments
Viewed from the perspective of law, there are two kinds of Indian tribes: (1) tribes which are recognized by the federal government, and (2) tribes which lack federal recognition. In general, federal recognition is obtained by signing a treaty with the federal government, by Congressional action, or by court decrees. In 1925, as in today, most Indian tribes lack federal recognition.
In his book Forgotten Tribes: Unrecognized Indians and the Federal Acknowledgment Process, Mark Miller reports:
“Federal status thus allows a newly recognized federal tribe the power to exercise sovereignty and participate in federal Indian programs emanating from the BIA and the Indian Health Service.”
In Washington state, the Duwamish Indians adopted a constitution and formed a government in 1925. The Duwamish are a Southern Coast Salish people whose language is a dialect of Southern Lushootseed. Their homeland was on the Black River. Under the direction of the tribal council, they began seeking federal recognition.
Also in Washington, the Chinook Indians established a business council to protect their fishing rights and to fight for the return of their traditional lands. In addition, they began seeking federal recognition.
In Oklahoma, the federal government appointed Richard B. Choate as Cherokee Principal Chief for a day in order to sign some documents.
Siletz Agency
In Oregon, the Siletz Agency was closed. In The Rogue River Indian War and Its Aftermath, 1850-1980, E.A. Schwartz writes:
“The closing of the agency did not mark any great change in the way the Siletz people lived. For almost as long as the reservation existed, they had been adapting themselves to white society by going out to work for white people. This adaptation was not a deliberate result of any federal Indian policy either ideally or in application. It was a result of the failure of the government to make the reservation work as policy implied it should.”
Border Crossing Rights
The Indian Defense League was organized in 1925 to re-establish the rights of Indian people to cross the border between the United States and Canada as given under the 1794 Jay Treaty.
Cahokia
A thousand years ago, Cahokia was a large city whose political, economic, and religious influence was widespread. The American Indian people constructed more than a hundred earthen pyramids—generally called mounds—at Cahokia and affiliated communities. In her book Cahokia’s Complexities: Ceremonies and Politics of the First Mississippian Farmers, Susan Alt writes:
“The large central pyramid, Monks Mound, has a base of 6 ha [hectares], which is comparable to or larger than the area covered by the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan and the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt.”
In 1925, the State of Illinois purchased the ancient Indian site of Cahokia in order to create a state park.
Corruption
In 1925, in Oklahoma, a report written by attorney Marshall Mott for the American Home Missionary Society detailed the exorbitant guardianship fees and systemic corruption that fleeces Indians. The title of the report was The Act of May 27,1908 Placing in the Probate Courts of Oklahoma Indian Jurisdiction: A National Blunder.
Northwest Indian Congress
In 1925, the Northwest Indian Congress met in Spokane, Washington. The three-day event included parades, lectures, a baby contest, and a football game between the American Indian Haskell Institute and the Jesuit Gonzaga College. Photographs from the event were sent to the offices of the Northern Pacific Railway to be used in their advertising. A picture of Yakama chief Meninock was cropped for the advertising, and he was identified as “a signer of the Yakima-Northern Pacific treaty permitting the railroad to be built through his country.” In an article in The Western Historical Quarterly, Alexander Olson writes:
“It gives no indication that Meninock approved of the use of his image in this way, and considering his activism, it is probable that he did not.”
Deaths
In Idaho, Bannock leader Pat Tyhee, the son of chief Tyhee, died. Historian John Heaton, in his book The Shoshone-Bannocks: Culture and Commerce at Fort Hall, 1870-1940, writes:
“An imposing figure at six feet four inches, Tyhee the younger had been one of the most recognizable Shoshone-Bannocks on and off the reservation.”
With regard to the funeral, Heaton reports:
“Mourners feasted and chanted near his body for three days and then joined the funeral procession to the site on a knoll where a grave large enough for the coffin and Tyhee’s horse had been prepared.”
Following Bannock tradition, his widow, known as The Bony One, and his sisters, Blind Mary and Hattie Pazuka, slashed their arms and legs.
In New York, Cayuga chief Deskaheh (Levi General) dies of pleurisy and pneumonia. In her chapter in Indians and Europe: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Essays, Joelle Rostkowski writes:
“Whatever judgement may be passed on a man who can be considered as a symbol of the past, or as a herald of the future, he remains a powerful historical figure whose charisma seems to have exceeded his real power.”
More American Indian histories
Indians 101: American Indian art 100 years ago, 1925
Indians 101: American Indian art 100 years ago, 1925
Indians 101: The American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
Indians 101: American Indian reservations 100 years ago, 1924
Indians 101: Some American Indian events 100 years ago, 1923
Indians 101: American Indian art and heritage 100 years ago, 1923
Indians 301: American Indians and World War I
Indians 201: Terminating American Indian reservations
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