Native American Communities in Wisconsin, 1600–1960: A Study of Tradition and Change

6. The Shrinking Land

6 The Shrinking Land In 1847, the Missionary Herald reminded its readers that "the designs of Providence in respect to the Indian tribes generally are dark and mysterious . There are influences at work, of great and increasing power, which threaten their destruction." The editors drew upon a litany of complaints confided to the society by the Reverend Sherman Hall, a missionary among the Ojibwa at La Pointe. Hall was plainly discouraged. The success of our labors has not been heretofore what we hoped and expected, when we entered the field.... They [the Ojibwa] seem to have no idea of any higher good than the gratification of their animal desires; and consequently, when they understand that religion does not supply their temporal wants without their own exertions, but rather requires them to repent of their sins, and abandon their lusts ... it loses its attraction for them. Most of them who give the best evidence of conversion to God, have never exhibited such pungent conviction of sin, as I have desired to see.... It seems to me, therefore, that our prospects for reclaiming them from sin, and of working a revolution in their social and religious condition, are to some extent discouraging.I The bleak situation that Hall described in somewhat simplistic terms was far more complicated in actuality. The Ojibwa at La Pointe and all the Wisconsin tribes were experiencing the convergence of two Indian policies: one, long-standing and embracing all the nation's tribes; the other, targeted at Wisconsin Indians. The former policy was federal and employed the resources of the national government, and the latter was local and motivated by immediate concerns and vested interests. All too often these two policies clashed, aggravating a deplorable situation and making any unified rational response from the tribal peoples of Wisconsin extremely difficult. 151 Copyrighted Material The Shrinking Land Federal Indian policy, as historian Robert F. Berkhofer has shown, grew out of British colonial Indian policy as it had developed among the seaboard colonies.2 The premise of that policy was rooted in competition over resources, especially land. From the viewpoint of the new American government, the competition had to be eliminated, and in order to do so Indian title to the land must be extinguished and the Indian acculturated, if possible, into American society. Early Americans considered land important, not only because landownership held symbolic and economic significance, but also because it defined identity and bestowed voting rights. Land proved the most accessible form of property in America, and because the foundation of late eighteenth-century government rested on property, one had to be a landholder to have status and to be able to exercise civil rights. Standing between the American and his social and political rights was the Indian. To eliminate racial competition over land, the government proposed to extinguish Indian title and promote the Americanization of the Indian. If the Indian would learn to use the land as prescribed by American values , he could keep a portion of it, but to use the land in this way involved acceptance of the values of the dominant society. Once Indians accepted these values, however, they would no longer be Indians, but Americans. NATIONAL INDIAN POLICY AND FRONTIER PRIORITIES In 1819, Congress set aside $10,000 as the Civilization Fund and encouraged religious organizations to draw upon it to educate the Indian. The government also sent farmers, blacksmiths, and physicians, who, through example, were to instruct Indians in the proper procedures. Beginning about 1815, America was swept with a reform zeal that continued until the Civil War. "Benevolence," "philanthropy," and "perfectability " were key expressions bantered about by social reformers during this period. Fueled by an optimism that determined all things were possible in a democracy, reformers set out to perfect the world or at least their corner of it. Buttressed by religion, science, a belief in progress and the perfectability of man, reformers argued that the Indian could be altered and led to accept Christianity and civilization if properly encouraged .3 Caught up with this spirit, the government aided missionary organizations that worked to educate the Indians and spread the gospel among them.4 For most Americans, by midcentury, tribalism was the antithesis of the American way with its emphasis on individualism, competition, and private property. Tribalism was static, or so Americans presumed, and 152 Copyrighted Material The Shrinking Land represented "communism" and lacked that acquisitive capitalism upon which...