Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy and Politics

XII. Concetration and Militarism: "Those Who Resist Should Be Pursued by the Military and Punished!"

XII. Concentration and Militarism "Those Who Resist Should Be Pursued by the Military and Punished" DURING 186.j, ABRAHAM LINCOLN had preoccupations that were bound to distract from Indian affairs. The dection, western development, and the transcontinental railroad were all major can· cerns. His overwhdming obsession was the War for the Union. This was the year it became evident the North could win. Ulysses S. Grant was appointed leader of that effort on 9 March 1864. Grant began to use his superior numbers to pound the Confederacy into submission. All else was subordinated to winning the war. When Lincoln noticed Indians at all, it tended to be in the context of larger military concerns. For the most part, the president left Indian matters to the Indian Office. This was a return to normalcy. Lincoln had never really given Indian affairs high priority. The: re:fuge:e:s, the: Minnesota war, and the executions had forced him out of his normal pattern. Once those matters we:re past the crisis point, he left the:m and the difficultie:s the:re:in largdy unsolved. He confine:d himsdf mostly to ce:remonial duties. In July, Dole: wrote: Lincoln concern~ ing a visiting Indian dde:gation: "Will you be kind e:nough to take: these Indians by the: hand this evening. I wish the:m to start home: by the: early train in the morning.''' I. William P. Dole to Abraham Lincoln, 8 July 1864, Roll n, Abraham Lin_ coln Papers, LC. LINCOLN A?>D THE INDIANS Dole and Concentration Policy Left to his own devices, Commissioner Dole actively promoted his concentration policy. Dole had long been angry with the state of Indian affairs in California. While never an outstanding advocate of wholesale reform of the Indian System, Dole thought that California could provide a model of modest reform. The California reform , however, retained little of the idealism of Bishop Whipple's reform movement. It was designed to save money, eliminate inefficiency , and end the more outrageous forms of fraud. Where two superintendents existed previously, only one would serve. Other jobs were eliminated. Most important, the tribes of the state were to be consolidated onto no more than four reservations. Dole obtained the full support of the Senate Indian Committee for his concentration policy in California. Senator Doolittle justified it both because the old system was "altogether too indefinite, too expensive, too loose in its administration" and because it was best for the Indians. The California Indians "have been fading away as the white population has been advancing upon them," said Doolittle . The only way [0 save them was to remove and concentrate them. The California reform passed the Congress in spring 1864.2 Dole's plans for concentration extended beyond California. In his 1864 report, he advocated concentrating all Indian tribes in the nation onto as few as three to five reservations. Dole's arguments showed that he was more in agreement with Wilkinson and Doolittle than he was with the reformers. He said that the loss of Indian country was inevitable because of "the peculiar character of Indians, that they should retire as their country became occupied by whites." To Dole, segregation was the only answer. American history showed "that the white and the red man cannot occupy territory in common , and it follows that a policy which shall be adequate, and adapted to the requirements of the case, must provide for each race a separate abiding-place."~ 2. U.S., Congress, Senate, Congressional Globe, 38th Cong., 1St sess., 18 Mareh 1864, pt. 1:1184,21 March 1814, pt. 2:1209, 1I April 1864, pt. 2:1523. 3. AR, CIA, 1864, pp. 148-49 (for "Abbreviations in Footnotes," sec p. vi), CONCENTRATION ....ND MILITARISM Militarism and Indians In the context of a struggle to win the Civil War, this conc~~ tration policy took on a harsh character. Interior Secretary John Usher stated it plainly: "This Department will make provision for such Indians as will submit to its authority and locate upon the reservation. Those who resist should be pursued by the military, and punished."t This was the tough policy of a government at war. Usher wor~ ried about Indian threats to overland mail routes and the construc~ tion of the transcontinental railroad. Insurrection anywhere, whether in the South or by Indian tribes, was not to be tolerated. The mas-sive warfare by Grant, the expeditions across Dakota...