The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke Volume 4: July 3, 1880--May 22, 1881

Background

153 Background I n Volume 3 of this series, Bourke discussed the legal case in 1879, by which the Ponca chief Standing Bear won the right to return to the ancient homeland and live unmolested, a right that the presiding judge, Elmer Dundy, believed should be accorded to any law-abiding resident of the United States, Indian or non-Indian.1 Although Dundy’s ruling settled the immediate status of Standing Bear, public outcry against the government’s forced relocation policy continued over the next eighteen months. That, together with internal dissension within the tribe, prompted President Hayes to appoint a commission to hold hearings among the Poncas, both in the Indian Territory and in Dakota. The president, who was interested in full justice to all the Poncas, would use the findings to recommend a proper course of action to Congress.2 The commission consisted of Brig. Gen. George Crook, Brig. Gen. Nelson Miles, William Stickney, secretary of the Board of Indian 1. The ruling actually declared that an Indian was a responsible individual with legal standing in court, and therefore had the right to bring suit. By establishing that, however, Judge Dundy effectively prevented the government from forcibly relocating Standing Bear to a reservation. The case is discussed in Robinson, General Crook, Chapter 14; Mathes and Lowitt, The Standing Bear Controversy; and Tibbles, Standing Bear and the Ponca Chiefs. 2. Bourke, Diaries, 38:991–94. 154 The Ponca Question Continues Commissioners, and Walter Allen of the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee.3 Assessing the members, Bourke did not bother to recap all he had written about Crook over the previous nine years, but did not hesitate to comment on the others. Miles was “brave, energetic, and ambitious; selfish, conceited and inordinately vain....anxious to thrust himself forward as the most experienced of the list, but I err greatly, if he has not been the least of value of any.” Stickney, Bourke believed, was “a well-meaning, psalm-singing Christian,—of that class whose religion has given them the heart-burn.” He was most impressed with Allen, who, despite a tendency to allow idealism to overrule practicality, was “a very intelligent, clear-headed, hard-working and valuable member of the Commission.”4 As Crook’s aide, Bourke took down the testimony, resulting in a transcript of the hearings that appears in manuscript volumes 37 and 38. Volume 38, which contained the bulk of the transcripts, obviously was prepared later, because Bourke notes what pieces of testimony were omitted from the commission’s report. It is followed in the West Point sequence by a pocket notebook designated as Volume 38a. This notebook appears to be a record Bourke made during the hearings, or immediately after in consultation with the stenographer, and later copied over to the larger volume. The two texts are virtually identical, so I have skipped Volume 38a as repetitious . Carl Schurz was not the author of the affair, having taken office just as the relocation was getting underway. Nevertheless, he defended the policy, believing that leaving them in their homeland created the potential of conflict with the Sioux, who had been moved from western Dakota and Nebraska to the Missouri River region adjacent to Ponca country. Although the Poncas were a Siouan people, there was long-standing animosity between them and the Sioux proper. Despite such historic grievances, there really was little to fear. Much 3. The Board of Indian Commissioners was a quasi-public entity created by Congress and consisting of nine unpaid members, who served as advisors to the president and the secretary of the Interior. It was part of an effort to clean up corruption in the Indian Bureau and improve public perception of Indian affairs. The legislation that created the board, however, was vague about its actual legal authority and this led to jurisdictional disputes between the board and the Interior Department. Priest, Uncle Sam’s Stepchildren, 28ff. The Boston Indian Citizenship Committee was formed after Standing Bear made a successful lecture tour of the East in the wake of his court victory. The committee was one of several established throughout the nation—including the West—that demanded reform of the federal policy toward all Indians. Mathes and Lowitt, Standing Bear Controversy, 11. 4. Bourke, Diary, 38:953–55. Background 155 of the fight was gone from the Lakota Sioux after their defeat in the 1876–77 war, and they and the Poncas...