Ancestors - A Native American Timeline

Author's note: This is partly an idea I can't get out of my head and partly a response to whoever it was who, recently, said that too many timelines focused on war, politics, and dystopia. Also, Paris Commune still lives in my other timeline!

New York Tribune 2nd February 1887

SEVERALTY BILL COLLAPSES IN CONGRESS
Senate Leaders Disappointed


This morning we learn that the mooted Severalty Bill, also known as the General Allotment Bill, has come aground in the House. Despite squeezing past the Senate earlier this year, the bill has been rejected in the House of Representatives and looks unlikely to be revived.

It’s chief architect, Senator Henry Laurens Dawes (R-MA), expressed his disappointment to this paper last night.

‘This Bill would have ensured a peaceful and stable future for the American Indian’ he said, ‘breaking up the corrupt dominance of the tribal groups and pushing for Christian education, family freehold of land, and, eventually, paving the way for their introduction to civilised society.’

Senator Dawes, a long term supporter of the Indians and a chief lobbyist for their rights in Washington, has expressed concern over what will happen in the future.

Yet among House members talk is that Dawes himself was the chief obstacle to success. One Representative, who declined to be named but represents a Western state, told this paper that ‘Dawes’ inability to factor in any system for negotiating the borders of the land was too much. There is great pressure for new lands among migrants to my state – land held uselessly by the Indian’.

When we took this to the Senator he was scathing. ‘I do not bow to special interests’ was all he was inclined to comment on the issue.

Debate in Washington continues, but it is clear that, for now, the Allotment Bill will not be written into law.
 
A post-contact Native American timeline is always interesting. A promise and a challenge. I´m subscribed, especially since your Paris Commune TL is such a good read.
 
Letter to the Sioux People
Jack Wilson "Wovoka"
1889

When you return to your tribes you must dance for five days, then bathe in the river and come together as a people in joy.

Our Messiah says, when your friends die you must not cry. You must not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life.

Our Ancestors are returning. Jesus is returning. He who walked among the whites, promising salvation, but was ultimately killed by them in their greed and foolishness. He walks among us now, as do the spirits of our Ancestors, and soon will come a time when sickness, and violence, and harm will not befall our peoples any more.

Do not cause trouble for the whites, for they will not understand and in their confusion will be afraid and angry. We are the chosen ones, the people of peace, and we will inherit the land. Make peace with yourselves and the land. Do not divide or give up your lands to be like the Whites.

Come together in piece
 
Report on the "Ghost Dance" Phenomenon for the Federal Government
James Mooney
1889


The visions of the Pauite Shaman Wovoka have had a remarkable impact on the Native tribes of the West. In just a year the spread of his visions have seen the "Ghost-Dance" ceremony adopted in reservations and tribal lands from the Dakotas to Arizona.

Some Indian Agents I have interviewed have expressed concerns about the millenarian style of these visions which seem to promise invulnerability and triumph over the whiteman. I personally remain skeptical about the need for alarm - certainly there are some hotheads who will see this as a call to action, but on the whole those ceremonies I have observed among the Arapaho and Paiute have been peaceable.

What will come of the mooted great Lakota tribal gathering on the Pine Ridge Reservation this December remains to be seen.
 
Im intrigued! The Severalty Bill was a patronising monument to arrogence and greed. Its collapse will hopefully lead to more survival of Native American culture and survival in the long run.
 
From the desk of Thomas Jefferson Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs

12th May 1890

Dear Sir [Commander of US 7th Cavalry Colonel James Forsyth]

Please be advised that, given his poor health, James McLaughlin has been retired from the position of Indian Agent to the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, formerly of Standing Rock Reservation, has been dispatched to take up the position now vacant.

Yours cordially,

T.J. Morgan
 
From the oral history interviews conducted by John G. Neihardt in 1930 with Black Elk, Lakota Sioux Medicine Man

"From the High Hills of my Old Age [Black Elk was born in 1863] I see now that the Pine Ridge Meeting of that year [December 1889] was critical. But then I was young, like a proud stag, full of fury and anger at the White Man.

I remember thinking, when I climbed up onto a hill and looked down over the hundreds and hundreds of tents and camps, what a waste this gathering was. To see so many great chiefs and leaders of my people come together but achieve nothing in terms of stopping the White Man. You see, this is how I saw it at the time. Sitting Bull, Kicking Bull, Short Bear, Red Cloud, Spotted Elk....even Chief Gall who had broken with Sitting Bull years before.

*sigh*

I was blind then. That so many chiefs could come together and talk in peace and better still not provoke violence from the soldiers around us. They were so nervous...*chuckles*...their fear was the only thing that pleased us young bucks. Now I am older, I know that Friend of Crazy Horse [Dr. McGillycuddy's Indian name] did much work to prevent any misunderstandings turning into violence and killing in those days.

I remember the great dance circles that went on, well into the night, and the chanting. But I do not recall the specific moments in which our people came together and our new faith was codified. It is to my shame - now that I have spent so much of my life dedicated to the Ancestors - that I cannot recall moments where our faith was born."
 
Galveston Daily News
23rd August 1893

CHEROKEE STRIP OPENED UP FOR SETTLEMENT!
Land Run to Begin in September - 6 Million Acres to be Claimed!

The much anticipated opening up of former Cherokee lands to settlement in the North-West of Indian Territory has been set for early September. Over 40,000 homesteads covering six million acres of former tribal grazing lands are to be opened up for settlement following compulsory purchase by the Federal Government from the Cherokee Nation.

Despite the objections of Principal Chief Samuel Houston Mayes, who had attempted to resist this overture, this newspaper is able to happily report that this fertile land uselessly held by the Indian is soon now open to be settled by sturdy American families.
 
The Guthrie Day Leader
28th November 1896

BRYAN APPOINTS FROM OKLAHOMA
President-Elect draws in Southern and Western supporters.

It has come to this paper's knowledge that, following his upset win in the recent Presidential Election, William Jennings Bryan is seeking to appoint a number of Southern and Western Democratic operatives to government positions. There had been much talk that Bryan would need to make patronage appointments with Tammany Hall men, but recently this paper has learned that William H. Murray, former legal adviser to the Chickasaw Nation has been appointed to a position in the Department of Commerce. It is to the regret of many in our region who had hoped that Murray was making progress in deciding the crucial future of the area as a state or two distinct entities. What will develop in this field has yet to be seen.
 
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