Coolidge Speech at Pine Ridge

President Calvin Coolidge Speech at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, August 17, 1927 

This is the first opportunity that has come to a President to speak especially to the Indians of America since the enactment of that epoch-making law which brought them all into a new relationship to the State and Federal Governments.

It was with satisfaction that I approved that law, generally known as the Indian Citizenship act of June 2, 1914. This made all native-born American Indians citizens of the United States. It symbolized the consummation of what for many years had been the purpose of the Federal Government—to merge the Indians into the general citizenry and the body politic of the nation.

It is true that prior to the enactment of this legislation nearly two-thirds of the Indians had become citizens through the several ways provided by law, but that does not detract from the real significance of the Indian Citizenship act.

In 1871 Congress adopted a new policy in dealing with Indians, and took what might be called the first step toward individualizing them with a view of ultimately making them citizens. On March 3 of that year an act was approved which provided, in part: “That hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe or bureau with whom the United States may contract by treaty.”

The next forward step in this progress contemplating complete citizenship was the General Allotment act of Feb. 8, 1887, which individualized Indian land ownership by authorizing allotments in severalty of the tribal lands of the members of the tribes. As a result of this and subsequent acts, something like more than 206,000 Indians have received allotments.

The result of this leg[isl]ation has brought about a decided change in the administration of Indian affairs. The Government suddenly began to deal with Indians as individual men and women; the personal equation at once assumed its proper importance in the so-called Indian problem.

Cando compels the admission that prior to 1887 the Federal Government had not given much attention to what might be called the social service activities in the administration of Indian affairs. The first boarding school provided for the education of Indian pupils was established at Carlisle, Pa., about 1879, but, following the General Allotment act, almost immediately the Government began building many schools ranging from the little rural day schools to the large reservation and non-reservation boarding schools, and education became a most important part of the Government’s activities in the Indian neighborhoods.

I am told that only a comparatively few years ago it was difficult to induce Indian parents to send their children to school, but that today the reverse is the rule and fathers and mothers of our Indian youth have come to realize the value of an education and the need for schooling of their children.

The Indian problem, which has been a fruitful subject of controversy for many years, began with the first meetings of the Caucasian and Red races. The obvious result of this conflict was armed hostilities between the races which began in the early days of the settlement of this country and ended within a short distance of this spot, for the battle of Wounded Knee, which occurred on this reservation in 1890, was the last event of enough importance to be listed by the War Department as an Indian campaign. 

Peace and understanding [and] cooperation now reign everywhere. The Indian problem on its face appears to be one simply of effective social service, practical philanthropy and education. As a matter of fact, it is a many-sided question, complicated by puzzling complexities.

There are over two hundred tribes and bands in the United States, each with its own name, tongue, history, traditions, code of ethics and customs, which have the effect of law with Indian tribes. It is a curious fact that most people in this country seem to believe that this Indians are a homogeneous people and can be dealt with as a unified race or nation. The exact contrary is the outstanding fact which has made the Indian problem a most difficult one.

Today, we find that the Indian people, recently primitive, not so very far from the hunter stage, are surrounded by twentieth century conditions which are alien to their racial characteristics, their tribal ways and states of mind. While thousands of them have succeeded in adjusting themselves to the new order of things, a great portion of them, mostly the older ones, still cling to the old ways, stoically refusing to go further along the modern road. They wish to live and die according to the old traditional ways of the Indians, and they should be permitted to do so.

Many Indians are still in a primitive state, although strongly influenced by white contacts, and thousands are as civilized as their neighbors. On one hand, we find a considerable proportion are so little advanced that they can speak but few English words, while on the other hand, we find tens of thousands who speak, read and write the English language, and a very large percentage of this class have had a grammar school education and many are graduates of high schools, colleges and universities.

A substantial number of Indians have attained high places in business, the learned professions, in the arts and sciences, and in politics.

Within recent years, agriculture and stock raising have been gaining ground in the economic progress of the Indian people; but many of them are still unable at this time to take their places in the world as self-supporting farmers, mechanics, manufacturers and skilled laborers.

There are some 370 treaties which have been made with the Indian tribes many of which are still in effect. There are over 2,000 specific acts of Congress concerning Indians, besides a large number of State laws, court decisions and departmental rules and regulations.

All of this mass of legislation, decisions, rules and regulations is complicated by the intrusion of the Indian’s own tribal laws and customs and ways of doing things. The result, oft-times, has been confusion, much trouble and in too many cases injustice to the Indians.

These few citations should be sufficient to indicate the manifold complexities of the nation’s Indian problem and to convey the suggestion that its practical solution cannot be effected by appeals to sentimentality, by loose talk, by ill-considered legislation, [by] hysterical campaigns, or by the insistence of those in charge of the administration of Indian affairs that their policies and methods are always the right ones.

For the purpose of working out the Indian problem, Congress on March 11, 1824, established the Indian Bureau, and under an act in 1832 created the office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Since 1849 it has been under the Department of the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior supervises it, and much that the commissioner does is subject to his approval.

Since the enactment of the general allotment law and the establishment of schools for Indian education, there has been remarkable progress made in their advancement and development, and they are being trained and encouraged to become self-supporting.

Much is being done to provide proper care for the afflicted, hospitals have been established, more physicians and nurses employed, and much efforts made to encourage them to live in better homes and observe the regulations that are necessary in the home to prevent disease.

Due to the discovery of minerals, and especially oil, many individual Indians have suddenly become wealthy, which adds to the responsibility of the Department in having to safeguard their property and to protect them against an unscrupulous class who seek to impose upon them and to defraud them.

Changed conditions, the breaking up of reservations by allotting lands to individuals and the sale of the surplus lands to settlers have produced a situation in many of the States having an [I]ndian population that makes it one in which such States have a deep interest. There should, therefore, be close cooperation between the States and the Federal Government in the general care, education, health and welfare of the Indians.

I realize that much of the progress that has been made by the Indians is due to the sacrifices of the early missionaries and that the missionaries of today are important factors contributing much to their education and moral advancement, making it more possible for the Government to carry out the policy of making them all self-supporting citizens.

More than 10,000 Indian young men served in the army and 2,000 in the navy during the World War, most of them by voluntary enlistment, and they proved to be courageous and rendered distinguished service. Among the many tribes who contributed those who served in the World War, the Dakotas furnished their full share and several made the supreme sacrifice. Others were recognized by being awarded the Croix de Guerre or in some other way.

In recognition of the service rendered by the Indians during the World War, I caused to be issued and signed certificates of honor which were presented to the Indians of the several tribes.

Those of us who were present on the occasion of the burial of the Unknown Soldier I the National Cemetery across the river from Washington will not soon forget the closing act of the ceremony. A group of old Indian warriors, some of whom were Sioux, arranged themselves around the tomb, while one, acting for the whole Indian people, laid upon the bier his war bonnet.

This was not an idle gesture. It symbolized the outstanding fact that the red men and their neighbors had been brought together as one people and that never again would there be hostility between the two races. As one of those old warriors said: “Who knows but that this Unknown Solider was an Indian boy?”

 

Text from New York Times, August 18, 1927, page 1.