McKay v. Campbell denies citizenship to Indians born with a “tribal allegiance.”
In McKay v. Campbell, the Supreme Court finds that the Fourteenth Amendment’s granting of citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” does not apply to Indians with a “tribal allegiance.” The Court reasons that such Indians are not technically born in the United States but in “distinct and independent political communities, retaining the right to selfgovernment.”
U. S. troops massacre a Piegan village.
Two squadrons of the Second Cavalry led by Major Eugene Baker attack a village of Piegan Indians (a subtribe of the Blackfeet) in what is now northern Montana to punish the Indians for past raids. Baker follows the orders of his superior General Philip H. Sheridan to “strike them hard.” His men slaughter 173 Piegan, including 50 women and children, and take another 140 prisoner. The public denounces the massacre and pressures Congress to defeat a bill that would transfer the Bureau of Indian Affairs back to the Department of War (see entry for MARCH 3, 1849).
Red Cloud visits Washington, D. C., and New York City.
With the support of reformers from the East, Red Cloud, the Lakota Sioux leader, known for his war on army forts along the Bozeman Trail (see entry for JULY 1866), lobbies to meet with President Ulysses S. Grant to discuss the United States’s insistence that the Lakota move to the Great Sioux Reservation. The federal government agrees to send him and a delegation of 20 followers to Washington, D. C., to negotiate with President Grant and other officials.
The talks between the two parties quickly become heated. After a brief visit with the president, Red Cloud meets with the secretary of the interior, who reads the text of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie signed by Red Cloud (see entry for NO VEMBER 7, 1868) in order to remind the chief of his promise to relocate to a reservation. He angrily counters, “This is the first time I have heard of such a treaty,” and declares he will not obey its terms. When offered a copy of the document, he refuses it, claiming, “It is all lies.”
After leaving Washington, D. C., Red Cloud travels to New York City, at the invitation of reformers sympathetic to his anger at the government. There he gives an impassioned address at Cooper Union, in which he outlines his people’s long history of mistreatment. In the speech, Red Cloud asks for his audience’s help in obtaining justice.
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“In 1868 men came to our land and brought papers. We could not read them, and they did not tell us
Truly what was in them____When
I reached Washington the Great Father [the president] explained to me what the treaty was, and showed me that the interpreters had deceived me. All I want is right and justice. I have tried to get from the Great Father what is right and just. I have not altogether succeeded.”
—Lakota chief Red Cloud in a speech at New York City’s Cooper Union
Canada passes the Manitoba Act to placate rebelling Metis.
In response to the First Northwest Rebellion (see entry for NOVEMBER 2, 1869), the Canadian parliament agrees to several Metis demands in the Manitoba Act. Among its provisions is a land grant of 1.4 million acres for the Metis, which is to be divided into plots and allotted to individuals. Although the act is passed into law, this plan will never be implemented. (See also entry for AUGUST 24, 1870.)
Troops put down the First Northwest Rebellion.
Alarmed by the Red River Metis’s declaration of independence from Canada (see entry for NOVEMBER 2, 1869), the Canadian government sends more than
1,000 British and Canadian soldiers to the Red River area of Manitoba to end the uprising. Outmanned, the rebellion is quashed. Rebel leader Louis Riel Jr. flees south to Montana, while most of his followers move to Canadian lands to the west. (See also entries for MARCH 19, 1885, and for MAY 12 TO 15, 1885.) into treaties because their leaders have too little authority to ensure that their people abide by treaty provisions. Although the legislation will end treaty making, in the years to come Congress will continue to negotiate “agreements” with Indian tribes, most often to reduce the size of their reservations.
World History
