Although about half of male Indians are non-citizens and therefore not subject to the draft, approximately 16,000 Indians answer the call to join the military as the United States enters World War I. Their participation is at a rate nearly double that of the general population. Several Indian soldiers—including Sergeant Alfred Bailey, Corporal Nicholas E. Brown, and Private Joseph Oklahombi—will be hailed as war heroes. All Indians will later be made U. S. citizens in part as a reward for the Indian troops’ distinguished service (see entries for NO VEMBER 16, 1919, and 1924).
Oklahoma Indians protest World War I in the Green Corn Rebellion.
Creek Indians and members of several other tribes in eastern Oklahoma join with impoverished whites and blacks in protesting the U. S. entrance into World War I, in a movement known as the Green Corn Rebellion. In addition to expressing their anger at their historical treatment by the U. S. government, the Indians involved oppose poor Americans’ being called to fight a war that they believed would primarily benefit the rich. During a rally attended by 200 Creek, protest leader Ellen Perryman declares, “The Indians are not going to the slaughter fields of France.” For telling Indians not to register for the draft, she will later be charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917.
April
The Bureau of Indian Affairs removes restrictions on Indian land sales.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells announces a new policy of issuing patents-in-fee to any Indian landowner who is less than one-half Indian ancestry or judged competent to manage his or her own affairs. Once issued, the patents remove all restrictions that prohibit Indians from selling or leasing their lands. Sells’s measure is inspired by a wartime shortage of farmland and the accompanying rise in agricultural prices. As predicted, large amounts of privately owned Indian land pass into the hands of whites soon after the policy is implemented.
World History
