John Elk, an assimilated Indian who does not live on Indian lands, is denied the right to vote in Nebraska. As a result, the Ponca Indian Committee initiates a lawsuit, arguing that because Elk has voluntarily chosen not to be a member of a tribe, he should be considered a U. S. citizen and be able to enjoy the rights of that status. The Supreme Court, however, rules in Elk v. Wilkins that the Fourteenth Amendment (see entry for JULY 8, 1868) does not apply to Indians, even those who renounce tribal membership.
The Organic Act recognizes land claims of Alaskan Natives.
In the Organic Act of 1884, Congress states that Natives of Alaska “shall not be disturbed in the possession of any lands” they use, occupy, or claim. The act adds, however, that future legislation will have to determine whether these peoples can be given legal title to their land.
Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona is published.
Reformer and author of A Century of Dishonor (see entry for 1881), Helen Hunt Jackson writes the novel Ramona as a means of drawing attention to the injustices committed against California Indians. Loosely based on the life of Ramona Lubo, a Cahuilla basketmaker, Ramona is the sentimental story ofa beautiful half-Mexican, half-Indian woman in love with an Indian man named Alessandro. As his tribe is dispossessed of its lands by settlers, Alessandro is driven insane and steals a white man’s horse. Ramona watches as the man shoots down her beloved.
Largely because of its romantic, mythic view of California’s past, Ramona is an enormous popular success and becomes a prototype for later stereotypical tales of lovelorn Indian “maidens.” The novel will also provide the basis for four films and a play that is still performed annually in Hemet, California.
“[W]hen she reached the threshold, it was to hear a gunshot, to see Alessandro fall to the ground, to see, in the same second, a ruffianly man leap from his horse, and standing over Alessandro's body, fire his pistol again, once, twice, into the forehead, cheek. . . . As he rode away, he shook his fist at Ramona, who was kneeling on the ground, striving to lift Alessandro's head, and to staunch the blood flowing from the ghastly wounds. ‘That'll teach you damned Indians to leave off stealing our horses!' he cried, and with another volley of ter-rible oaths was out of sight.”
—from Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona
The Canadian parliament passes the Indian Advancement Act.
The Indian Advancement Act sets forth provisions that will make the governments of assimilated Indian bands function like municipalities. The law gives band councils greater power to levy taxes, punish perpetrators of minor crimes, and control health care. The act also reduces the number of band councilors to six and calls for annual elections. Its most controversial provision allows representatives of the Canadian government to depose any council members deemed dishonest or immoral and prohibits bands from immediately reelecting leaders removed from their posts.
Canada outlaws the potlatch ceremony.
Under pressure from missionaries, the Canadian government makes it illegal for Indians living along the Pacific Coast to hold potlatches. In these traditional ceremonies, a wealthy family hosts a great feast and further demonstrates its generosity by distributing gifts to its guests. The increasingly elaborate gift giving, which plays a crucial role in the social and economic structure of these Indians’ villages, is held suspect by missionaries and government officials, who feel the tradition is incompatible with Western concepts of personal property.
The United States Industrial Training School opens.
Located in Lawrence, Kansas, the United States Industrial Training School (renamed the Haskell Institute in 1894) admits its first class of 14 students. Like other Indian boarding schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the school encourages assimilation by teaching students to abandon Indian ways and adopt non-Indian customs and beliefs in their place (see entry for AUTUMN 1879).
By the late 20th century, Haskell will become one of the largest Indian colleges. Renamed Haskell Indian Nations University in 1993, the institution will promote Indian sovereignty and self-determination among its approximately
100,000 students.
World History
