Founded in 1910 by Washington lawyer James E. West, the Boy Scouts of America merges with two other youth organizations—the Sons of Daniel Boone and the Woodcraft League of America— both of which focus on teaching non-Indian boys a romanticized view of Indian legends and lore. Based on these programs, the Boy Scouts institutes a highly popular Indian Lore merit badge, which constitutes one of the first organized attempts to instruct non-Indians in Native American history and culture.
Choate v. Trapp protects Oklahoma Indian allotments from taxation.
The Choctaw and Cherokee of Oklahoma take the state to court when it attempts to collect taxes on their allotments. In the case of Choate v. Trapp, the Supreme Court finds that the allottees are still wards of the U. S. government and therefore exempt from state taxes. Oklahoma’s effort is one of many challenges the state’s assimilationists have made to the terms of Allotment set forth under the General Allotment Act (see entry for FEBRUARY 8, 1887).
Soldiers force Hopi students to attend school.
U. S. troops are called in to capture Hopi children from the village of Hotevilla and take them to the Shonogopavi Day School. The experience further embitters traditionalist Hopi, who founded Hote-villa five years earlier when they were dispelled from the village of Oraibi by tribe members more accommodating to the growing white presence in their lands (see entry for SEPTEMBER 6, 1906).
August
Yahi Indian Ishi comes out of hiding.
An Indian man about 50 years old tentatively emerges from the foothills near Oroville, in northern California. He is the last surviving member of the Yahi tribe, most of whom had been killed either by Americans or by the diseases Europeans brought to North America. Unable to communicate with the non-Indians who find him, the man is placed in protective custody in the Oroville jail.
News of Ishi’s discovery is widely reported. When anthropologist Alfred Kroeber hears the story, he arranges for the man to be transported to the University of California’s museum in San Francisco. There he is named “Ishi,” the Yahi word for man, and shares his knowledge of the Yahi language and culture with researchers. Ishi continues to live at the museum until his death from tuberculosis in 1914.
The Society of American Indians (SAI) holds its first conference.
At a conference in Columbus, Ohio, held on Columbus Day for symbolic reasons, 50 Native American delegates found the Society of American Indians. The Society of American Indians (SAI) grows out of a meeting of prominent Indian men and women
A Society of American Indians banquet held during the association’s fourth annual meeting in 1914 (National Archives, Neg. no. RG75-M-3)
Held the previous spring and hosted by a non-Indian sociologist at Ohio State University. Among the participants were Dakota Sioux physician and writer Charles A. Eastman (see entry for 1902), Yavapai journalist Carlos Montezuma (see entry for APRIL 1916), and Oneida activist Laura Cornelius Kellogg.
These luminaries, like the majority of the SAI membership, are alumni of Indian and non-Indian schools and colleges. Not surprisingly, one of the major focuses of the new organization is Indian education. The members also hope to teach non-Indians to respect Native Americans and their ways. Although many SAI members are models ofAssimilation, some in the organization outspokenly question the government’s Assimilation policies, especially those that most directly threaten Indian values and culture.
World History
