Document 14.1 ColuMbuS Delano, Testimony before the
House Committee on Military affairs
1874In his testimony before the House Committee on Military Affairs, Interior Secretary
Columbus Delano (1809–1896) revealed the policy of President Ulysses S. Grant’s admin-
istration toward Native Americans in the West.The Chairman. Are the means of independent subsistence by hunting and fish-
ing diminishing very rapidly?Secretary delano. Yes, sir; the buffalo are disappearing rapidly, but not faster
than I desire. I regard the destruction of such game as Indians subsist upon as
facilitating the policy of the Government, of destroying their hunting habits,
coercing them on reservations, and compelling them to begin to adopt the hab-
its of civilization....Mr. Macdougall. do you find the Indians pretty generally inclined to live up
to treaty stipulations themselves?Secretary delano. Yes, sir. Of course Indians are ignorant. They do not always
get correct ideas of their treaties, and we frequently have difficulty in explaining
to them and making known to them exactly what they have consented to. But,
in my experience, when you have made an Indian understand that he has made
an agreement, he will comply with it, especially if you are prepared to show that
you will punish him if he does not.Reports of the Committees of the House of Representatives for the First Session of the
Forty-Third Congress, 1873–1874 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1874),
99, 101.The Western War against native Peoples
toPic i
ToPIc I | the Western War against native peoples 329PracTIcINg historical Thinking
Identify: Explain Delano’s position on independent subsistence.
Analyze: What does Delano mean when he hopes that the Indians will “begin to
adopt the habits of civilization”?
Evaluate: To what extent did new land opportunities in the West promote a contin-
uation of a belief in America’s Manifest Destiny?328 chaPTEr 14 | the throes oF assimiLation | period six 1865 –1898
15_STA_2012_ch14_327-342.indd 329 31/03/15 4:20 PM