Chronology of American Indian History

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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.)

1871

Commissioner Ely S. Parker is investigated
by Congress.
Responding to charges of corruption leveled by
William Welch, the former chairman of the Board
of Indian Commissioners (see entry for APRIL 10,
1869), Congress launches an investigation into the
activities of Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely
S. Parker. Parker, the first Indian to serve in this
post (see entry for 1869), is cleared of the charges,
but his judgment in many matters is questioned,
prompting Congress to pass a law that limits the
commissioner’s powers. As a result of the investi-
gation, Parker resigns and retires to his home in
Fairfield, Connecticut.

Whites begin slaughtering buffalo on the
southern Plains.
When eastern tanneries start using buffalo hides
as a source for cheap leather for machine belts,
whites flock to the southern Plains to hunt the great
buffalo herds there. They are aided by improved
firearms and the new western railroads, which allow
professional hunters to ship hides inexpensively to
markets in the East. (See also entry for 1875.)

March 3

The United States ends the negotiation of
Indian treaties.
At the urging of Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely
S. Parker, Congress, with the passage of the Indian
Appropriations Act, votes to prohibit the United
States from negotiating treaties with Indian groups.
Advocates of the decision hold that Indian nations
are no longer sovereign entities capable of entering

into treaties because their leaders have too little au-

thority to ensure that their people abide by treaty

provisions. Although the legislation will end treaty

making, in the years to come Congress will con-

tinue to negotiate “agreements” with Indian tribes,

most often to reduce the size of their reservations.

April 30

Tucson vigilantes massacre the Camp

Grant Apache.

Seeking revenge for an Apache raid, residents of

Tucson in Arizona Territory attack a camp of peace-

ful Apache near Camp Grant. While the Indians’

agent looks on, the vigilantes slaughter as many as

100 people—nearly all women, children, and el-

ders—and capture 29 children to be sold as slaves.

“That evening they began to

come in from all directions, singly

and in small parties, so changed

in forty-eight hours as to be

hardly recognizable.... Many

of the men, whose families had

all been killed, when I spoke to

them and expressed sympathy

for them, were obliged to turn

away, unable to speak.... The

women whose children had

been killed or stolen were con-

vulsed with grief, and looked to

me appealingly, as though I was

their last hope on earth. Chil-

dren who two days before had

been full of fun and frolic kept at

a distance, expressing wonder-

ing horror.”

—U.S. Army lieutenant

Royal E. Whitman on encountering

the survivors of the

Camp Grant Massacre