against them, agree to meet with him in council.
In the meeting, the general threatens to kill them
all if they refuse to give themselves up. After much
discussion among the leaders, Geronimo tells
Crook that his people will surrender. (See also entry
for MAY 1885.)
September
Sitting Bull speaks at the dedication of the
Northern Pacific.
Perhaps the most famous Indian in the United
States, Lakota chief Sitting Bull is invited to deliver
a speech at a ceremony to dedicate the Northern
Pacific Railroad in Bismarck, North Dakota. Speak-
ing in his own language, Sitting Bull tells the crowd,
“I hate all white people. You are thieves and liars. You
have taken away our land and made us outcasts.”
His startled translator ignores Sitting Bull’s ac-
tual words and reads from the laudatory prepared
speech that Sitting Bull was supposed to have deliv-
ered. The speech receives a standing ovation from
the audience.
December 17
The Supreme Court overturns the murder
conviction of Crow Dog.
In 1881 a tribal court orders Crow Dog, a Lakota
Sioux Indian convicted of killing of another Lakota,
to make restitution to his victim’s family (see entry
for AUGUST 5, 1881). Seeking a harsher punish-
ment, the territorial court of Dakota also indicted
Crow Dog on murder charges. Crow Dog was again
convicted and sentenced to death.
Claiming that the Dakota court has no
jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians on
reservations, Crow Dog appeals the case to the
Supreme Court. Determining that the Dakota
court’s action is a threat to Lakota sovereignty, the
Supreme Court in Ex parte Crow Dog overturns the
conviction and death sentence. The ruling, which
outrages the non-Indian legal community, will lead
to the passage of the Major Crimes Act (see entry
for MARCH 3, 1885).
1884The Supreme Court denies Indians
citizenship in Elk v. Wilkins.
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 Commit-
tee 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 pos-
session 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 Indi-
ans. Loosely based on the life of Ramona Lubo, a
Cahuilla basketmaker, Ramona is the sentimental
story of a 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 stereotypi-
cal 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.