Chronology of American Indian History

P

June 7

The Pueblo Lands Act settles land disputes
between Pueblo and non-Indians.
The Bursum Bill sought to give non-Indians title
to lands they claimed in Pueblo territory, but the
legislation was defeated owing to aggressive lobby-
ing by Indian activists (see entry for NOVEMBER 5,
1922). To finally settle these disputes, Congress
passes the Pueblo Lands Act. The law establishes
the Pueblo Lands Board to examine the validity of
the non-Indians’ claims.
The board will grant title to a small num-
ber of non-Indian claimants and provide modest
monetary compensation for the rest. The process
of granting land titles and evicting non-Indians
offered compensation only will continue until
1938.

Autumn

The final Big House Ceremony is held.
Near Copan, Oklahoma, the Lenni Lenape (Del-
aware) hold the last ceremony of the Big House
Church. The most sacred religious rite of the Lenni
Lenape, the Big House ceremony traditionally was
held over 12 nights to celebrate the harvest and
ensure good fortune during the year to come. The
Lenni Lenape are forced to abandoned the Big
House Church because their elder religious leaders
are too old to perform it, while their children, now
students in non-Indian schools, are prohibited
from participating by their teachers.

1925

Zane Grey’s The Vanishing American
is published.
In his novel The Vanishing American, popular
western writer Zane Grey tells a melodramatic
love story about Nophaie, a Navajo (Dineh) man,
and Marian, a white woman. Following the con-
ventions of fictional interracial romance, the love
affair ends with the death of Nophaie, symbolic of

the demise of all Indian peoples. The title is per-

haps drawn from a famous photograph taken by

Edward Curtis (see entry for 1906) of a group of

Navajo riding away into the desert. Read by a huge

audience when serialized in Ladies’ Home Journal,

The Vanishing American will be made into a classic

film western the following year.

“[The Indian’s] deeds are done.

His glory and dream are gone.

His sun has set. Those... who

survive the disease and drink

and poverty... must inevitably

be absorbed by the race that

has destroyed him. Red blood

into the white! It means the

white race will gain and the In-

dian vanish.”

—from Zane Grey’s

The Vanishing American

Congress tries to protect wealthy Osage

with the Osage Guardianship Act.

Through the Osage Guardianship Act, the Osage

County court and the Osage Agency are given

joint responsibility for supervising guardians as-

signed to oversee Osage Indians’ accounts and

expenditures. Heralded in the press as “the rich-

est people in the world,” Osage born before 1907

are receiving approximately $13,000 a year each

from the royalties given the tribe by oil compa-

nies drilling on its mineral-rich lands (see entry for

1897). Some tribe members have adopted a lavish

lifestyle since they began receiving royalty income.

Of more concern to Congress, however, is the

large number of Osage who have been murdered

by non-Indian swindlers after being tricked into

naming these con men as their beneficiaries (see

entry for 1921).