Oregon Trail's Effect Enduring on Native Americans
American Indians living in this area faced new and sometimes deadly
pressures when the trickle of Eastern immigrants -- other Indian tribes as
well as white settlers -- turned into a flood as the 1800s marched along.
Raymond A. Farve, a Haskell Indian Junior College faculty member who
teaches courses in contemporary issues of Native Americans and history of
Native American tribes, said indigenous tribes, including the Kansa, Osage and
Omaha literally were overwhelmed by the numbers.
"Most people are not aware of all the activity that was going on right in
this area," he said. The lifestyles of tribes first began to change as a
consequence of contact with whites in the 1700s. Then, French fur traders
introduced the Indians to European-style goods as well as to alcohol.
By the 1800s, a few white settlers were living here -- and were well
received by their Indian neighbors, Farve said. After the Louisiana Purchase
was cmopleted, in 1903, President Thomas Jefferson brought representatives of
the Kansa and Osage tribes to Washington, D.C. for talks, negotiating cordial
treatment of travelers, pass-through rights, and treaties aimed at ensuring
peaceful movement in this area.
By the 1820s, though, Fave said, President Andrew Jackson had begun to push
hard for removal of Eastern tribes to Kansas and Oklahoma. The Potawatomi,
Kickapoo, and Sac and Fox, from the Northeast, moved here -- along with in-
creasing numbers of white settlers.
"The Kansa tribe right in this area here were constantly giving up land,
ceding land for settlers', Farve said.
Immigrant Eastern tribes brought their own cultural practices with them, he
explained, all of which were more affected by the European lifestyle than those
of area tribes, and as a consequence, animosity developed among the Indians
themselves.
By the 1840s, Manifest Destiny created "a tremendous amount of movement",
which the Indian people, who already had given up a great deal, resented.
Most of the Eastern tribes had been resettled by then, he said, and many
white settlers felt this was a more stable area to come into than further west,
where Indians had had much less contact with Europeans.
"This area here was sort of a mixing bowl of different tribes", Farve said,
noting "Indian Territory" before 1854 stretched from the Red River on the
Texas-Oklahoma border into Iowa.
He noted that more than "just settlers" were passing through, too. There
also were religious groups, soldiers, miners, politicians, and mixed bloods,
he said, "and all had different understandings of where they could live and
where they couldn't live. There were many misunderstandings."
Congress compounded problems by offering relocation lands to Eastern tribes
on which whites already had settled, which triggered problems between those
Native Americans and the settlers of their lands.
Also, Farve said, expectations with respect to treaties were different for
the government and the tribes, many of whom had no written language.
Communications were slow and language barriers were a problem. Also, from
the time a treaty was signed, the Indians were required to abide by it but the
government could not fulfill its commitments until the treaty was ratified by
Congress, which then as now acted slowly.
"Goods and money expected or due didn't turn up," Farve said, noting that
in many cases, the displaced Indians were relying on those resources to
arrive without delay.
"Usually, the Indian people didn't understand what the treaties were all
about," Farve said.
Theirs was an oral tradition, he explained, and although their prodigous
memories could recall precise wording, "the fine arts of the law were lost on
them."
Another aspect of Indian relations that affected settlement in this area
had to do with the govenment's official policy toward Native Americans. In
the 1840s, when the Oregon Trail was being heavily traveled, Farve said, the
policy was "resettlement," which involved only minimal confrontation. After
the Civil War in the 1860s, he continued, the official policy changed to
"elimination," and further West, where settlement was more sparse, there were
many battles.
Diseases brought by whites, like land pressures, also caused suffering
among the Indians. "Some tribes were almost completely wiped out," Farve
said, noting that many lost their tribal and religious leaders, and with them,
much of their oral history.
Inter-racial marriages, particularly Indian women to white men, weren't
unusual, but often the practice was a means of obtaining Indian land.
"There were some marriages where love was involved, but mostly they were
motivated by greed," he said. "From the early 1800s through the 1860s, the
Oregon and Santa Fe trails were pretty heavily used. That was a real confusing
time. There was so much going on."
This year's Oregon Train anniversary can provide an opportunity "to look
back at the history of the times and relationships, and get a better perspec-
tive on today," Farve siad. "We can look at it with much more understanding
on both sides."
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E. Gaele Gillespie / University of Kansas / Lawrence, Kansas 66045