Ely S. Parker and Ulysses S. Grant (Part 2)

While working for the Treasury Department, Ely S. Parker met someone who would become a big part of much of the rest of his life – Ulysses S. Grant. It was through this connection that Parker gained a good deal of power, and cemented a controversial legacy. Research: · Adams, James Ring. “The Many Careers of Ely Parker.” National Museum of the American Indian. Fall 2011. · Babcock, Barry. “The Story of Donehogawa, First Indian Commissioner of Indian Affairs.” ICT. 9/13/2018. https://ictnews.org/archive/the-story-of-donehogawa-first-indian-commissioner-of-indian-affairs · Contrera, Jessica. “The interracial love story that stunned Washington — twice! — in 1867.” Washington Post. 2/13/2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/02/13/interracial-love-story-that-stunned-washington-twice/ · DeJong, David H. “Ely S. Parker Commissioner of Indian Affairs (April 26, 1869–July 24,1871).” From Paternalism to Partnership: The Administration of Indian Affairs, 1786–2021. University of Nebraska Press. (2021). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2cw0sp9.29 · Eves, Megan. “Repatriation and Reconciliation: The Seneca Nation, The Buffalo History Museum and the Repatriation of the Red Jacket Peace Medal.” Museum Association of New York. 5/26/2021. https://nysmuseums.org/MANYnews/10559296 · Genetin-Pilawa, C. Joseph. “Ely Parker and the Contentious Peace Policy.” Western Historical Quarterly , Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer 2010). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/westhistquar.41.2.0196 · Genetin-Pilawa, C. Joseph. “Ely S. Parker and the Paradox of Reconstruction Politics in Indian Country.” From “The World the Civil War Made. Gregory P. Downs and Kate Masur, editors. University of North Carolina Press. July 2015. · Ginder, Jordan and Caitlin Healey. “Biographies: Ely S. Parker.” United States Army National Museum. https://www.thenmusa.org/biographies/ely-s-parker/ · Hauptman, Laurence M. “On Our Terms: The Tonawanda Seneca Indians, Lewis Henry Morgan, and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, 1844–1851.” New York History , FALL 2010, Vol. 91, No. 4 (FALL 2010). https://www.jstor.org/stable/23185816 · Henderson, Roger C. “The Piikuni and the U. S. Army’s Piegan Expedition.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Spring 2018. https://mhs.mt.gov/education/IEFA/HendersonMMWHSpr2018.pdf · Hewitt, J. N. B. “The Life of General Ely S. Parker, Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois and General Grant's Military Secretary.” Review. The American Historical Review, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Jul., 1920). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1834953 · Historical Society of the New York Courts. “Blacksmith v. Fellows, 1852.” https://history.nycourts.gov/case/blacksmith-v-fellows/ Historical Society of the New York Courts. “Ely S. Parker.” https://history.nycourts.gov/figure/ely-parker/ · Historical Society of the New York Courts. “New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble, 1858.” https://history.nycourts.gov/case/cutler-v-dibble/ · Hopkins, John Christian. “Ely S. Parker: Determined to Make a Difference.” Native Peoples Magazine, Vol. 17 Issue 6, p78, Sep/Oct2004. · Justia. “Fellows v. Blacksmith, 60 U. S. 366 (1856).” https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/60/366/ · Michaelsen, Scott. “Ely S. Parker and Amerindian Voices in Ethnography.” American Literary History , Winter, 1996, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1996). https://www.jstor.org/stable/490115 · Mohawk, John. “Historian Interviews: John Mohawk, PhD.” PBS. Warrior in Two Worlds. https://www.pbs.org/warrior/content/historian/mohawk.html · National Parks Service. “Ely Parker.” Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. https://www.nps.gov/people/ely-parker.htm · Parker, Arthur C. “The Life of General Ely S. Parker: Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois and General Grant’s Military Secretary.” Buffalo Historical Society. 1919. · Parker, Ely S. “Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.” December 23, 1869. Parker, Ely. Letter to Harriet Converse, 1885. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/letter-to-harriet-converse/ PBS. “A Warrior in Two Worlds: The Life of Ely Parker.” https://www.pbs.org/warrior/noflash/ · Spurling, Ann, producer and writer and Richard Young, director. “Warrior in Two Worlds.” Wes Studi, Narrator. WXXI. 1999. https://www.pbs.org/video/wxxi-documentaries-warrior-two-worlds/ · Vergun, David. “Engineer Became Highest Ranking Native American in Union Army.” U. S. Department of Defense. 11/2/2021. https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/2781759/engineer-became-highest-ranking-native-american-in-union-army/ See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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  Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill, and Jessa strut back down memory lane for season two, sharing lessons on life, love, and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune in to Silver Linings with The Old Gays on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Workplace chaos. We've all been there. Deadlines are slipping, projects are piling up, and suddenly you realize the missing piece is the right person. That's when you say, this is a job for sponsored jobs. With Indeed Sponsored Jobs, your job post gets a boost so you can connect with quality candidates faster. In fact, sponsored jobs posted directly

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  Podcast. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio and partnership with Argenx, listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeart Radio.

• 2:58Tracy V. Wilson?

  Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

• 3:01Holly Frey?

  And I'm Holly Frey.

• 3:03Tracy V. Wilson?

  This is part two of our episode on E. L. S. Parker. In part one, we talked about his early life and his many years' long involvement in the Tonawanda Seneca's two-decade fight to have their reservation land restored in Western New York. That effort led to a new treaty being signed between the United States and the Tonawanda Seneca in 1857. Parker had also trained as an engineer, and that same year, he was appointed to work for the Treasury Department overseeing the construction of a customs house in Galena, Illinois. In Galena, he met someone who would become a big part of a lot of the rest of his life,

• 3:47Tracy V. Wilson?

  and that was Ulysses S. Grant. That's where we are picking up today. This is a heavier episode than Monday's was. There will be various discussion of warfare and massacres, and we'll also be reading from some historical documents that include racist descriptions of Indigenous peoples.

• 4:10Holly Frey?

  When Ely S. Parker met future Civil War general and US President Ulysses S. Grant, Grant was working as a clerk in his family's leather goods store. After graduating from West Point and serving in the Mexican-American War, Grant had resigned from the Army and taken over a farm that his wife's father gave him. That farm failed, and Grant started a real estate venture, which also failed. Alcohol may have been a factor in all of this. Parker described Grant as reminding him of the Seneca. Apparently, Grant did not like to make small talk with customers. He was quiet and reserved, and he did not

• 4:52Holly Frey?

  open up to people until he got to know them. And when people came into the store, he'd go into the back, which is obviously not a great sales tactic. Over time, these two men became friends.

• 5:05Tracy V. Wilson?

  Yeah, it absolutely did not seem in this moment that Ely Parker was becoming friends with a future President of the United States. When the Civil War began in 1861, Grant returned to service. Parker went home and asked his father, William's, permission to join the Army, as William had done during the War of 1812. One of Parker's frequently repeated stories was about showing his father an illustration of the US Army generals from Harper's Weekly. His father pointed to Grant and said, "That man will be the great captain. If you follow that man, you too will become a great war captain."

• 5:48Holly Frey?

  But Parker's efforts to join the military were initially denied because he was indigenous. He tried to recruit a Seneca force for the war, but the Army denied that, too. Parker even wrote a letter directly to Secretary of State William Seward. According to a letter Parker wrote to his friend Harriet Maxwell Converse much later on, Seward replied, "The fight must be made and settled by the white men alone. Go home, cultivate your farm, and we will settle our own troubles without any Indian aid."

• 6:22Tracy V. Wilson?

  But the Army was short on engineers, and Parker was an engineer. And eventually, apparently, thanks to the involvement of Ulysses S. Grant, Parker received a commission to become a captain, which he accepted on June 4th, 1863. He became chief engineer of the 7th Division under Brigadier General John Eugene Smith. Parker served in this capacity until 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln appointed Grant as general in chief. Grant then recruited Parker onto his staff as his aide de camp, and Parker was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

• 7:03Holly Frey?

  Parker essentially acted as Grant's secretary, and his education was a big asset in this role, as was his immaculate handwriting. While he was working as an engineer and a secretary, rather than being in a combat role, his work often took him into the line of fire, such as carrying messages through active battle zones. During his service, Parker also became seriously ill with fever and ague, which has been described as either malaria or dysentery, and it was treated with quinine and whiskey.

• 7:38Tracy V. Wilson?

  Parker's most memorable act during the Civil War took place at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered. Grant's adjutant general, Colonel Theodore S. Bowers, was supposed to write out the formal copy of the terms of surrender that was in the form of a brief letter written from Grant to Lee. Bowers' penmanship was too poor, or maybe he was just overcome by the magnitude of what was happening, to do this well, I found contradictory descriptions. The task fell instead to Eli S. Parker, who also worked with Grant on drafting those surrender terms.

• 8:25Holly Frey?

  Repeated story from Parker's life was about meeting Lee at the surrender. In Parker's account, Lee seemed startled for a moment when he saw him. Most sources interpret this as Lee initially thinking that Parker was black. But then Lee shook his hand and said, I am glad to see one real American here. And to that, Parker replied, we are all Americans.

• 8:51Tracy V. Wilson?

  On the day of the surrender, Parker was promoted to bravette brigadier general. Bravette means that while he was given the higher title, he did not receive the pay or the authority that came with that rank. This was really meant to be an honorific in recognition of outstanding service. This was the highest rank awarded to any indigenous soldier during the Civil War. After serving in the army during the Civil War, Parker was also regarded as a US citizen, when most other indigenous people still were not. Indigenous people in the United States didn't automatically have US citizenship until the Indian Citizen Act of 1924.

• 9:34Tracy V. Wilson?

  And that was controversial because some indigenous people did not want citizenship or just did not want to have it unilaterally granted to them by the United States.

• 9:44Holly Frey?

  After the war, Parker worked with the War Department and was part of the Southern Treaty Commission, which renegotiated treaties with tribes that had sided with the Confederacy. Under their new treaties, these tribes were required to free anyone they had enslaved and to be placed under more stringent federal jurisdiction. Some of the terms addressed in these negotiations continue to have ramifications today, including issues of whether the people enslaved by these tribes, or today, those people's descendants, are eligible for tribal citizenship. Delegates from the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations are quoted as saying, "The fact that the United States government has seen fit to include a member of an Indian tribe with

• 10:28Holly Frey?

  its commissioners has inspired us with confidence. We are anxious to have the benefit of his presence and counsel in any deliberations or interviews."

• 10:38Tracy V. Wilson?

  Parker also started working as Grant's military advisor on indigenous affairs. And in 1867, the two men worked together on a four-point plan to establish a, quote, "permanent peace between the United States and indigenous nations."

• 10:55Tracy V. Wilson?

  There had been a lot of warfare and a lot of that was still ongoing. And so they were looking for a different way to do things to try to bring that warfare to a stop. This included a plan to reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs and to transfer it from the Department of the Interior to the War Department. Parker thought the War Department was a better choice because there were widespread issues with civilian agents working in collusion with traders to basically do as little as possible while making as much money for themselves as possible. This was a whole network of corruption and graft known as the Indian Ring.

• 11:37Tracy V. Wilson?

  He thought that soldiers would be motivated by honor and duty and would follow their orders and could also be removed through the chain of command if they did not follow orders.

• 11:48Holly Frey?

  This may seem surprising considering that army units had already carried out multiple massacres against indigenous peoples and Parker knew about these massacres and other misconduct. It's possible that Parker believed that a smaller, professionalized peacetime military would be less prone to these kinds of atrocities than a wartime force largely built through conscription. But it's clear that he thought that white settlers were a much bigger threat to indigenous people than the army was and that the army was more equipped to deal with white encroachment onto indigenous lands than anyone else. In the years after the Civil War, the War Department also had a more functional,

• 12:30Holly Frey?

  established bureaucracy than any other department that might have been given this responsibility.

• 12:36Tracy V. Wilson?

  Their plan also involved land protections, educational resources, money, and opportunities provided by the federal government to indigenous people, basically as compensation for centuries of colonialism and dispossession. A board under this plan would oversee distributions of all of this to make sure that everything that was due to the tribes and the nations was delivered promptly and that all of the things that were delivered were suitable. So no sending people things like spoiled food or bad quality goods. In their plan, there would also be a commission involving, quote, "such white men as possessed in large degree the confidence of their country

• 13:19Tracy V. Wilson?

  and a number of the respectable, educated Indians selected from different tribes." And this board would individually meet with every indigenous community to try to work toward peace. Boundaries would be clearly established for native land, and then those boundaries had to be absolutely maintained and respected. But at the same time, under this plan, the people living on that land also had to understand that, quote, "civilization was coming," including large numbers of people as the United States expanded westward, and that they would be swept away if they did not adapt.

• 13:57Holly Frey?

  In 1867, Parker got married to Minnie Sackett, who was described as one of the bells of Washington DC society. Ely was 39 and Minnie was 18. But for most people, the bigger issue was that Ely was Seneca and Minnie was white. Some people were scandalized, but at the same time, there was another train of thought that supported this marriage, seeing it as an example of a successfully assimilated indigenous man. Grant was supposed to be the best man.

• 14:29Tracy V. Wilson?

  On December 17th, 1867, the church where Ely and Minnie were supposed to get married was packed with onlookers who wanted to see or maybe wanted to disrupt this spectacle of an indigenous man marrying a white woman. But Parker didn't show up. There was a ton of speculation about where he was, including rumors that he had been murdered for intending to marry a white woman. Arthur C. Parker's biography of him claims that Parker had been drugged by a rival.

• 15:03Holly Frey?

  We don't really know what happened privately between Ely and Minnie after he reappeared, but the wedding was rescheduled for Christmas. Onlookers who arrived at the Church of the Epiphany for this second attempt found the doors closed. Ely and Minnie instead got married quietly and privately at a smaller church not far away.

• 15:26Tracy V. Wilson?

  Ely Parker continued to serve as Grant's secretary until 1869, when Grant retired from the army to become president of the United States. And we will get to that after a sponsor break.

• 15:40Speaker 03

  First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?

• 15:43Tracy V. Wilson?

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• 16:11Tracy V. Wilson?

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• 16:24Tracy V. Wilson?

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• 18:01Tracy V. Wilson?

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• 18:49Holly Frey?

  A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress and connection. How does research create new opportunities? How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other?

• 19:34Holly Frey?

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• 19:51Tracy V. Wilson?

  On March 4th, 1869, Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated as President of the United States. One of his first appointments was Ely S. Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. As we said back at the beginning of part one of this episode, Parker was the first indigenous person to hold a cabinet-level position and the first indigenous person to serve in this particular role. On April 16th, 1869, the Senate confirmed Parker with a vote of 36 to 12. Parker also resigned from the Army to take this appointment.

• 20:27Holly Frey?

  Estimates vary, but there had been millions of people living in North America prior to European colonization. And those estimates range from as little as 2 million people to as many as 20 million. But by the time Parker became Commissioner of Indian Affairs, centuries of introduced disease, enslavement, warfare, and genocide had left only about 300,000 indigenous people in the United States. This, of course, does not include Hawaii, which the United States had not annexed yet. And Parker had very little information to go on about Alaska, which the United States purchased from Russia only two years before he took on this role.

• 21:08Tracy V. Wilson?

  The ongoing wars between the United States and indigenous nations were destructive. They were expensive. They were awful in all ways. And Grant and Parker started trying to implement many of the proposals they'd worked on together while serving in the Army to try to bring those wars to an end. Parker got the War Department to assign 68 officers to the Indian Affairs Office and also appointed 18 Quakers to work as Indian agents. A federal delegation was sent to the West to meet with nations that were still at war with the United States to try to find out what it would take to reach some kind of settlement, and Ely was one of the members of that delegation.

• 21:50Holly Frey?

  Ely had already concluded that the United States entire Indian Affairs system was inefficient and flawed. Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate commerce with the tribes, and Congress had passed various laws about that commerce, specifically in what was then known as Indian country. Traders within this system were federally licensed, and Indian agents and superintendents were political appointees who were not paid very much. That Indian ring we referenced earlier was a corrupt system meant to enrich both the traders and the agents. Parker started working on efforts to get the military to assume most of the responsibility

• 22:34Holly Frey?

  for all of this.

• 22:36Tracy V. Wilson?

  I will add that people do use the term "Indian country" still, but this area is now "states." It was not "states" at the time. Parker also thought the federal government had an obligation toward indigenous peoples who had been progressively stripped of their land, their opportunities, and their autonomy. As we mentioned before, he thought it was inevitable that indigenous peoples would ultimately assimilate with white society. His writing on this absolutely mirrors the prevailing view of a lot of reformers, including reformers who genuinely wanted to help indigenous peoples, as well as some indigenous leaders.

• 23:16Tracy V. Wilson?

  And that view was that indigenous peoples needed to be "Christianized" and, quote, "civilized."

• 23:24Holly Frey?

  This was also happening alongside the post-Civil War Reconstruction, which often had a similarly paternalistic attitude toward free Black people and an ultimate goal of their assimilation to white norms. It's clear from Parker's personal and professional writings that he had come to believe that civilization, as defined by white norms, was superior, and that by extension, that the people who conformed best to those norms were also superior. This applied to how he wrote and spoke about both Black and indigenous people.

• 23:59Tracy V. Wilson?

  At the same time, he thought this inevitable assimilation should happen according to the tribes and nations' own timelines and on their own terms. So, he thought any federal efforts should be focused on assistance and incentives, not on coercion or punitive measures.

• 24:19Tracy V. Wilson?

  And there were aspects of this that mirrored what we talked about in our recent episodes on Sarah Wintammuka. While Parker was focused on, in his words, the quote, "humanization, civilization, and christianization of the Indians," he also thought that the tribes should be able to retain their languages and their heritage, and that they should have autonomy and respect and defense of their reservation lands.

• 24:45Holly Frey?

  In the words of Arthur Parker, quote, "Two ideas controlled his policy. The first was to make the Indian himself see his duty in becoming a useful and constructive member of society, to make him economically independent, contributing his share to the sum total of human welfare. The second idea was to impress the various departments of the government with the idea that the people of the United States owed the Indians a clean administration of their affairs. And not only that, but that they must take upon themselves the burden of rescuing the Indian from the unhappy state into which he had been thrust, and of lifting him up into an understanding of civilization and Christianity."

• 25:30Tracy V. Wilson?

  In 1869, Parker filed what was to be his first annual report on Indian affairs. It began with a 45-page summary, and it was followed by another 550 pages of additional documents and correspondence. This report really highlights how he was making recommendations that he really thought would help indigenous peoples living in US territory, while also basing these recommendations on racist ideas and a perception of European culture as superior to indigenous culture. He characterizes indigenous peoples as ignorant and superstitious, especially those who had not yet been forced to live on reservations and adopt European-style

• 26:15Tracy V. Wilson?

  farming methods as a way to sustain themselves.

• 26:19Holly Frey?

  At the same time, he advocated for more land for indigenous peoples, including additional lands for reservations that needed it, and new reservations for peoples that did not have one yet. He called on Congress to pass appropriate legislation to provide for these people, quote, "until they become capable of taking care of themselves."

• 26:40Tracy V. Wilson?

  He also offered an update on what came to be known as the peace policy, describing a, quote, "different class of men being appointed as superintendents and agents due to the dishonesty and the inefficiency of the men who had been holding those roles in the past." He wrote, quote, "The experiment has not been sufficiently tested to enable me to say definitely that it is a success, for but a short time has elapsed since these friends and officers entered upon duty. But so far as I can learn, the plan works advantageously and will probably prove a positive benefit to the service. And the indications are that the interests of the government and the Indians will be

• 27:24Tracy V. Wilson?

  subserved by an honest and faithful discharge of duty, fully answering the expectations entertained by those who regard the measure as wise and proper."

• 27:36Holly Frey?

  Another of Parker's recommendations was that the United States respect and uphold treaties with indigenous peoples that were already in place, and ratify any treaties that had been negotiated over the previous two years. But he recommended against negotiating new treaties. He argued that a treaty was a compact between two or more sovereign powers, quote, "each possessing sufficient authority and force to compel a compliance with the obligations incurred." He went on to say that the tribes were not sovereign nations capable of making treaties, quote, "as none of them have an organized government of such inherent strength as would

• 28:16Holly Frey?

  secure a faithful obedience of its people in the observance of compacts of this character." They are held to be the wards of the government, and the only title the law concedes to them to the lands they occupy. Or claim is a mere possessory one. But because treaties have been made with them generally for the extinguishment of their supposed absolute title to land inhabited by them or over which they roam, they have become falsely impressed with the notion of national independence. It is time that this idea should be dispelled and the government cease the cruel farce of thus dealing with its helpless and ignorant wards.

• 28:56Tracy V. Wilson?

  I will say the United States also did not have a government of such inherent strength that it could secure a faithful obedience of its people in observation of these treaties. But aside from that, some historians have interpreted this as Parker really buying in to the federal government's colonial efforts and opinions on whether indigenous people were capable of governing themselves. The federal government thought they were not, but others have seen it more as an acknowledgement of how absolutely destructive that colonial effort had already been to the nations that had maintained their own sovereignty and their own systems of government for centuries before colonization.

• 29:41Tracy V. Wilson?

  It's also been noted that Parker clearly understood that the United States could never be fully trusted to uphold these treaties. So like, why go through the farce of making more of them if that was the case? Congress did formally outlaw the making of new treaties under the Indian Appropriations Bill of 1871, which Grant signed into law.

• 30:03Holly Frey?

  In this report, Parker went on to say, quote, "Many good men, looking at this matter only from a Christian point of view, will perhaps say that the poor Indian has been greatly wronged and ill-treated, that this whole country was once his, of which he has been despoiled, and that he has been driven from place to place until he has hardly left to him a spot where to lay his head." This indeed may be philanthropic and humane, but the stern letter of the law admits of no such conclusion, and great injury has been done by the government in diluting these people into the belief of their being independent sovereignies, while they were at the same time recognized only as its dependents and wards.

• 30:48Holly Frey?

  As civilization advances and their possessions of land are required for settlement, such legislation should be granted to them as a wise, liberal, and just government ought to extend to subjects holding their dependent relation. In regard to treaties now in force, justice and humanity require that they be promptly and faithfully executed, so that the Indians may not have cause of complaint or reason to violate their obligations by acts of violence and robbery.

• 31:18Tracy V. Wilson?

  He also addressed the subject of people of African descent who had been enslaved by one of the tribes, as we said earlier, an issue that has continued to be relevant through to today. Quote, "Attention is invited to the condition of the freedmen among the Choctaws and some of the other tribes in the Indian Territory, whose status as slaves became changed by the results of the late war, and who now appeal to the government for kind treatment and protection. Denied the rights and privileges of all the members of the tribes with whom they reside, oppressed and persecuted. This people have claims which should not in justice be longer disregarded. They prefer to remain with those among whom they were raised,

• 32:02Tracy V. Wilson?

  but fear losing the protection of the laws of the United States."

• 32:07Holly Frey?

  Parker's summary also walked through the status of the different tribes and nations across the country. Here's how he described his own people. Quote, "New York Indians residing on several reservations in the state of New York, number 4,991 against 4,136, reported last year, an increase accounted for by including the St. Regis Indians, who were not enumerated in the census of 1868." These tribes, the descendants of the powerful Six Nations, who filled so large a space in the early history of this country, have, to a great extent, if not altogether, abandoned the habits and customs of their forefathers,

• 32:50Holly Frey?

  and are now steadily and successfully following the pursuits of a higher style of life, many of whom will compare favorably in their attainments with the whites by whom they are surrounded. Their schools, farms, and houses, regard for morality and religion, are the evidence of a real and marked advancement in the scale of a Christian civilization. An increase of interest is manifested in reference to education. On the several reservations, 26 schools are in operation, besides which there is a large institution known as the Thomas Orphan Asylum, established for their benefit, and a large manual labor school is about to be opened upon the Tonawanda Reservation,

• 33:32Holly Frey?

  the Senate having passed an act appropriating $3,000 for that object, the Indians giving the necessary land therefor. I would call attention to the interesting report herewith from their agent, Captain Ames, United States Army, in regard to the agricultural fairs held by these people.

• 33:53Tracy V. Wilson?

  Writing this report was, of course, not the only thing Parker did as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and we will have more after another sponsor break.

• 34:05Holly Frey?

  Deanna Flores, flag football star, trailblazer, broadcaster, and entrepreneur, knows what pressure feels like. She knows what it takes to step up in the moment, and she knows that even the biggest achievement is never the end of the story.

• 34:18Tracy V. Wilson?

  In the new podcast, Born to Become with Deanna Flores, she's sitting down with people from every corner of culture, including sports, business, wellness, and entertainment, to find the whole person behind the public identity.

• 34:30Holly Frey?

  Whether she's talking to an athlete on the field, a founder heading into a pitch, or a musician before a show, the conversation starts with the official bio ends.

• 34:39Tracy V. Wilson?

  Every episode, Deanna shares her own experiences, questions, and even doubts. Her guests learn from her, she learns from them, and you might pick up something along the way. No lectures, no know-it-all host, just real people being real.

• 34:51Holly Frey?

  Come curious and leave with something you can use.

• 34:54Tracy V. Wilson?

  Listen to Born to Become with Deanna Flores out now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Created in partnership with GEICO.

• 35:07Holly Frey?

  A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA, and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress, and connection. How does research create new opportunities? How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other?

• 35:51Holly Frey?

  Tune in to find out. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 36:03Speaker 06

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by breakout singer-songwriter Alex Warren.

• 36:23Speaker 07

  I'm like a kid when I play music and I make music and I'm constantly asking questions. You know, whether it's an instrument I haven't played or it's a melody that seems foreign. You know, there's every night you play a show and it's the same set, but it's not the same show. At a certain point, your brain kind of goes on autopilot. When I'm in the studio or if I'm making music, that's where that curiosity kind of comes back, you know? I haven't lost it yet, but I'm also on my sophomore album. So, and you, you obviously are an expert here.

• 36:49Speaker 06

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 36:58Speaker 05

  This mood check is brought to you by State Farm. Porque tu bienestar también merece protección. ¿Qué tal, mi gente? Honey German checking in contigo. Take a second. Literalmente, un momentico para ti. ¿Cómo te siente tu corazón hoy? Si está un poco cansado, un poco ofensivo, no estás solo. ¿Has comido algo rico? ¿Has tomado un respiro profundo? ¿Quizás has apagado tu teléfono por cinco minutitos? Te prometo, los memes todavía estarán ahí. A veces, la autoayuda no es como las candelas y la meditación. Es solo decir no. Está bebiendo un poco de agua. Está dejando a usted a su lado sin dolor. No tiene que probar nada hoy. Solo sea, respira. Estás haciendo lo mejor que puedes. Y sí, eso es suficiente.

• 37:42Speaker 05

  Como un buen vecino, State Farm está ahí.

• 37:51Tracy V. Wilson?

  El 23 de enero de 1870, el jefe Eugene M. Baker de la Segunda Cavalía de Estados Unidos atacó un campamento de píes en el Río Marius en Montana. La mayoría de las personas en este campamento eran mujeres, niños y ancianos que se habían quedado en cuarentena debido a un desastre de pollos. Baker había dicho que estas personas estaban robando caballos. Y en respuesta, atacó el campamento antes de la mañana mientras casi todos estaban dormidos. Su fuerza asesinó a más de 150 personas. Algunas fuentes dicen más de 200. Y tomaron al menos 150 personas como prisioneros. Después, la fuerza de Baker destruyó la comida y los alojamientos del campamento,

• 38:33Tracy V. Wilson?

  afirmando que esto fue necesario debido al desastre de pollos. Y también captaron cientos de caballos. Esto habría sido una atrocidad bajo cualquier circunstancia. Pero para hacerlo peor, el jefe de píes llevaba documentos especificando que estaba en términos pacíficos con Estados Unidos. Y él estaba trayendo esos documentos a los soldados cuando dispararon y lo mataron. Inicialmente, el ejército cubrió esta masacre. Pero eventualmente, el lieutenant William B. Pease lo informó. En el trasfondo, John A. Logan, presidente del Comité de Asuntos Militares, pidió que el Bureau de Asuntos Indianos se mantuviera en el Departamento de Interior

• 39:14Tracy V. Wilson?

  en lugar de ser trasladado al Departamento de Guerra como Parker había propuesto.

• 39:19Holly Frey?

  Meanwhile, Parker still continued to defend the army, including in this massacre, as the best choice.

• 39:27Tracy V. Wilson?

  I think this massacre could be its own episode.

• 39:30Holly Frey?

  For sure.

• 39:31Tracy V. Wilson?

  Beyond this one. Another of Parker's efforts in 1870 involved negotiations with Oglala chief Red Cloud and Lakota chief Spotted Tail. The Oglala and Lakota are both part of the Ochere Sacoen, also called the Sioux, who were party to the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. Red Cloud and Spotted Tail both believed that the terms of this treaty had given them rights to a reservation in their ancestral homeland. They thought that because that was how it had been explained to them, but now they were being told they had to move hundreds of miles east to the banks of the Missouri River.

• 40:13Tracy V. Wilson?

  Parker, hearing about this, invited them to Washington, and when their delegation arrived, he heard them out and arranged a meeting with Grant. Parker had to explain to them that the treaty did not give them the right to a reservation in their ancestral homeland, as the interpreters had told them that it would. But it did give them the right to hunt there. Parker told them that there was nothing in the treaty to prohibit them from also living on their hunting grounds. So this indigenous delegation really saw this as a victory, but then they returned home to find that nothing had actually changed in practice. This treaty is one of many things in this episode that is still relevant today with

• 40:55Tracy V. Wilson?

  cases going all the way up to the Supreme Court during our lifetimes.

• 41:00Holly Frey?

  Also in 1870, Parker visited indigenous communities and attended a general council in Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. He hoped to work toward establishing a government for Indian Territory that would be exclusively made up of Native people who would govern themselves and have autonomy over their own affairs. He conceived this as an eventual home for all indigenous peoples in the United States, which would eventually become its own state.

• 41:30Tracy V. Wilson?

  Unsurprisingly, there were people who opposed Parker in his role as Commissioner of Indian Affairs due to racism, or to his policies, or a combination of both. And when he returned to Washington after this council, he learned that William Welsh, Chair of the Board of Indian Commissioners, had accused him of fraud, claiming that Parker was part of the Indian Ring he had been trying to dismantle.

• 41:58Holly Frey?

  Unlike the bilateral commission that Parker had envisioned, the Board of Indian Commissioners was made up of white men only. And unlike Parker, who advocated for tribes and nations to progress toward assimilation on their own terms and with their own autonomy, Welsh and the Board were focused on getting Native people to assimilate by any means necessary as fast as possible. When Parker was creating his first report in 1869, the Board was creating its own document that was focused on forced assimilation, further concentrating Indigenous people into smaller reservations, and discouraging what it called "tribal relations," which meant "any semblance of tribal sovereignty."

• 42:42Holly Frey?

  In addition to this, Congress passed legislation prohibiting Army officers from serving in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and limited the president's authority.

• 42:52Tracy V. Wilson?

  In the winter of 1871, Parker was called before the House of Representatives on 13 different corruption charges, relating to things like how much he had spent on food and supplies and whether that food and supplies had been needed. While the investigation found, quote, "much to criticize and condemn," it found no evidence of fraud or corruption. But in the face of ongoing scrutiny and a Board that was really continually undermining him, Parker resigned on June 29, 1871.

• 43:29Tracy V. Wilson?

  In his resignation letter, he said that Congress had divested his office of its importance, leaving the Commissioner of Indian Affairs as a clerk to the Board of Indian Commissioners. He wrote, quote, "I would gladly and willingly do anything in my power to aid in forwarding and promoting to a successful issue, the President's wise and beneficent Indian policy, but I cannot, injustice to myself, longer continue to hold the ambiguous position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs."

• 44:01Holly Frey?

  After this, Parker left Washington DC. He and his wife moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, where she had family, and they basically started over. He went into business and commuted back and forth to New York City. And he initially did quite well, but then lost almost everything in the panic of 1873.

• 44:21Tracy V. Wilson?

  By 1876, Parker was basically out of money. After years away from the field of engineering, his knowledge was no longer up to date. In his words, quote, "The profession ran away from me." So he became a desk clerk for the New York City Police Department, and he also did some public speaking.

• 44:42Holly Frey?

  Ely and Minnie had a daughter named Maude in 1878. She was raised without any connection to the Seneca. Ely and Minnie's marriage had also been controversial among the Seneca because Seneca kinship lines are matriarchal. So by marrying a white woman, any children Ely had with Minnie would not be considered Seneca.

• 45:04Tracy V. Wilson?

  In 1881, Parker met Harriet Maxwell Converse. She was an author, poet. He described Minnie as the love of his life, but he and Harriet developed a really deep friendship. Arthur Parker's account describes Harriet and her husband Frank as being friends with both Ely and Minnie Parker, so the four of them were all very close. In a lot of his letters, Ely addresses Harriet as "my dear cousin."

• 45:33Tracy V. Wilson?

  Through their correspondence, Harriet developed a really deep interest in the Seneca, and Parker started to rekindle his own sense of himself as Indigenous. Over the course of their friendship, Harriet became a vocal advocate for the Seneca and the Haudenosaunee more broadly, and she was eventually adopted into the Seneca Nation as her father and grandfather had been in earlier years.

• 45:58Holly Frey?

  Parker's letters to Converse are often very reflective and introspective. He expresses a lot of disappointment in himself and a sense that he wasn't sure whether the actions that he had taken in his life had been the correct ones. There's simultaneously a sense of pride in what he accomplished and a lot of regret. Around 1885, he wrote to her, quote, "I have little or no faith in the American Christian civilization methods of healing the Indians of this country. It has not been honest, pure, or sincere. Black deception, damnable frauds, and persistent oppression has been its characteristics. And its religion today is that the only good Indian is a dead one."

• 46:43Holly Frey?

  In another letter, he described himself as haunted by the accolades of his youth, writing, quote, "I have lost my identity and look about me in vain for my original being. I am pursued by a still, small voice constantly echoing, 'Thou art a genius, great and powerful.'"

• 47:03Tracy V. Wilson?

  Over the course of these letters, Parker seemed to come to see his earlier life as a chief as truer and more important than his later life as an engineer, a soldier, and a part of the federal government. He became increasingly focused on the idea of Indigenous people needing to retain their own languages and traditions and identities, but he was never able to put these ideas into practice with his own people. He had developed diabetes and kidney disease, and he also had a series of strokes. His diabetes diagnosis actually came from Dr. J. H. Salisbury, who he saw at Harriet's urging. We talked about Salisbury in our fourth installment of our eponymous foods episodes.

• 47:46Tracy V. Wilson?

  He is the namesake of Salisbury steak. Dr. Salisbury's health recommendations included an all-meat diet, and in one of Parker's letters to Converse, he describes being placed on a diet of beef and water.

• 48:00Holly Frey?

  Eli Samuel Parker died on August 31st, 1895, at the age of 67. He was buried at Oaklawn Cemetery in Fairfield, Connecticut, with full military honors. Also present were delegates from the Grand Army of the Republic and the New York Police Department, and elders and Klan mothers of the Haudenosaunee Nations.

• 48:23Tracy V. Wilson?

  On January 20th, 1879, with Minnie's permission, he was exhumed and re-interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York, in Haudenosaunee ancestral homeland. Seneca Orator and Leader Red Jacket had also been re-interred there. Their burial places are next to one another.

• 48:42Holly Frey?

  After Parker's death, Minnie was left without many resources, aside from a war widow's pension of $8 a month. She sold off a lot of his possessions in order to survive, including the Red Jacket Peace Medal, which she sold to the Buffalo Historical Society. She also sold his copy of The Surrender Terms from Appomattox for $2,000 to the Loyal Legion, whose members had raised money for it. Congress later increased her pension to $30 a month. She eventually remarried to James Talmage Van Rensselaer, and although he died only a couple of years later, her inheritance from that marriage made her a lot more financially comfortable.

• 49:26Tracy V. Wilson?

  Ely Parker's legacy continues to be really controversial. He's one of many 19th-century reformers and advocates who wanted to help Indigenous peoples, but whose methods of helping were based in racism and were ultimately destructive. He had advocated for some degree of autonomy for Indigenous peoples, and he had stressed the need to protect Indigenous lands. But less than a decade before his death, federal policy toward Indigenous people shifted from moving people to reservations to breaking up those reservations and forcing people to assimilate. We've talked about a lot of things related to that on the show before.

• 50:08Tracy V. Wilson?

  His efforts to protect indigenous lands were really starting to be rolled back while he was still alive. The bureaucracy that Parker helped to establish at the Bureau of Indian Affairs also really helped facilitate the United States' effort to rid itself of its indigenous population through assimilation and cultural genocide in later years.

• 50:31Holly Frey?

  In the 1999 documentary Warrior in Two Worlds, Eli S. Parker is described as being perceived as a sellout among the Six Nations of the Hadonishani. In an interview conducted for that documentary, the late Seneca historian John Mohawk describes him as ambitious, with that ambition leading to the loss of his Seneca identity. Mohawk went on to say, quote, "I don't think he lost his loyalty to the Seneca world. I think he lost his connections to it. And I think after he was gone for 30 to 40 years, people felt kind of like he wasn't one of us anymore. I think he felt like he wasn't one of them anymore."

• 51:13Tracy V. Wilson?

  Tuskerora historian and artist Rick W. Hill, Sr. was also interviewed for this documentary and similarly described Parker as failing because he forgot where he came from and what he was about. Hill also described finding legitimacy both in the idea that Parker was a traitor because there was a betrayal to his people and that he was trying to blend these two worlds and that there's also a lesson in that.

• 51:42Holly Frey?

  In 2020, the Seneca Nation requested that the Red Jacket Peace Medal be returned from the Buffalo History Museum, and that medal was repatriated in May of 2021.

• 51:56Tracy V. Wilson?

  So that is Eli S. Parker. I feel like we've had two, in quick succession, complicated indigenous figures.

• 52:06Holly Frey?

  Yes.

• 52:06Tracy V. Wilson?

  Whose complexities are interconnected with one another.

• 52:11Tracy V. Wilson?

  I also have some listener mail. This is from Alana, who wrote, "After a conversation that Holly and I had about the terms Britain and Ireland and British Isles, and how neither of them really sums up everything perfectly." And so the email says, "Hello, just an additional note to help with what term to use for the islands here, writing from Ireland. A term we use is British and Irish Isles, as it includes all the small and not so small islands around both Ireland and Britain. It's also the term used by the rugby team, the British and Irish Lions, when all the nations here team up into

• 52:52Tracy V. Wilson?

  a super team. I hope that helps. I'm an American who's been living in Ireland for seven-plus years now, and it took me a while to get a handle on all the terms. Hope you're keeping well in these difficult times. Kind regards, Alana." Thank you very much for this. And now that you've said that, boy, that seems obvious to me, that British and Irish Isles also works really well. So, thank you for that. If you'd like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're at [email protected]. And you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts.

• 53:40Tracy V. Wilson?

  Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 53:54Tracy V. Wilson?

  Deanna Flores is a flag football star, a trailblazer, an entrepreneur, and now host of a new podcast.

• 54:00Holly Frey?

  In Born to Become with Deanna Flores, she's sitting down with people from every corner of culture to find the whole person behind the public identity.

• 54:09Tracy V. Wilson?

  Every episode, you'll get to know Deanna, her guests, and even yourself a little better. No lectures, no know-it-all hosts, just real people being real.

• 54:17Holly Frey?

  Listen to Born to Become with Deanna Flores, out now. On the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Created in partnership with Geico. A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 54:57Tracy V. Wilson?

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• 56:34Speaker 00

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