HUM 221: Allotment, more on Oklahoma

Sometimes the people who tried the hardest to help Native American people did them the most harm. Many would say that is what happened when land held by the people in common were parceled out to individual Indians and the left-over or "surplus" land was sold to whites.

Ironically, allotment, as the process was called, was proposed by people who wanted to help the Indians by speeding their assimilation as American citizens (which most of them were not until 1924) rather than members of their own bands or nations. U.S. Sen. Henry Dawes, R-Mass., believed Indians should learn the cultural and economic values of whites, as he put it, to "wear civilized clothes ... cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey [and] own property." He authored the Dawes Act of 1887, which mandated allotment of tribal lands formerly held in common by the tribe or Indian nation. The land was parceled out in individual farms, often to people who had no experience farming and no desire to farm, and the "surplus land" was sold to white settlers.

Problem was, not everyone had the Indians' best interests at heart. A lot of people were more interested in acquiring land. In Oklahoma, allotment led to settlement of much of the western part of the state by whites claiming ownership of former tribal land. At the same time, in the early 1900s, the U.S. government shut down the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw tribal governments, among others. It was all part of an overall effort to get Native Americans to assimilate to white culture; in fact, money from the sale of land was appropriated to schools where Indian youngsters were taught English and various menial trades.

Allotment also led to what was known as the "Oklahoma land rush," which was actually several "rushes" in which settlers raced onto newly opened land to stake claims. You can get a primary (first-person or eyewitness) account of the Oklahoma land rush of 1893 captures the sense of excitement -- and greed? -- when the Indian lands were opened to white settlers. Here's a video that sketches in (with a very broad brush) some of the effects of allotment on the Native peoples living in Oklahoma. The footage of the land rush is from a later Hollywood movie, but it is fairly accurate historically and is an iconic picture of the era.

You knew you were going to get to write something sooner or later, didn't you? Let's return to the (prose) poem "Autobiography" by Joy Harjo. She is of Muscogee heritage, and she speaks of her people's history and ends with "the Muscogee season of forgiveness, time of new corn, the spiraling dance." You were asked to respond to it several weeks ago. Now that you know more more of the poem's cultural and historical background, is your response any different? Ask yourself the same three questions: (1) What stands out? (2) What in your background makes you feel that way? (3) What, specifically, in Harjo's poem do you respond to?