 Letter from Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Superintendent, Round Valley, California (1902) |
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This letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Superintendent of the Round Valley Reservation in California reveals the connections between appearance and progress towards civilization in the eyes of federal Indian policymakers during the Progressive Era. This federal document is an example of policies restricting Native American identity for the purpose of furthering assimilation. In it, racialized presumptions about civilization are tied to hair, Native practices of face painting, and clothing. The agent is encouraged to get his wards to wear their hair short, as it will "hasten their progress towards civilization." Hair is especially seen as an agent of regression for former boarding school students, who return to the reservation, let their hair grow long, and subsequently "adopts all the old habits and customs which his education in our industrial schools had tried to eradicate." Dancing and feasts are prohibited because of their effects on morality. The Commissioner suggests withholding employment and supplies from Native Americans who do not comply with these orders.
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| Letters of Application for Fee Patent (1915) |
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Three applications sent to the Secretary of the Interior for admission to full American citizenship through the competency process. These applications summarized the main assets and qualities of the Native American individual that qualified them for U.S. citizenship. Some applications were written by the Native American applicant, but the majority were composed by a reservation agent. Together, these three applications reveal the changes brought upon Native American landholdings and personal identity as a result of the Allotment and Assimilation era. They emphasize how legal schemes, such as the competency commissions, upheld racialized legal benchmarks as indicators of a Native person's readiness for citizenship.
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| Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903) |
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After Congress attempted to pass legislation that violated the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, Kiowa chief Lone Wolf filed a complaint on behalf of the tribes who had signed the treaty. The Supreme Court sided with Congress and upheld the violation of the treaty.
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| Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803) |
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The Louisiana Purchase Treaty reflected United States ambitions toward empire, while ignoring critical issues regarding the incorporation of Native nations.
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| Making A Sioux Indian Into An American Citizen (1916) |
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In this newspaper article, Secretary of Interior Franklin Lane gives an account of a naturalization ritual that took place on the Yankton Reservation, South Dakota, in 1916. This article highlights the lived experience of naturalization processes for Native American individuals becoming U.S. citizens, revealing the involvement of other participants at the ceremony. This account highlights the complexities with receiving allotment for Native individuals and some of the effects citizenship had on legal and political rights. With a photograph of the event, this document provides a glimpse into the symbolic nature of the event, where the restructuring of Native identity encouraged in Allotment and Assimilation era policies is performed.
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| Medicine Lodge Treaty (1867) |
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Signed between the United States government and several of the Great Plains Native American tribes, the Medicine Lodge Treaties were a series of treaties relocating these Native American groups to Indian Territory. The October 21, 1867 treaty relocated the Kiowa and Comanche people.
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| Monroe Doctrine (1823) |
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In an address before Congress, President James Monroe warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. The United States continued to invoke the Monroe Doctrine in its foreign policy through to today.
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| Native American Citizenship and Competency During the Allotment and Assimilationist Era |
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This teaching module explores how citizenship featured in Native American policy during the Allotment and Assimilation Era. It highlights the first formal naturalization process for individuals on a national scale. Focusing on competency commissions from 1915 to 1920, this unit guides students in analyzing how legal assessments of "competency" in the context of citizenship were shaped by race, gender, and settler values. Using primary documents— including applications, inspection reports, and naturalization rituals—this module examines how federal policies enforced whiteness and domestic norms as criteria for inclusion. The module also encourages discussion about the dual role of citizenship as both a tool of assimilation and a potential resource for Native resistance and legal agency.
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| President Thomas Jefferson's Confidential Message to Congress (1803) |
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Jefferson's statement showed government interest in tribal removal, land appropriation, and eventual dispossession.
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| Racial Violence at Rock Springs, Property Compensation, and "Indemnity" during Chinese Exclusion |
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This teaching module investigates the legal concept of "indemnity" and property compensation in the wake of the Rock Springs Massacre, which targeted Chinese laborers in Wyoming Territory in 1885. When white miners attacked a Chinese labor community, Chinese survivors petitioned the New York consul and worked through diplomatic channels to demand redress. This module explores how the concept of "indemnity" relied on treaty obligations and was tied to property compensation during a moment when national legislation worked to further restrict Chinese immigration.
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| Ritual on Admission of Indians to Full American Citizenship (1918) |
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This set of instructions for conducting the Ritual on Admission of Indians to Full American Citizenship was produced by the Department of the Interior in 1918 so that such ceremonies could take place across the Western reservations. It includes the opening remarks from the Representative of the Department, followed by instructions for each participant to undergo to receive U.S. citizenship. There are separate instructions for men and women. The document reveals the centrality of performance during naturalization events for Native Americans.
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| The Bull Inter Caetera (1493) |
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The Bull Inter Caetera legitimized European land claims in the Western Hemisphere by decree of the Catholic Church. Establishing the Doctrine of Discovery, this papal decree became the legal basis for land claims in the region.
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| The Insular Cases and Contested Citizenship |
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This teaching module discusses the intersection of U.S. colonial power and migration, featuring a webinar with Robert McGreevey, author of the 2018 book, Borderline Citizens: The United States, Puerto Rico, and the Politics of Colonial Migration.
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| The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci, the First Voyage (1503) |
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The account of Amerigo Vespucci's first voyage to the Americas features depictions of Indigenous people that created negative stereotypes.
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| Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation (1794) |
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Unpopular with the American public, this treaty between the United States and Britain attempted to resolve outstanding issues from American independence. This treaty, also known as John Jay’s Treaty, made trade between the two countries more even and reduced British military presence in the U.S.
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| Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) |
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Signed between the U.S. and the Sioux Nation, this treaty granted the Black Hills to the Sioux people as part of their reservation. A few years later, General George Custer led an expedition through the Black Hills where they found gold. American violation of this treaty led to the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Ownership of the Black Hills continues to be disputed today.
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| Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) |
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The Treaty of Tordesillas determined the colonization of the Americas for Spain and Portugal. It renegotiated boundaries of empire in the Western Hemisphere between Spain and Portugal.
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| Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw (1866) |
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The 1866 Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw was one of a series of treaties between the United States government and each of the "Five Civilized Tribes" (the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole Nations) at the end of the Civil War. The treaty details the stipulations for the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations to re-establish their allegiance with the U.S. after allying with the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Among other provisions, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of 1866 included articles that outlawed slavery within both nations (except as a punishment for crime), provided a pathway for citizenship and civil rights for the Freedmen of both nations, and ceded lands to the United States.
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| Treaty with the Navajo Nation (1868) |
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The 1868 Treaty with the Navajo allowed them to return to their ancestral lands during a period of history where the U.S. government were removing Native Americans from their homelands.
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| Tydings–McDuffie Act (1934) |
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This act established the process for the independence of the Philippine Islands, then a U.S. territory, after a ten-year transition period. The act reclassified Filipinos them from U.S. nationals to aliens and limited the number of immigrants from the Philippines to 50 per year.
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| Webinar - The Insular Cases and Contested Citizenship (2024) |
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In this webinar, Professor Robert McGreevey of the College of New Jersey discusses the intersection of U.S. colonial power and migration with Dr. Jeannette Eileen Jones and her And Justice For All class.
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