In his 1978 book Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy & Politics, David A.
Nichols reviews and analyzes the policies towards American Indians
characteristic of Lincoln’s presidency. He begins by asserting that past
historians have neglected this field due to a misguided belief that the Civil
War did not give him time to deal with Indian affairs or that Indian history
has been mainly “an antiquarian study, segregated from the major developments of
American history.”[1] He
divides his book into three general sections. After briefly explaining the
state of the Indian System before Lincoln’s election, he explains Lincoln’s
policies towards the Southern tribes, particularly the ‘Five Civilized Tribes.’
He then discusses Indian relations in the Northwest, paying special attention
to the Dakota War of 1962, and finally summarizes various attempts at reform
that were made during Lincoln’s terms. Using secondary sources in addition to
an abundance correspondence from major historical actors, Nichols successfully
shows that Lincoln used Indian policy and politics as tools for his own career,
alternately offering support or indifference as they suited his own political
aims.
After a brief sketch highlighting the
corruption and bureaucratic problems in the Indian system as it was inherited
by Lincoln, Nichols explains the role that Southern tribes played in the Civil
War. He argued that due to lack of protection by Union soldiers, offers of
legislative representation in the Confederate government, geographical
location, and some similar values such as slaveholding and limited federal
interference in government, the majority of southern tribes allied with the
Confederacy. Some Indian leaders, like Stand Watie, became vital to the
Confederate military strategy. Due to the military advantage of holding the
Oklahoma Territory as well as the high cost of Indian refugees pouring into
Kansas, many of Lincoln’s advisors saw advantages in making a military
incursion into Indian Territory. It is here where Nichols begins to paint very
human portraits of the characters that he describes. Using their own
correspondence, he shows how much progress of bogged down and underfunded due
to political infighting and personality clashes between Generals Jim Lane and
David Hunter. Due to these conflicts, the Territory never got the aid it needed
and the refugees starved and died of infectious diseases while waiting. This
problem was compounded later in the war due to the former alliance with the
South which made aiding southern tribes a far less sympathetic and very
politically dangerous task.
After
explaining how Lincoln’s policies affected southern tribes, Nichols gives what
is likely the most solid evidence for his thesis when discussing Lincoln’s
reaction to the Dakota War. The Dakota War in 1862 was likely begun after a
confrontation between some Sioux men and some settlers, which resulted in five
deaths. Arguably, this stemmed from the
consistently corrupt and unfair trade practices in the region which were
cheating the Sioux out of their government annuities and causing tremendous
hunger and hardship in the region. The reaction was several battles fought
between the US Army, white settlers and the Sioux. When, in December, the last
Sioux surrendered, over one thousand people, including women and children were
kept as political prisoners. Most of the men were sentenced to death with very
little due process. Lincoln, who needed to give the order for execution,
delayed his decision for some time. Politically, either choice would be
negative. Some missionaries like Henry Whipple, declared that most of the men
sentenced were innocent, and that in this situation, charity was called for.
Additionally, such a large mass execution would undoubtedly hurt the public
image of the US and perhaps give European countries and excuse to offer aid to
the Confederacy. However, the fevered situation of Minnesotans meant that if he
did not approve the execution, he would lose many votes. His final compromise
was extremely politically savvy. He elected to execute only thirty eight Sioux,
while a fraction of the number sentenced, still the largest mass execution in
US history. Thus he managed to placate humanitarians. However, he also allowed
for the Sioux to be removed from their land in Minnesota, opening up new
territory for white settlers and ensuring that his charity did not cost him
votes. Once this matter was resolved, he did not return to it and left dozens
of the prisoners to die in jail.
Finally Nichols
concludes his text with several chapters on reform attempts during Lincoln’s
presidency. He discusses the failures of militarism in Colorado and New Mexico
as well as the continued corruption in the federal bureaucracy of the Indian
system. He also summarizes the various attempts of reformers like Whipple,
Lane, John Pope, William Dole, and Morton Wilkinson. He discusses Lincoln’s
initial endorsement of Indian reform in 1962[2]
which was overshadowed by more vital national goals like the Manifest Destiny
and racist attitudes affecting politicians including Lincoln. Eventually, by
1865, despite the large disturbances in the Indian system like the Dakota War
and the Civil War, the system returned to normal, neither helped nor hindered
in particular by Abraham Lincoln.
Nichols’
book is interesting in many ways. He provides very interesting context for
American Indian History and shows that it should not be segregated from Civil
War history. His book as also very well written and his copious quotations from
correspondence allow the reader to connect with many actors who are not as well
known as Lincoln, particularly Whipple and Lane. He does lack perspective from
the Indians, attempting to speak for them through humanitarians, but this is a
deficit that he acknowledges in his introduction. He also has a slight tendency to turn the
Indians that he does discuss into victims. This may be fitting in most of his
narrative, but his discussion of the Southern tribes involvement in the Civil
War, it slightly minimizes the intelligence and value of the soldiers in the
Army of the Trans-Mississippi and other Indian troops, especially considering
that Watie was the last Confederate General to surrender. However, this book
was extremely successful in providing a clear history of federal-Indian
relations during the civil war and is a valuable text for anyone who studies
American history.
