BY MARK G. HIRSCH O


n a late summer day in 1874, Cherokee Chief William Pot- ter Ross rose to speak to a gathering in the small railroad town of Vinita, Indian Terri- tory (near modern-day Tulsa,


Okla.). His topic – how the small European principality of San Marino had successfully resisted incorporation into the new Italian na- tion-state – must have mystified listeners. But Ross, whose celebrated uncle, Principal Chief John Ross, had led tribal opposition to Chero- kee removal in the 1830s, quickly explained the relevance of his story: that the large and powerful United States should respect the au- tonomy of small tribal nations. The Cherokee leader’s plea for tribal


nationhood ran counter to the mainstream American thinking of his day. Three years earlier, in 1871, Congress ended formal trea-


ty-making with Indians, obliterating a nearly 100-year-old diplomatic tradition in which the United States recognized tribes as nations. Although Congress agreed to honor the ap- proximately 368 Indian treaties that had been ratified from 1778 to 1868, Congress stated unequivocally that “henceforth, no Indian nation or tribe . . . shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty….” Why did treaty-making with Indian na-


tions fall into disfavor? The answer lies in understanding the transformation of Ameri- can thought about Indian nations after the Civil War.


E William P. Ross


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 41


IMAGE COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS


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