Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: Funding the California Indian Superintendency Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 13 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 14:21:59 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:17:31 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:17:31

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Historical Society of Southern California remained at subade and California how far Appropriations during most of the 1860s stantially lower levels than the previous dec field officers, who disagreed with their superiors as to the government should go in providing assistance, protested meager appropriations. Superintending Agent George M. Hanson, for example, warned the Bureau in 1862: The superintending agent certainly feels a great desire to see the Indian service prosper under his charge in this part of California, but it is utterly impossible that such can be the case without a larger appropriation of money that has been made for several years _if, at the ensuing session of Congress, nothing should be n done for the last two or three years, the he hands of the present past.. done better than has bee Indian cause in California must die upon t administration. . . . ** ohn P. H. Wentworth, meanwhile directly attributed the Indian outbreak on Owen’s River to Congress’s failure to provide relief funds.°’ Hanson’s thoughts were in much the same vein in 1862, when he protested: nt has acted upon the “Penny wise and Pound ating large sums of money to keep e for the Indian Reservaappropriate one fourth Superintending Agent, J The Governme foolish” principle, in appropri up Military Posts.. and a mere pittanc tion Service . . let the Government . . . of the money now paid to the support of these worse than useless Military Posts . . . and in less than two years time every Indian in the District will make his way to those Reservations of his own accord and in a very few years the Indians will be able to clothe as well as feed themselves.”* Finally, J. Ross Browne, whose analysis of California fiscal affairs had long been trusted by the Bureau, sums now appropriated by Co beneficial object in California. propriations following the Civil reservation Indian population, less desperate. Printed estimates plus those submitted by th of Indian Affairs in writing totaled $2,767,096 ( Figure 2). Appropriations amounted to years or $545,562 above estimates. Congression wrote in 1863, “the ® ngress are insufficient to effect a . »37 With a slight increase in apE War and a supposed decline in 4 such protests were fewer and 4 e Commissioners — see Table 3 and . $3,312,658 for the same ~ al support for the — Funding the California Indian Superintendency Beit pipes evident during 1852-53 and 1854oe cate, coe lasses to Indian appropriation bills. what they truly believed necessary, itis evident thar Gone A ls evident ee ee cera Bureau requests and, A oe In summary en es a pg! : im : at mos ‘ fee ‘a Superintendency Hoare HEA pantech. oe eee a exceptions, most speakers did not fully vont age ard ee or rejecting appropriations, they, in ee : n PO icy, marked the speed of its execution and its effectiveness. Few apparently inquired as 6 ioe ~ a $100,000 appropriation for food and clothing would “vindicate the nati Se eel and keep the escutcheon clean.” Would _ ae ave better saved the national honor? Funds to bribe smen to keep the peace, reservations as an economical . pen and Indian self-sufficiency were short-sighted sol 0 the “Indian Problem.” Few speakers asked what waite be the Indians’ condition in the twentieth cent . . . a oo would have upon the nice ene eee 5 a neat that the Indians should not be exterBe coisa ore 1865 explored the specifics of a civilizaeae hin the context of its long range impact. This wa al question that no representative really examined before 1865, sin ifi , Since the specifics were usually written into treaties nego tiated under general i i instructions and ratified ji Es é ied in most ; ee question except for the cost factor, And in California Pe Gs no treaty guidelines. William T, Clark (Republics , for example, complained of the lack of interest in Td ie appropriations, when he stated j e ; ed in 1869, “Thi E Con ; is House and thi ae rae have mie failed . . to meet this Indian question in 2, sii arene made appropriations, as gentlemen have mae 4 ee wie to bridge over this question. . . This Indian ‘een ae por ant . . . to be passed over year after year, practical] ” sl consider it in its details aa fate of the Indian mattered li “Ce 4 é ittle to Congres 4 ‘kept clear for white settlement ii hi amie a ‘ ne : . j 4 : ction the majority of representatives were not interested 4 ppropriations, much less California funding. For ex .”°** Perhaps the ultimate