Item #19134 The Case of McGillicuddy. Senator Dawes Explains the Troubles at the Sioux Agencies. NATIVE AMERICANS, Henry L. Dawes.

The Case of McGillicuddy. Senator Dawes Explains the Troubles at the Sioux Agencies

[1884].

Three-page pamphlet in self wrappers, reprinting a letter to the editor of the Springfield [Massachusetts] Republican dated August 7, 1884. No publication information given, but apparently printed and circulated by the Indian Rights Association. Archival tape repair to spine, some small chips; very good. Senator Dawes was Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and favored breaking up tribal governments to encourage assimilation by the Indians. Here he offers a defense of Valentine McGillicuddy, a surgeon and topographer who had been serving as Indian Agent at the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota since 1879. McGillicuddy's vigorous efforts to "civilize" the Indians were met by resistance by Sioux Chief Red Cloud and resulted in several official investigations of his methods, with mixed conclusions. Dawes argues that McGillicuddy has merely administered the law and dismisses Red Cloud's defender, Dr. Thomas Bland, as "a very strange man, having some notions about Indians which seem kind, but on the contrary making trouble and mischief with everybody who is trying to help that people." Bland was founder of the National Indian Defense Association, and his primary "strange notion" was that the Indians should have a say in their own fate.

Item #19134

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