Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863 - W. Dirk Raat - Страница 20

Like most presidents, Lincoln had little or no knowledge and experience with the American Indian. On a personal level he considered them inferior to the white man and dealt with them in a paternalistic way. Most of the Indian matters that confronted him in office were handled by other officials in his administration. Lincoln’s Far West policy was to promote the interests of the transcontinental railroad, miners, farmers, and preachers. In other words, Lincoln personified the ideals of “Manifest Destiny,” which held that the Indians were an obstacle to the expansion of western civilization and must be removed to make room for Christianity, mineral extraction, farming, and the railroad. Most of the Lincoln administration activities involved the cession of Indian lands and the removal and relocation of the Indians from their homelands. While he did get involved in the Sioux conflict in Minnesota, and was concerned with the affairs of the pro-Union Cherokee, he took no part in the events in the New Mexico territory involving Navajos and Mescalero Apaches. The Navajo Long Walk was administered solely by military personnel of the New Mexico district.

His paternalism did reveal itself in his treatment of the Pueblo Indians. Perhaps, Lincoln, like many of his compatriots, considered them to be more “civilized” than the average “savage” because the Pueblos lived in a sedentary way, dwelling in apartment compounds and practicing agriculture. Pursuing the model of the Spanish King in 1620 and the example of the Mexican government in 1821, he awarded Pueblo leaders with silver-headed ebony canes engraved with his name:

Lincoln

President. U.S.A.

(Name of the pueblo)

1863

As scholar W. Dale Mason notes, “These canes recognized the sovereign status of the pueblos. The canes are still revered in the pueblos today and are used to symbolically legitimize the authority of the pueblo governments.”¹