F. Prucha, American Indian Policy in The Formative Years: The Indian Trade and Intercourse Acts 1790-1834 (1962

Book Reviews 1209
many traditional practices are preserved in a vast network of legislation applic

able to Africans
only (p. 93).
Although Indians are less directly affected by apartheid legislation, she explai
ns that
their residential pattern, which tends to conserve traditional health practices,
is
maintained “partly because legislation restricts the free movement of Indians and
limits their rights of occupation of houses in certain areas” (p. 97).
American Indian Policy in the Formative Years: The Indian Trade and Intercourse
Acts,
1790-1834. FRANCIPSA ULP RUCHAC.a mbridge: Harvard University Press, 1962.
303 pp., bibliographical notes, index. $6.75.
Reviewed by D ’ARCYM CNICKLEBo, ulder, Colorado
In this carefully researched study of the beginnings of United States Indian pol
icy,
the author comes close to refuting his own contention. He suggests, in a prefato
ry remark,
that one of the difficulties of historical writing is that “no definite patterns
emerge which can be used to explain all that happened.” But in following the cours
e of
Indian-White relations, he makes painfully clear that a certain fateful pattern
did
emerge in British colonial times and endure all through the period under review:
White settlement advanced; and the Indians, as well as established authority, th
e
guarantors of their security, retreated.
It is a pattern of conflict between moral imperative and expedient compromise. T
he
British concept of the moral situation had its cumulative statement in the famou
s
Royal Proclamation of 1763-declaring that Indian title in the soil was sacred an
d was
not to be extinguished except as the king’s representatives and the Indians in cou
ncil
might come to public agreement. The United States accepted this formulation, and
elaborated upon it in executive pronouncements, congressional enactments, bilate
ral
treaties with the Indian tribes, and supreme court rulings. But for all their so
lemn
declarations, neither the British nor the United States government succeeded in
giving
effective support to its enunciated policy. As Prucha observes: “Protection of the
rights
and persons of the Indians remained more an ideal than a reality” (p. 275).
Why this was so-and the many specific instances in which the intent and purpose
were defeated-is exhaustively explored, and the result is a substantial contribu
tion to
the literature on United States policy in the field of Indian affairs.
Of special interest is the chapter on “Removal of Intruders on Indian Lands” (pp.
139-187), which reviews in detail the resolute efforts of the United States to g
ive legal
effect to the defined rights of the Indians in their territorial holdings. These
efforts were
not limited to enactments by congress and decisions of the courts. Repeatedly go
vernment
agents, acting under authority of the Secretary of War (who was responsible for
Indian relations until 1849), removed trespassing White men, destroying their cr
ops
and burning buildings and fences. Criminal and civil actions were taken in local
courts
(not always successfully). Even military expeditions were sent against recalcitr
ant
adventurers, as at Dubuque in 1830.
The problem, however, was never brought under control. The policing of a frontie
r
extending over thousands of miles of unmapped territory, with only a scattering
of
armed posts, and with never an adequate complement of troops, was physically imp
ossible.
Interlopers seeking plunder as well as home-building settlers repeatedly invaded
areas legally reserved for exclusive Indian occupancy; and invariably the United
States,
after first invoking its plenary authority, acquiesced in an accomplished fact b
y
negotiating additional land cessions from the Indians.
1210 .I meriati -1 rtthropologist t6.5, 19631
’I’hc Imcctlure I)ccame ho wr l l practiced as to lcad s o m ~w ritcis i n l a t e r
ytws to
rc4rr to the idea of tribal sovereignty as a fiction and to treaty-making as a r
ynicill
device by which thc Indians were maneuvered out of their continental holdings. S
i c - h
interpretations are specious and are in violent disacrord with the legal and pol
itical
record.
The Indians lost the continent, not because the national government played them
false, but, as Prucha observes, because of the frontiersmen’s “attitude of hostility
toward the red man, which spurred the ruthless drive against the Indians and mad
e it
impossible for the government to carry out its policy” (p. 3).
While these developing years are carefully examined with respect to the concerns
and the actions of the public men involved in Indian affairs, it is regrettable
that the
Indians themselves are seen only dimly as “pagan redmen” and “uncultured tribesmen”
moving in “various stages of savage culture.” Frequent reference is made to complain
ts
and petitions offered by Indian spokesmen, but the texts of these utterances are
never
offered. The utterances were often forceful, even when rendered in labored Engli
sh,
and they suggest universals of logic, reason, and compassion which identify them
rather
closely with the utterances of other men, whether these be labeled “Christian” or
“civilized .”
“ I Will Fight No More Forever”: Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War. MERRILLD .
BEAL. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963. xvii, 366 pp., bibliography
,
illustrations, index, 1 map, notes. $6.00.
Reviewed by THEODOSRTEER N,U niversity of Oregon
With the principal participants long since dead and the major documentary files
exploited, the history of the Nez Perce War of 1877 has become a field for the g
leaners.
Latest upon this terrain, Merrill D. Beal, professor of history at Idaho State C
ollege,
collates previous accounts and adds a few kernels-as well as some tares-without
substantially altering the overall yield. His account, which grew out of an orig
inal
commission from the National Park Service to examine the Big Hole battle, devote
s
some 70 percent of the text to the campaign itself and may fairly be said to hav
e aimed
at a military history of the war. In this respect, it furnishes at least as clea
r a picture
as any of its predecessors, to which it is primarily indebted, though marred by
internal
inconsistencies (thus compare the death of Wahlitits and his wife on pages 118 a
nd
137). Moreover, Real adds new and useful detail, particularly upon regional and
national
reaction to the events of the war. As a synthesis, however, his narrative fails
to rise
above its forerunners, and indeed marks a regression from Fee’s provision of battl
e
maps, Haines’ treatment of the events leading up to the war, and the special insig
hts
offered by McWhorter from Indian participants.
Despite the acknowledged assistance of anthropologists who aided him in several
capacities, Beal’s treatment of the Nez Perce will prove satisfactory to few. A co
mparison
of the initial sketch of the tribe with corresponding sections of Spinden’s study,
from which it was mainly drawn, reveals several inaccuracies; and Swanton fares
no
better. The term “clan” is variously applied to bands and to the group of bands comp
rising
the following of a principal chief. Of particular weight is the author’s inability
to evaluate fully the circumstantial accounts which McWhorter had elicited from
Nez
Perce survivors. It is clear that the Indians fought much of the war with Plains
punctilio,
with stress upon bravado (the Red Coat wearers) and the counting of coup, and
with the retirement of noncombatants, including those able-bodied tribesmen who
were
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F. Prucha, American Indian Policy in the Formative Years: The Indian Trade and I
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Book Reviews 1209

many traditional practices are preserved in a vast network of legislation applic

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