National Museum of the American Indian full of history lessons

“Here then is the security for the remainder of your lands. No state nor person can purchase your lands, unless at some public treaty held under the authority of the United States. The general government will never consent to your being defrauded. But it will protect you in all your just rights.”

—George Washington to the Seneca Nation, 1790

“That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races, until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected.”

—California’s first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, told the Legislature in 1851

“It is a mercy to the red devils to exterminate them, and a saving of many white lives. Treaties are played out—here is one kind of treaty that is effective—cold lead.”

—Chico Courant newspaper, 1866

The National Museum of the American Indian is full of history everyone should know. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Bringing a voice to those who others would prefer be silenced is in large part what the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., is all about.

What I was taught in school about Indigenous people of the United States falls woefully short.

While the museum at times seemed overwhelming, the information was presented in an easy to absorb manner, with the points-of-view of the Native Nations and the government spelled out. Then there was the “aftermath” that essentially spelled out the conclusion of the issue. This of course was usually a favorable outcome for the white people and a calamity for the Indians.

Treaties for the most part were worthless scraps of paper the government had no intention of honoring.

Indian tribes were familiar with treaties because they were independent nations that made agreements with each other long before Europeans landed on what is now known as North America.

Land, of course, was always a contentious battle. But it wasn’t always that way. Note the quote above from George Washington. (Native peoples fought on both sides of the American Revolution.)

There was a time when white people acknowledged the land belonged to the people who were there first. Early on treaties worked.

But there have been more years of deceit, deception and depravation by white people than there were of truth, honor and equality.

The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., has been open since 2004. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

At the museum I learned how horrible California treated the native people. Before going to Washington in May I knew what Californians did wasn’t good, but I didn’t know how bad it was. The two quotes at the beginning are horrific.

Native Nations view: “Native Californians lived in small bands and villages that were politically independent but shared a close relationship to their diverse environment. They sustained one of the largest indigenous populations in North America. In 1769, the Spanish established a chain of missions to turn the natives into Catholic agricultural laborers. Over the next 80 years, disease killed two out of every three native Californians. One traveler described graves covering the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. California was still home to about 150,000 people in 1848, the year gold was discovered.”

U.S. view: “United States troops occupied California in 1846, during the Mexican War. They immediately issued orders restricting Indian movement, denying Indians the vote, and banning them from testifying in court against any white person. When gold was discovered, fortune hunters from across the country came to stake claims on Indian lands. In their search for riches, the newcomers disturbed the natural environment, depleted traditional food sources, and unleashed an orgy of frontier violence that upended the lives of California’s native peoples.”

Eighteen treaties were signed in 1851-52 between the government and native Californians.

“California financed its Indian wars partly by selling bonds …. California spent almost $1.5 million during the 1850s to outfit volunteer militias and vigilantes against native people. The federal government reimbursed much of it,” a museum display says.

One of the atrocities is the government concealed the treaties for 50 years.

“When they were finally made public in 1905, California Indians discovered what had been promised to them. They sued for compensation in 1928. It took until 1944 for the case to be decided,” the museum says. “The court awarded the Indians $5,025,000 for all they had lost.

“Later, in a great historical irony, the Cabazon and Morongo bands of Mission Indians won a landmark lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court. It gave them the right to operate a casino on a reservation established in 1876. The decision gave not only California nations, but also those all across the United States, the right to conduct gaming free of regulation by the states. In this way, they too struck gold.”

There is much to be learned at this museum. It’s the real history of the native people who lived in the United States; not some watered down revisionist propaganda.