Excerpt from Smithsonian Magazine about Ely S. Parker ...Unlike most white men, who prided themselves on being outgoing, even boisterous, Grant was quiet - so reserved that he usually headed for the store's back room to avoid talking to customers. Only after Grant got to know a person well did he reveal his kindness and his intelligence. This was just how Parker had been taught to behave when growing up on his people's reserve in Tonawanda, New York. Men were to remain stoic in public, and to open their hearts to friends only in private. ...The friendship between Grant and Parker strengthened after Grant was appointed General of the Army, a position he held from 1865 to 1869. During these years, Grant often sent Parker, now an adjutant general, to meet with tribes in the Indian Territory and farther west in Montana and Wyoming. Parker listened as tribal leaders described how their country was being overrun by miners, cattlemen, railroad workers, farmers, immigrants from Europe, and freedmen from the South. Parker reported everything back to Grant and together they worked out the details of a policy with the main goal of citizenship for the Indians. The army would protect Indians on their reservations as they transitioned from their old ways and entered the mainstream of American life, learning how to support themselves through new livelihoods like farming or ranching. It might take a Generation or two, but eventually Indians would be able to vote, own businesses, and rely on the protections guaranteed to them in the Constitution. As president, Grant made Parker his Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Parker began working to implement the president's plans, appointing dozens of army officers to oversee the superintendencies, agencies, and reservations in the West. Grant and Parker were so certain of the wisdom of their policy that they failed to see how many people opposed it. Congressmen, who had previously rewarded their supporters with jobs in the Indian Service, resented the fact that Grant had taken away these plum positions. Many Americans, especially in the West, complained that the president sided with the Indians rather than with his own countrymen. Reformers, who wanted the government to impose radical changes on the Indians, doing away with tribal identity and dividing reservations among individual property owners, criticized Grant and Parker for allowing the Indians to make changes at their own pace. Tribes that had not yet been brought onto reservations vowed to fight any attempt by the army to do so. Tribes in the Indian Territory, especially the Cherokee, wanted to remain independent nations. But no one opposed Grant's policy as strongly as the Board of Indian Commissioners, a 10=--man committee of wealthy Americans that Grant had appointed as part of his new Indian policy. Grant had expected the board to audit the Indian service, but the board demanded instead to run it. See www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ulysses-grants-failed-attempt-to-grant-native-americans-citizenship-180971198/
Ol' Robert E. Lee thought he was being clever in commenting on Ely Parker as "one true American here"... Parker outwitted him, saying..."we are all Americans here!" Word.
Ely Parker- a man all Americans can be proud of, and who should be taken to heart.
Excerpt from Smithsonian Magazine about Ely S. Parker
...Unlike most white men, who prided themselves on being outgoing, even boisterous, Grant was quiet - so reserved that he usually headed for the store's back room to avoid talking to customers. Only after Grant got to know a person well did he reveal his kindness and his intelligence. This was just how Parker had been taught to behave when growing up on his people's reserve in Tonawanda, New York. Men were to remain stoic in public, and to open their hearts to friends only in private.
...The friendship between Grant and Parker strengthened after Grant was appointed General of the Army, a position he held from 1865 to 1869. During these years, Grant often sent Parker, now an adjutant general, to meet with tribes in the Indian Territory and farther west in Montana and Wyoming. Parker listened as tribal leaders described how their country was being overrun by miners, cattlemen, railroad workers, farmers, immigrants from Europe, and freedmen from the South.
Parker reported everything back to Grant and together they worked out the details of a policy with the main goal of citizenship for the Indians. The army would protect Indians on their reservations as they transitioned from their old ways and entered the mainstream of American life, learning how to support themselves through new livelihoods like farming or ranching. It might take a Generation or two, but eventually Indians would be able to vote, own businesses, and rely on the protections guaranteed to them in the Constitution.
As president, Grant made Parker his Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Parker began working to implement the president's plans, appointing dozens of army officers to oversee the superintendencies, agencies, and reservations in the West. Grant and Parker were so certain of the wisdom of their policy that they failed to see how many people opposed it. Congressmen, who had previously rewarded their supporters with jobs in the Indian Service, resented the fact that Grant had taken away these plum positions. Many Americans, especially in the West, complained that the president sided with the Indians rather than with his own countrymen. Reformers, who wanted the government to impose radical changes on the Indians, doing away with tribal identity and dividing reservations among individual property owners, criticized Grant and Parker for allowing the Indians to make changes at their own pace. Tribes that had not yet been brought onto reservations vowed to fight any attempt by the army to do so. Tribes in the Indian Territory, especially the Cherokee, wanted to remain independent nations.
But no one opposed Grant's policy as strongly as the Board of Indian Commissioners, a 10=--man committee of wealthy Americans that Grant had appointed as part of his new Indian policy. Grant had expected the board to audit the Indian service, but the board demanded instead to run it.
See www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ulysses-grants-failed-attempt-to-grant-native-americans-citizenship-180971198/
The Board of Indian Commissioners failed Grant in not implementing the Indian policies that Grant wanted. It's tragic.
Ol' Robert E. Lee thought he was being clever in commenting on Ely Parker as "one true American here"...
Parker outwitted him, saying..."we are all Americans here!"
Word.
Lee was a sore loser and overrated as a General.
This is good , thank you