Vol. 5 No. 5 (May, 1995) pp. 164-166
LONE WOLF V. HITCHCOCK: TREATY RIGHTS AND INDIAN LAW AT THE END
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY by Blue Clark. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1994. 182 pp. Cloth $37.50.
Reviewed by Ronald Stidham, Department of Political
Science/Criminal Justice, Appalachian State University.
The author states in the preface that his interest in the
turn-of-the-century period for Indians led him to focus on LONE
WOLF V. HITCHCOCK because of its importance for reservation
Indians' land loss during the period when they were suffering the
trauma of allotment. The decision, he argues, "made it legal
to destroy tribes' land base in violation of treaty
promises" (p. x). Clark says that although he started out to
examine the Court decision, he "soon found that the case law
is also the story of the Indians and how they adjusted to the
world around them" (p. x). Thus, Clark's book is more than a
simple case study of Lone Wolf's lawsuit.
Although some will applaud his efforts to go beyond the case
itself to focus on the impact of the decision on the Indians
themselves, others may feel the author has tried to do too much
in such a short book. In fact, I found the book a bit disjointed
at times as it moved back and forth between discussions of the
Supreme Court, the Kiowas, the Jerome negotiations, the Kiowas
lobbying efforts, the Lone Wolf movement, the Supreme Court case,
and the loss of more Indian land. It might have been better, for
instance, to place the chapter on the Supreme Court (chapter two)
with the discussion of the presentation of Lone Wolf's case
before the high court (chapter eight).
These minor quibbles aside, academicians in several fields will
find much useful material in this book. For instance, Clark
presents a helpful chronology of the lawsuits in the federal and
state courts, three appendixes which provide the reader with the
Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867), the Jerome Agreement (1892), and
the Supreme Court's opinion in LONE WOLF V. HITCHCOCK (1903).
There are also a number of photographs and maps which the reader
will find quite helpful. All in all, there is a good deal of
information crammed into such a small book.
Clark acknowledges that the Court's LONE WOLF decision is one of
the most frequently cited judicial rulings on the American
Indian. Aside from being frequently cited, however, he argues
that the case has been largely ignored in histories and
anthologies dealing with American Indian developments in the late
nineteenth century. He says that some historians have discussed
the historical, regional, and national impacts of the decision
within the context of United States Indian policy, while legal
scholars have discussed the judicial impact of LONE WOLF in
treaty, trust, and federal-Indian relations. In addition, legal
casebooks dealing with federal-Indian law include excerpts from
the Court's decision. However, Clark contends that "national
treatments gloss over many of the aspects of the Kiowas' suit and
cannot devote sufficient space to an examination of the impact of
national policies on the local level, as well as divergences from
federal policies at that level" (p. 4).
Page 165 follows:
Having offered these criticisms of previous studies, Clark then
proceeds to justify the case study approach utilized in this
book. He does so on three grounds. First, he says that a case
study focusing on Lone Wolf's suit provides an examination of
federal officials' actions at both national and local levels.
Second, Clark feels that a case study permits a closer
examination of the reservation involved, highlighting conditions
that affected national policies implemented at the local level.
Finally, he argues that a case study helps clarify some of the
issues regarding American Indian tribal rights.
In chapter two the author turns his attention to the pivotal role
of the U.S. Supreme Court in American political life and society.
He first talks briefly about the Court and industrialization
before turning his attention to the Court and the Indian. Clark
argues that Supreme Court decisions have dramatically altered
Indian sovereignty throughout the years. He says that
"through judicial decisions, Indian tribes in less than a
century traveled the pathway from nearly complete independence to
restricted dependence under the paternalism of the federal
government. The Court served as a powerful instrument for
confining Indians and forcing drastic changes upon them" (p.
13).
Clark contends that even in cases usually thought to be favorable
toward tribal independence Supreme Court justices stated that
Indians would always be subject to the paramount authority of the
United States. This chapter is not intended to be an analysis of
all, or even most, of the Supreme Court's pronouncements on
Indian rights and law. Instead, it is intended to show that even
the nation's highest court has historically seen the Indians as
subjects.
Chapters three through five shift the focus away from the Supreme
Court to the Indians themselves. In chapter three, for instance,
the reader gains some insight into the Kiowas, the tribe to which
Lone Wolf belonged. They were fierce mounted warriors who, along
with the Comanches after 1780, dominated the southern plains
region. The Kiowas first entered into a treaty of friendship with
the Americans in 1837 and entered into negotiations of one sort
or another several times after that. The Treaty of Medicine Lodge
(reprinted in Appendix I) was of special importance and,
according to the author, "directly affected the LONE WOLF
case thirty-four years later" (p. 21). As a result of this
treaty, the Kiowas and Comanches gave up claims to 90 million
acres in exchange for a 2.9 million acre reserve.
In addition to taking their lands for white settlers, Clark
contends that the federal government's "aim was to turn the
plains nomads into a sedentary yeoman citizenry" (p. 23).
However, since the Kiowas had been hunters they did not take
readily to an agricultural life. Few became farmers, and even
those who tried were given little help by the government.
Clark also describes at length (in chapter five) the Jerome
negotiations which led to the taking of even more land from the
Kiowas and other tribes. However, the Indians and their lobbyists
delayed congressional ratification of the Jerome Agreement for
eight years (see chapter six). Nevertheless, in 1900 the Act
implementing
Page 166 follows:
the agreement was passed and the United States took possession
and title to 2,991,933 acres of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains
Apache Reservation. This action triggered Lone Wolf's legal
battles which are discussed in later chapters.
In chapter seven Clark turns his attention to the evolution of
the LONE WOLF case. I strongly suggest that readers study the
chronology of the suits presented on pp. xii-xiii as they follow
the various legal events involved in moving the case to the
United States Supreme Court. The legal battles took place in
Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. and involved a variety of state and
federal Courts.
On January 5, 1903, Justice Edward Douglas White announced the
United States Supreme Court's opinion, which is reprinted in
Appendix 3). His opinion stated that Congress had always
exercised plenary authority over the tribal relations of the
Indians. Furthermore, he argued, that power has always been
deemed a political power, not subject to be controlled by the
judiciary. Thus, the LONE WOLF case came to a conclusion. Clark
says that the most visible effect of the decision was on Kiowa
landholding. He notes that "for the Kiowa, Comanche, and
Apache reserve the average per capita holding of land during the
1880s was just under 160 acres; by 1934 it had plummeted to 17
acres; today it is about 10.5 acres each for tribal members"
(p. 95).
My few quibbles aside, I think this small book makes a useful
contribution to the study of the evolution of federal-Indian
relations at the turn of the century. It deserves a wide
readership.
Reference:
LONEWOLF V. HITCHCOCK 187 U.S. 553 (1903)
