President Ulysses S. Grant, Pursuing a Peace Policy with the Indians, Appoints a Civilian Trader Rather Than a Soldier to Be Indian Agent to the Ponca Tribe

This is an interim appointment because the Senate was not in session to approve the appointment, which it did the next year

The Ponca are North American Indians of the Sioux language family. They left Minnesota in the late 17th century owing to incursions by the Dakota Sioux. The Ponca eventually established homes in what are now southwestern Minnesota and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Like many other Plains Indians, they resided in semipermanent agricultural villages and lived in earth lodges. During the spring and autumn hunting seasons they engaged in communal bison hunts and camped in tepees.

By 1804, when they were encountered by Lewis and Clark, they were reduced to about 200 individuals. In 1865 the Ponca were guaranteed a reservation on their homelands, but after bureaucratic blundering the land was awarded to the Dakota, and in 1879 the Ponca were forcibly removed to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). The tribe found living conditions there unbearable; led by Chief Standing Bear, they traveled north on foot for 600 miles to eastern Nebraska, where they received asylum from the Omaha. Many Ponca were arrested for leaving their assigned territory but were freed after a young Omaha woman named convinced a group of wealthy and sympathetic individuals to defend the Ponca cause in court. Some of the tribe later moved back to Oklahoma; others remained in Nebraska.

A very significant moment in the Tribe’s history was the “Trial of Standing Bear” in 1879. It was at this time that the Ponca were forcibly removed from their homeland in northeastern Nebraska and marched to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Many died along the way, including Standing Bear’s daughter, and, upon arrival, his son would also die. Promising to honor his son’s dying wish to be buried in his homeland, Standing Bear and a small band of his men began the arduous journey home to bury his son. They realized that they were doing so in defiance of orders not to leave the reservation. They were soon arrested and about to be returned to Indian Territory when their plight was publicized in the Omaha Daily Herald. Standing Bear was held for trial at a fort near Omaha. The outcome was that the Indian was declared a “person” according to law and that Standing Bear and his followers were free to return to their homeland. However, as all of the Tribe’s land had been taken from them, they had no home to return to. Eventually, 26,000 acres in Knox County, Nebraska would be restored to them. Today, a bust of Standing Bear sits in Nebraska’s State Capitol Hall of Fame, honoring him for his efforts on behalf of Native American Rights.
In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant, who felt empathy towards the Indians generally, decided to implement a “peace policy” that he had been planning for some time. As Grant would say, the peace policy “pursued toward the Indians has resulted favorably…many tribes of Indians have been induced to settle upon reservations, to cultivate the soil, to perform productive labor of various kinds, and to partially accept civilization. They are being cared for in such a way, it is hoped, as to induce those still pursuing their old habits of life to embrace the only opportunity which is left them to avoid extermination.” The emphasis became using civilian workers (not soldiers) to deal with reservation life.

Henry E. Gregory was the son of Rear Admiral Francis H. Gregory, who served in the Navy throughout most of the first half of the 19th century. In June 1860, Henry moved to Niobrara, Nebraska, where he remained for about a year, working as a merchant and occasionally traveling to a nearby trading post, where he encountered members of the Ponca Indian tribe. He returned to the East following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, but later moved to the Dakota Territory. In U.S. history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Gregory fit the bill, in that he had dealt with the Poncas in trade but was not a military man or hostile to them.

In late 1870, Grant nominated Henry Gregory of Dakota Territory “to be Agent for the Ponca Indians in the Territory of Dakota.” The appointment was an interim one as the Senate was not in session to ratify it.

Document signed, as President, Washington, October 18, 1870, appointing “Henry Gregory of Dakota Territory…to be agent for the Ponca Indians in the Territory of Dakota.” The document is countersigned by Secretary of the Interior J.D. Cox.

In 1871, with the Senate in session, Grant renominated Gregory. The Journal of Executive Proceedings of the U.S. Senate reported, “The Senate proceeded to consider the nominations of Henry Gregory to be agent for the Ponca Indians in Dakota Territory…” The nomination was approved.

Gregory was sympathetic to the Poncas. In 1872, he reported to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington that the Poncas had been attacked by the Sioux and requested arms and aid for them.

In all our years, the appointments of Gregory are the first of an Indian agent we have ever had.