President Ulysses S. Grant Appoints a Trusted Agent to Pursue His Peace Policy with the Sioux

This document has been with the Gregory heirs and has never before been offered for sale.

 

Gregory was to aid the Indians in farming, schooling, policing, and more; the journals of his wife, Anna Baker, are an important primary historical resource on this era and location

The Lower Brulé Indian Agency was established in 1875 as the White River Agency and was renamed Lower Brulé not long after. Its mission was to serve the Lakota Indians and others in the region of central South Dakota. It was first located on the western side of the Missouri River, 10 miles below Crow Creek in South Dakota. In the summer of 1876, it was moved to the mouth of American Crow Creek, 12 miles below the old site.

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 next year, the Senate approved the appointment.

When an opening at the White River [Lower Brulé] Agency came up, he appointed Gregory to that post as well.

Document signed, as President, Washington, July 21, 1876, appointing “Henry Gregory of Dakota…to be agent for the Indians of the White River Dakota in the Territory of Dakota.” This became the Lower Brulé Agency. The document is countersigned by Secretary of the Interior Zachariah Chandler.

Gregory was back in an agency post in 1885, when he signed a report sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. It shows that Gregory still believed in Grant’s peace policy with the Indians, and indicates how it worked, though Grant himself had died.

That reports is interesting and states in part: “September 1, 1885. Sir, I have the honor to submit in accordance with your instructions the following report of the condition of affairs at this agency. The Indians luring the past year have remained quiet and have paid more attention to farming than they have done in any previous year. Early in the spring the additional farmer went out into the Indian camps aiding and encouraging them in their work in every possible way and the result was that they planted 62 acres in potatoes 3324 in corn and 62 in vegetables besides this 124 acres were seeded in wheat and 85 in oats in all 657 acres a gain of 157 acres over the year previous…Our Indians feel very much discouraged more especially those who sowed small grain this being the second season that their crops have failed them. I fear they will be very reluctant to try sowing small grain another year. During the year just ended the Indians broke for themselves 116 acres of land and 80 acres were broken by agency teams for Indians who did not have any teams Last spring I issued to these Indians 73 bead of domestic cattle and 20 yokes of oxen Each person receiving any signed a pledge not to sell trade or kill the animal given him and up to this time I have heard of only a few cases in which this pledge has not been kept. The Indians have erected about twenty log houses during the last year the only expense incurred by the Government being the doors and windows. The Indians seem to be backward in children to school and the attendance has not been as large as I wished for… Indians as a rule do not compel children to attend school and of course they not liking the restriction which is thus imposed upon them are not willing to do so. I am in hopes that this feeling will as each year passes by decrease and that our Indians will see not only the necessity but the benefit of placing their children in school. In a council recently held with the chiefs upon this subject after explaining fully to them the advantages they derive from schools they promised me that upon the opening of our school it should be filled. The school was under the charge of Mr. Carroll D. Bon until April 1 1885 at which time he resigned his position as principal and was succeeded by Mr Edward Healey an experienced teacher under whose management I feel confident that our school will improve I would respectfully recommend that day schools be established in Medicine Bull’s and Black Dog’s camps at each place there is a school house 20 by 40. These schools could be started at very little expense as these houses are in a fair state of repairs…During the past winter we were troubled a great deal by Indians obtaining intoxicating liquor and being drunk in the agency. The police were instructed to do all in their power to detect the parties engaged in this traffic and to stop it. They soon traced it to certain parties in Chamberlain Dakota about 5 miles from the agency.”