Indian Agents
The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of the position of Indian agent in 1793 under the Second Trade and Intercourse Act (or The Nonintercourse Act) This required land sales by/from Native Americans to be federally licensed and permitted. The legislation also authorized the President of the United States to “appoint such persons, from time to time, as temporary agents to reside among the Indians,” and guide them into forced acculturation of white American society by changing their agricultural practices and domestic activities. Eventually, the government ceased using the term temporary from the Indian agent’s job title.
Read more about this topic: Indian Agent
Famous quotes containing the words indian and/or agents:
“If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth, and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented, nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They can not tell me.”
—Chief Joseph (c. 1840–1904)
“Modern man’s capacity for destruction is quixotic evidence of humanity’s capacity for reconstruction. The powerful technological agents we have unleashed against the environment include many of the agents we require for its reconstruction.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)