The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972 Page: 110
566 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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110 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Lincoln named Pope, who had been disastrously defeated in the
Second Battle of Manassas, to command the Department of the North-
west. Though only partially successful in controlling the Indians,
Pope was rewarded in 1864 with the command of the newly created
Division of the Missouri which included all the Great Plains from
Texas to Canada.
By this time Pope's ideas for a sound and practical Indian policy
had crystallized. He believed that the Indians should be under the
jurisdiction of the War Department; old treaties should be discarded
and no new treaties made; no money should be paid directly to the
tribes; and trade regulations should be strengthened and enforced.
The Indians should be disarmed and compelled to remain on reser-
vations far removed from their homeland, adequately fed, and made
comfortable. They should be furnished tools and seeds, taught to farm
or converted into stockmen, and assimilated into the white man's
civilization.
Naturally, Pope opposed the treaty efforts in 1865 as another bribe
to keep the Indians temporarily peaceful, but he was transferred that
year to a command in the South. In May, 1870, when he again became
commander of the Department of the Missouri, he favored the "Peace
Policy," if enforced, but not the "Quaker Policy"; and he was pleased
with the legislation in 1871 that provided for the assimilation of the
Indians into the white man's culture. Ironically, when the Interior
Department turned control of the southern plains tribes over to the
War Department in 1874, as Pope had advocated ten years earlier,
Pope was hesitant to act, and thereby he lost the confidence of Philip
H. Sheridan, commander of the Division of the Missouri. After the
campaign of 1874-1875, Indian Territory was placed in Pope's depart-
ment, and its command given to Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, who advo-
cated an Indian policy very similar to that of Pope. Pope at last saw
most of his policies activated by Mackenzie; but Mackenzie often
acted on his own initiative or dealt directly with Sheridan and Sher-
man. In 1884 Pope was sent to command the Division of the Pacific,
but his Indian relations there, if any, are not mentioned.
The writing in this study, though neither skillful nor artistic, is
good and interesting. There are some unnecessary repetitions and
too many independent clauses that should be subordinate, particu-
larly in topic sentences. Some maps would be helpful. The work is
well edited, and the format is pleasing. More important, however,
it is thoroughly researched, as revealed by the excellent documenta-
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972, periodical, 1972; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101201/m1/122/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.