The Rise and Fall of Indian Country, 1825-1855 by William E. Unrau, Kansas UP '07, 201 pages, ISBN #0700615113. Index, sources, source notes, sparse illustrations sprinkled through text.
It is possible that some sponsors of the federal Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834 sincerely believed it could protect Native Americans from depradations of white men. But a decade later came journalist John Sullivan's proclamation of Manifest Destiny. The race to the West was on, and all bets as to American Indians were off. Human rights, then as now, were no match for the lure of riches.
Historian William E. Unrau's new book joins a lengthening bookshelf of works on Native American exploitation. He argues that from the get go, the 1834 Act's effectiveness in vouchsafing Indians a homeland half the size of the Louisiana Purchase was doomed "by such factors as distorted perceptions of the region's economic potential, tribal land, compressions, government complicity in overland travel and commerce, and blatant disregard for federal regulations."
The whole scheme came tumbling down when whites swept into Kansas Territory in 1854, and the government proved powerless to protect Native Americans' independence. Unrau, retired Wichita State University professor, is the author of several other books on the lives of Indians in Western territory.
