Jessica Crabtree

Ely Parker, or Ha-sa-no-an-da (“Leading Name”), was born in the Seneca Nation in 1828. Through his mother he was descended from prominent Iroquois leaders such as Red Jacket and Handsome Lake. He showed promising aptitude for learning and attended American boarding schools, later graduating from college with a degree in engineering. He distinguished himself early in life by strong administrative and diplomatic skills, and already he had begun to forge important associations with individuals who would later play crucial roles in his career.

-Career

After graduating, Parker worked at a law office, but was refused admission to the bar because he was not a legal citizen (Indians were not granted US citizenship until 1924). Later he used his college training to obtain work as a civil engineer; his resume included major construction projects in the Great Lakes region and maintenance of the Erie Canal.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Union army as an engineer, but was refused because of his race. He brought his case before a friend – future general U.S. Grant – who interceded on his behalf. Parker was later appointed Grant’s adjutant, served as his personal secretary under the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was eventually promoted to Brigadier General. He was the highest-ranking Native American in the Union Army.

It was Parker who wrote the final draft of the Confederate terms of surrender that were served at the Appomattox courthouse. (It is also interesting to note that on the opposing side, it was another Native American – Cherokee chief Stand Watie – who was the last Confederate general to surrender.) At the surrender at Appomattox, General Lee is said to have remarked, “I am glad to see one real American here” – to which Parker replied, “We are all Americans, sir.” It was this kind of open-minded and forward-thinking mentality that marked Parker’s entire career.

-Indian Affairs

As one of the ten chiefs of the Seneca nation (a post which he had held since 1851), Parker served as a cultural liaison between the US and his Seneca people. After the Civil War he continued to distinguish himself through his efforts as a diplomat and translator, becoming an attaché for the Office of Indian Affairs.

He was a powerful proponent of Indian’s rights in a time when few people were willing to speak on their behalf. He used his unique influence in politics to address the pressing issues arising with the white migration and settlement of the Plains. In his Report on Indian Affairs released in 1867, he opened with this bleak and forthright assessment:

“…as the hardy pioneer and adventurous miner advanced into the inhospitable regions occupied by the Indians, in search of the precious metals, they found no rights possessed by the Indians that they were bound to respect. The faith of treaties solemnly entered into were totally disregarded, and Indian territory wantonly violated. If any tribe remonstrated against the violation of their natural and treaty rights, members of the tribe were inhumanely shot down and the whole treated as mere dogs. Retaliation generally followed, and bloody Indian wars have been the consequence, costing many lives…”

In 1869 he was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs – the first Native American to hold the post (and the first Native American to hold any cabinet-level government office). Despite his efforts for reform, his advice went largely unheeded, and after two years he resigned from the post. He became increasingly disillusioned and even disgusted with American policies towards Native Americans.

In a letter to a friend, poet Harriet Maxwell Converse, he wrote, “I have little or no faith in the American Christian civilization methods of healing the Indians of this country. It has not been honest, pure or sincere. Black deception, damnable frauds and persistent oppression has been its characteristics, and its religion today is that the only good Indian is a dead one.”

He remarked, “It is very evident to my mind that all schemes, to apparently serve the Indians, are only plausible pleas put out to hoodwink the civilized world that everything possible has been done to save this race from total annihilation, and to wipe out the stain on the American name for its treatment of the aboriginal population.”

-Balancing two worlds

Throughout his career Parker faced castigation and criticism, not only from whites who responded with racism and prejudice, but from Indians who saw him as a traitor.

Parker’s diplomatic writings reflect the view that the only way for Indians to survive the onslaught of colonization was to adapt to white society; he advocated educational programs that would help acclimate the younger generation of Native Americans to Western civilization and equip them for modern lifestyles. This was in direct contradiction to those who feared the loss of traditional life ways, inherited knowledge, and Indian identity to the forces of assimilation. For this, many fellow Indians labeled him an accommodationist or a collaborator, one who was helping this destructive process along.

But his actions consistently reveal a deep and urgent desire to preserve the sanctity of traditional culture and sovereignty – not just of his own Seneca people but of Native Americans across the continent. His life and career in the world of white America never caused him to abandon his responsibilities as one of the chiefs of the Seneca, or to compromise his own Native identity.

Later in his life, disillusioned with politics and the business world, he increasingly questioned the merits of modern culture and all its trappings, and developed a renewed appreciation for his Indian heritage. As he grew older he seemed to long for the simplicity and fulfillment of the traditional Iroquois lifestyle. Whether or not he ever regretted the path he chose, he helped to blaze a trail for a new era in Native American history. He once said, “Spend no time mourning the failures of the past. Tears make a bitter throat. Look ahead, there is more work to do.”

Parker died peacefully in his sleep in 1895 and was buried in his Seneca homeland.

-Resources

Warrior in Two Worlds: Ely Parker
This documentary was put out by PBS several years ago. The soundtrack done by a fellow Iroquois, Joanne Shenandoah, was a huge success. This companion Flash website is an enjoyable and exhaustive reference (also comes in a non-Flash version).

We Are All Americans: Ely S. Parker–Two Worlds, One Man
by Jeffrey R Gudzune (Suite101.com)

Civil War Times: Lieutenant Colonel Horace C. Porter, Eyewitness to the Surrender at Appomattox; also Images of Peace at Appomattox

Ely Parker’s Report on Indian Affairs to the War Department (1867)

Letter to Harriet Maxwell Converse (1885) on Indian policy reform