E-Books →Ioway Life Reservation and Reform, 1837–1860 (Volume 275)

Within the Great Nemaha Agency's boundaries, the Ioways lived alongside the U.S. Indian agent, other government employees, and Presbyterian missionaries. These outside forces sought to manipulate every aspect of the Ioways' daily life, from their manner of dress and housing to the way they planted crops and expressed themselves spiritually. In the face of the white reformers' contradictory assumptions-that Indians could assimilate into the American mainstream, and that they lacked the mental and moral wherewithal to transform-the Ioways became adept at accepting necessary changes while refusing religious and cultural conversion. Nonetheless, as Olson's work reveals, agents and missionaries managed to plant seeds of colonialism that would make the Ioways susceptible to greater government influence later on-in particular, by reducing their self-sufficiency and undermining their traditional structure of leadership.
Read more