American Indian Stories

The final section of American Indian Stories is an essay by Zitkála-Šá on the treatment of American Indians by White settlers and the US government. Zitkála-Šá notes how relationships between early European settlers and the indigenous people of America were supposedly peaceful. However, Zitkála-Šá remarks that these settlers, often in the name of religion, took the American Indian’s land and created a divide “between the powers of Europe and the aborigines […] dispossessed of their country” (107).

Zitkála-Šá notes that the US government has followed similar practices, including categorizing American Indians as “wards and not as citizens of their own freedom loving land” (108). She notes that American Indians will now pursue legal ways of attaining equality and that women in America will help. She expresses a desire to see that treaties made between American Indians and the US government are enacted fairly, and she hopes a comprehensive, cohesive approach to legislation is developed.

She ends the essay by quoting excerpts from a 1915 report that investigated the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. Zitkála-Šá includes these excerpts to demonstrate what she sees as the shortcomings and failures of the US government’s relationship with American Indians. The excerpts mention American Indians’ inability to access judicial rights, the mishandling of government funds for American Indians, bloated government bureaucracy, and historical attempts to kill or confine American Indians who have resisted US government actions.