In 1879, Suzette "Bright Eyes" LaFlesche delivered a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall that is considered the galvanizing moment in the national Indian Rights Movement. LaFlesche, an Omaha Native American, spoke convincingly about the desperate circumstances Native people faced out West — without any legal rights whatsoever, nor citizenship. Even though Salem was far removed from the efforts of the United States government to displace, force into reservations, or otherwise obliterate whole tribes of people, a group of women nonetheless formed the Salem Women’s Indian Association in 1885 “to strengthen a Christian public sentiment which shall aid our Government in the abolition of all oppression of Indians within our national limits and in the granting them the same protection of law that other races enjoy among us.”¹

They further determined to “aid in educational and mission work for and among the Indians.”² Officers included representatives from each of Salem’s churches. Annual membership cost one dollar, or ten dollars for life membership. Men were allowed to become members, but not to hold office. The association’s first president was Mrs. Amos H. "Bessie" Johnson who lived at 26 Winter Street. Some of the other founding members included Mrs. F.H. Lee (14 Chestnut Street), Mrs. William G. Webb (36 Chestnut Street), and Mrs. J.O. Safford (13 Washington Square). In 1885, Caroline Emmerton and her mother joined the organization. By 1892, Lucy H. Cleveland and Augusta Nichols were involved.²


Their Work
Among their efforts to sway public and political opinion, the association published and distributed pamphlets, lobbied Congress, and placed articles in the press to “promote the growth of right sentiment concerning our national duty to Indians.”³ They also raised funds to support the state organization's efforts to send missionary teachers to the reservations and for legal aid by hosting large public lectures, especially on the annual Fast Day in April, to educate the public about the issues involved. Individual members hosted afternoon teas or "Reading Meetings" to raise funds (including one, in 1893, where the Native American poet Pauline Johnson appeared); they sent packages of clothing, fabric, medicine, and "Christmas cheer" to the reservation schools.⁴

In 1886, the Salem group organized a large public meeting at the Tabernacle in Salem where the audience heard from students of the famed Hampton Institute. Walter Baptiste from the Fox Sack Nation "pleaded for the rights of his nation, asking, 'Will you not help us to uphold the liberties of our common country?'" David Firecloud, translated by teacher and missionary Mary C. Collins, described the benefits of his education and appealed to his audience's Christian sensibilities of giving and kindness. Booker T. Washington of the Tuscegee Normal School also spoke about the benefits of practical education for "colored people." The Women's Association voted to give money to Miss Elaine Gordale, one of the teachers at the Institute, to continue her work.⁵


Bright Eyes Visits Salem
The following year, in 1887, Salem heard from Bright Eyes herself who applauded the educational advantages offered by the Hampton and Carlisle Institutes, but she then posed the question: then what?

The Salem Observer (in language that is patronizing by today’s standards) published this account:

"In full, clear tones and correct English, Bright Eyes told with evident price of the cruse, native justice that governs the Indian tribe. She explained that political corruption, the crying evil of the eastern metropolis is also the bane of the Indian reservation; that through government agents, every tendency to civilization on the part of the Indian was so far repressed that even the government carpenter lived in elegant leisure; that the U.S. nonintercourse law by which all white men are kept from the reservation, the agent enforces the keeping away those who would inform against himself, but by allowing free ingress to common tramps.

Bright Eyes dwelt, as her husband had done, on the pitiable condition of the graduates, fitted by their training at Hampton and Carlisle for civilization and Christian enlightenment, but no home to look forward to, but that of the savage.

Cursed is the ground for thy sake, says the Divine Word; and the good sense of the bright eyed daughter of the Omahas, would make no exception in favor of her own race, for she said: we want to abolish the Indian Bureau; the worst thing you can do for an Indian or for any man, is to feed and clothe him for nothing. Hampton and Carlisle have demonstrated that my race has a capacity for the highest, but it has achieved only the lowest. Something must be done.”⁶


Change Comes
Well into the late 1890s, advocates continued to push for citizenship for Native Americans and equal protection under the law. They called for an abolishment of the corrupt Indian Bureaus, and encouraged efforts toward self-sustainability. By 1899, 60,000 Indians were citizens, and 46 missions had been established out West, according to a report from the National organization.⁷

However, we know today that this steady "Christianizing" of Native Americans described in earlier days as an "improvement" over their being "wholly savage" brought a steady erosion of Native American culture from dress and language to religious practices.

One also wonders if these well intentioned Salem women were even aware of their city's own Native American history, and of Native Americans living quietly within their midst.


Sources
1  By-laws of the Salem Women’s Indian Association, 1885.
2  Reports of the Salem Auxiliary of the Women's National Indian Association.
3  By-laws.
4  Reports.
5  Salem Observer, 10 April 1886.
6  Salem Observer, 9 April 1887.
7  Reports.