News Editorial, Indian Treaties

The end of the treaty system in 1871 marked an important shift in the United States’ policy towards Indians. Since its founding the U.S. had negotiated with Indian tribes on a nation-to-nation basis. By the 1860s, however, many politicians, journalists, and others had come to consider the idea of Indian tribes as sovereign nations a farce. They argued that the United States should instead unilaterally “assert its superiority,”as the Daily Oregonian put it in this 1867 editorial, over Indian peoples, through the use of force if necessary.