Reference no: EM133306238
Assignment:
The excerpt from the 1872 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (assigned as Document 15-5) is an interesting selection. The author Francis Amasa Walker was a "local boy"-at least relative to this state-whose life began and ended in Boston, and wasn't a "Westerner" in any sense of the word. He served in the 15th Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War, ran both the 1870 and 1880 national censuses, and stood as the third president of MIT until his death.
Walker was appointed to be the Commissioner of Indian Affairs during the period when he was still working through a multitude of issues with the 1870 census. The appointment seems to have been made to give him a source of income so he could keep working on the census, since Congress had stopped funding the census position. Despite that setting, Walker took his role as Commissioner of Indian Affairs so seriously that in addition to writing the annual report as required he would go on to publish a book in 1874 containing much of the additional demographic and historical information that he had collected.
In the prelude paragraph of Document 15-5, it states that Francis Walker was attempting to "justify" the long-term effectiveness of U.S. policy. Coupled with the material in Chapter 15, section 15c) "A Harvest of Blood," it might seem like Walker must have totally supported what the Department of the Interior had been doing without any misgivings. In reality, while doing his work Walker grew so exasperated by the poor treatment of "American Indians" that he would resign his commission in December 1872 after barely a year on the job.
Question: Although Walker never undermines American policy, identify and explain just one statement that he makes in Document 15-5 that reveals his sympathy for Native Americans? Original work is preferred, so if all the good statements have already been covered by other classmates, then instead explain how you think Walker believes that the American policy in his report might save the American Indians from a worse outcome than doing nothing?