President Grant’s Peace Policy (1868)

• President Ulysses S. Grant put forward a Peace Policy to calm tensions between Plains Indians and the Army


  1868
• Peace Policy

  • Replaced corrupt reservations agents with Quakers, who were known for being fair and peaceful
  • Appointed Ely Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs
  • Gave a $2m budget to properly care for Indians
• Wards

  Indians should be treated as wards, meaning the government should decide what was best for them and treat them well if they obeyed
• These ideas were made into law in the second Indian Appropriation Act in 1871. This law said that Plains Indians would no longer be recognised as independent tribes, nations or powers.