Overview

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877) and commanding general of the Union Army that won the Civil War. While celebrated for preserving the Union and advancing Reconstruction-era protections for freed slaves; Grant's presidency also implemented devastating policies against Native Americans that laid the groundwork for decades of cultural genocide. Grant's "Peace Policy" (1869) was framed as humanitarian reform but fundamentally sought to concentrate Native peoples onto reservations and replace their cultures with Western Christian civilization. He assigned Indian agencies to various Christian denominations; requiring Native children to attend mission schools where they were forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their traditions. This policy directly preceded and enabled the Indian boarding school system formalized under Richard Henry Pratt's Carlisle Industrial School (1879); whose motto was "Kill the Indian; save the man." Over the next century; the federal boarding school system would forcibly remove over 100;000 Native children from their families; with thousands dying from disease; abuse; and neglect in at least 523 schools identified by the Department of the Interior's 2022 investigation. Grant also signed legislation enabling railroad expansion through tribal lands; supported the deliberate destruction of buffalo herds as a military strategy against Plains tribes (General Philip Sheridan estimated 4.5 million buffalo were killed between 1872-1874 alone); and presided over the Red Cloud War aftermath and the Black Hills crisis that led to the Great Sioux War. His administration was riddled with corruption including the Whiskey Ring scandal; Credit Mobilier; and the Belknap scandal involving the sale of Indian trading post appointments.

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Controversies & Concerns

Related Investigations (1)

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Sources & Documentation

3 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports