Helen Hunt Jackson (a
friend of Emily Dickenson) documented the systematic violations of
Indian treaties by the federal govt., states, settlers, miners, and
corporations, for the first century of the republic.
A century after
the publication of Jackson's book, the American Indian Policy
Review Commission found in 1979 that very little had changed, and
some aspects of life in Indian Country had actually gotten
worse. Their conclusion: one century of dishonor had grown
into two centuries of dishonor: 'It was a different kind of horror
story that is revealed, but equally horrifying as an example of
injustice and contempt for the law, and the federal government's
continuing failure to protect tribal rights as political entities
with lawful, semi-autonomous governments."
It seemed that the
dark predictions made by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and
Chief Justice John Marshall, had come to pass.