Ely Samuel Parker
Ely Samuel Parker , born Hasanoanda and later known as Donehogawa (* 1828 - August 30, 1895 in Fairfield , Connecticut ), was a chief of the Wolf Clan of the Seneca Indians and an officer in the US Army under General Ulysses S. Grant . His father Jonoestowa or William Parker was a chief of the Tuscarora , his mother Goongwutwus or Elizabeth a descendant of Handsome Lake and Red Jacket .
Parker learned the English language at an early age and attended various schools and colleges in New York State from 1842 to 1846 . He then worked as an employee in the office for Indian affairs , represented his tribe in negotiations with the federal government in Washington, DC and studied law on the side , as was customary in the USA at the time. Since he was not an American citizen as an Indian, he was not admitted to the bar and then began studying engineering in 1849. In 1851 he was elected Grand Sachem (chief) of the Seneca and was able to achieve in 1857 that the subgroup of the Tonawanda Senecas, whose relocation to Kansas was planned, could keep their ancestral area in New York and declare it a reservation. In the following years he worked as a construction and surveying engineer in various states of the Midwest , where he met the former officer and now business assistant Ulysses S. Grant in 1860.
When the American Civil War broke out , Parker sided with the Northern States and tried several times to obtain an officer license in the Union Army . Once again, however, his plans failed due to the lack of citizenship . An appeal to Congress was also unsuccessful. It was only through the mediation of his friend Grant, who had meanwhile risen to the rank of general, that he was made captain of the volunteers at the end of May 1863 and accepted into the staff of the Tennessee Army as a pioneer officer . In 1864 Parker became Grant's personal secretary and accompanied the newly appointed Commander in Chief of the Union Army to the eastern theater of war, where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on August 30 . Among other things, he drafted the deed of surrender that Grant and the defeated General Robert Edward Lee signed when they surrendered at Appomattox Court House . After the war, the Colonel and Brevet - Brigadier served Parker transported further than Grants aide until 1869 that the US president was elected and his old companion ordered the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He was the first native to exercise this office. Parker was enthusiastic about the task at first, but soon saw that the slowness of the bureaucracy and the narrow-mindedness of Washington officials were undermining all efforts to solve the Indian problem. In August 1871, he resigned after accusing him of irregular purchases of food for tribes threatened by starvation. In the remaining years of his retirement he served repeatedly as an advisor and appraiser for the New York City Council.
Web links
literature
- Dee Brown : Bury my heart at the bend of the river . Knaur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-426-62804-X
This article is based on the article Ely Samuel Parker ( memento of July 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from the free encyclopedia Indianer Wiki ( memento of March 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and is under Creative Commons by-sa 3.0 . A list of the authors was available in the Indian Wiki ( Memento from July 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Parker, Ely Samuel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hasanoanda (maiden name); Donehogawa |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chief of the Seneca Wolf Clan and officer under US General Ulysses S. Grant |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1828 |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 30, 1895 |
| Place of death | Fairfield , Connecticut |