University of Oklahoma

3/8/10
The Rise and Fall of Donehogawa
Anthropology 1613.001

Chapter 8 Ely Samuel Parker was the first actual Indian that became Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He was part of the Seneca Iroquois tribe from the Tonawanda reservation in New York. His real name was Donehogawa, but he realized that he would not get any respect in the white man’s world with an Indian name. In this paper I will discuss how he became Commissioner, some of the problems he faced while he was Commissioner, and also his demise. Parker battled racial prejudice nearly his entire life. From the time he was ten years old he went to work as a stable boy on an Army post, and the officers would make fun of him because of how poorly he spoke the English language (Brown 179). When he was still very young he decided he wanted to go to missionary school to learn and master the English language. He wanted to be educated so that he could help his people as much as possible, and he thought that being a lawyer would be the best way to help his people. After he graduated he worked at a firm for over three years to help him learn how law offices work. He then applied to take the bar examination to become a lawyer, but was told that only white male citizens could be lawyers in New York. This did not cause Parker to give up, he was a very determined individual and sought to find which professions he would be admitted to. He then sought to be a civil engineer, and entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he took all of the necessary courses. He had several jobs after getting his new degree, but the most important was a job that took him to Galena, Illinois where he became friends with Ulysses S. Grant. Once the civil war began Parker wanted to fight in the Army, but was not allowed. He told Ulysses about the trouble he was having getting in the Army, Ulysses got