Some acknowledged his tenure as Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

A few noted the significance of being the first Native American in that position.

None of them had the perspective that comes with subsequent decades of scholarship to fully assess what his life had meant or what its contradictions had produced.

What has emerged from the historical work done since his death is a portrait considerably more complex than the summary-version of Parker’s life suggests.

He was not simply a great man who triumphed over discrimination and reached the heights of American institutional power.