The Seneca Man Who Wrote The Surrender Terms At Appomattox – Then Became America’s First Native Commissioner Of Indian Affairs

He learned which arguments worked in which forums.

He learned how to navigate the bureaucratic structures of the federal government.

He learned which officials were sympathetic and which were not, and what kinds of pressure were likely to be effective on each type.

He learned, essentially, how to work the system — not in a cynical sense, but in the precise sense of understanding how it functioned and what it would respond to.

These skills would serve him for the rest of his life.