The Peace Policy’s Real Promise and Its Limits

Grant’s Peace Policy, of which Parker’s appointment as Commissioner was a central element, represented a genuine attempt to reform federal Indian affairs — one of the more serious reform efforts of the nineteenth century, even if its premises remained deeply paternalistic and its results fell well short of its stated intentions.

The corruption that the Peace Policy was designed to address was real and pervasive.

The system of political patronage through which Indian agents were appointed meant that reservation administrators were frequently men with limited qualifications and abundant self-interest.