Folks who were around Portland in 2020 recall that there were a good number of protests in the area. Statues in several communities were being pulled down. Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Rider statue was pulled down and is now being stored and restored by Portland. Maybe we did not all know why Roosevelt was such a bad guy, but here is a bit of history about President Theodore Roosevelt and his policies and thoughts involving Native Americans.
Alexander Phimister Proctor’s “Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider” was commissioned after Roosevelt’s death (1919) as a memorial to what he had come to symbolize to an America that was emerging from its wild past as a world power. At the outbreak of the Spanish American War in 1898, Roosevelt recruited men, many of whom were former college athletes and Western cowboys, to join a cavalry regiment. They were called The Rough Riders. They fought against the Spanish in Cuba, winning fame for their charge up San Juan Hill.
The Rough Rider Statue was sponsored by Dr. Henry Waldo Coe, who was a hunting partner of Roosevelt. Roosevelt was well known as a big game hunter, practicing an earlier expression of “conservation” when taking down endangered animals so that their remains may be collected, stuffed, and displayed in natural history museums. The American Museum of Natural History in New York was the recipient of numerous specimens from Roosevelt and has an exterior exhibit about Roosevelt and the animals he hunted facing Central Park. Before his time in the presidency, Roosevelt had taken land in South Dakota and was well known for hunting Bison in the Plains. Proctor took great care in accurately depicting Roosevelt as a symbol of American determination, success, and strength and as a bridge back to the Wild West.
The Rough Rider Statue was erected in 1922 in Portland’s Park blocks, and for a time it was the second Roosevelt statue in Portland until the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, in Battleship Oregon Park, was lost during its move in 1942. The Rough Rider Statue was famously pulled down by protesters during an Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration in 2020. Newspaper accounts of the incident gave little context of why Indigenous people may have a problem with Teddy Roosevelt.
Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency (1901–1909) is often celebrated for its progressive reforms, trust-busting policies, and pioneering conservation efforts. Yet, beneath these achievements lies a more troubling legacy—his treatment of Native Americans. Roosevelt’s views on race, land, and national identity were shaped by a belief in white superiority and a vision of American expansion that left little room for Indigenous sovereignty or cultural survival.
Roosevelt regarded Native Americans as impediments to the westward expansion of white settlers. He believed that the American identity had been forged through conflict with both “wild man and wild nature,” a sentiment that justified the displacement of Indigenous peoples. His administration oversaw the transfer of approximately 86 million acres of tribal land into the national forest system, often without consent or compensation. These lands, stewarded by Native communities for generations, were repurposed for national parks and monuments, prioritizing tourism and environmental preservation over Indigenous rights.
Central to Roosevelt’s Indian policy was the support of the General Allotment Act of 1887, which he described as a “mighty pulverizing engine to break up the tribal mass.” This legislation aimed to dismantle tribal landholdings and promote individual land ownership among Native Americans. While framed as a path to citizenship and self-sufficiency, the policy resulted in widespread land loss and the erosion of communal life. Roosevelt believed that Native Americans should be treated as individuals rather than members of sovereign nations, a stance that undermined tribal governance and identity.
Roosevelt’s assimilationist agenda extended to education and cultural practices. He advocated for elementary and industrial education for Native children, dismissing the need for higher education. His administration enforced policies that sought to erase Indigenous identities, such as the infamous 1902 “haircut order,” which required Native men to cut their hair and abandon traditional dress and customs. Noncompliance could result in the withholding of food rations, further coercing conformity.
In his 1901 address to Congress, Roosevelt emphasized the need to make Native Americans “work like any other man on his own ground.” He viewed the reservation and ration systems as obstacles to progress, promoting policies that would force Native people into wage labor and Western lifestyles. His rhetoric often dehumanized Indigenous peoples, referring to them as “squalid savages” and justifying their displacement as necessary for the advancement of civilization.
However, Roosevelt visited Oregon several times, and in 1903 he gave a short speech at the State Capitol in Salem, where he referred to members of his audience who were students at Chemawa Indian School.
“Let me say and express a special word of pleasure at seeing here the teacher and pupils of the Indians schools. In the Spanish War I commanded a regiment of which I was very proud, and in it I had about fifty Indians of full or part blood, and most of them came from schools such as this, and they were such good soldiers that I am proud to say they have shown themselves good citizens since. The fundamental doctrine of our government is to treat each man or each woman not as part of a caste but on his or her worth as a man or woman and therefore to exact from each man that he do his duty as a citizen. You Indian pupils are being trained so that as you grow up each of you shall do his duty as any other man or woman in our land does his or her duty, and if you do you are entitled to exactly the same rights as anyone else.” (Speech in Salem-Remarks of President Roosevelt to the school children at Salem, Oregon, May 21, 1903- https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record/ImageViewer?libID=o289895)
Perhaps most emblematic of Roosevelt’s contradictory legacy is his role in conservation. While he placed over 230 million acres under federal protection, these efforts frequently came at the expense of Native communities. For instance, his admiration for the Grand Canyon led him to advocate for the removal of the Havasupai people to make way for tourists. In doing so, Roosevelt preserved the land’s beauty while disregarding its cultural and spiritual significance to its original inhabitants.
Theodore Roosevelt’s policies toward Native Americans were rooted in a belief in racial hierarchy and cultural superiority. His administration advanced assimilationist policies that disrupted Indigenous life, appropriated tribal lands, and suppressed Native traditions. Scholars of Native American history have labelled the assimilation policies of the federal government and the forced education of Native American children in boarding schools a policy of genocide. While he is rightly credited with shaping modern conservation, it is essential to recognize that these achievements often came at the cost of Indigenous displacement and marginalization. A full understanding of Roosevelt’s legacy must grapple with both his accomplishments and the injustices he perpetuated against Native peoples.
References
Speech in Salem-Remarks of President Roosevelt to the school children at Salem, Oregon, May 21, 1903- https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record/ImageViewer?libID=o289895
The Indians never had any real title to the soil, https://www.bettyekearse.com/indians-never-had-any-real-title-to-the-soil/ Bettye Kearse
Indian country today, https://ictnews.org/archive/theodore-roosevelt-the-only-good-indians-are-the-dead-indians/ Alysa Landry
History.com https://www.history.com/articles/teddy-roosevelt-race-imperialism-national-parks Christopher Klein
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