The United States War Department creates the…
March 1824 CE
Agencies to relate to Native Americans had existed in the U.S. government since 1775, when the Second Continental Congress created a trio of Indian-related agencies.
Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry were appointed among the early commissioners to negotiate treaties with Native Americans to obtain their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War.
In 1789, the U.S. Congress placed Native American relations within the newly formed War Department.
By 1806 the Congress had created a Superintendent of Indian Trade, or "Office of Indian Trade" within the War Department, who was charged with maintaining the factory trading network of the fur trade.
The post had been held by Thomas L. McKenney from 1816 until the abolition of the factory system in 1822.
The government had licensed traders to have some control in native territories and gain a share of the lucrative trade.
The abolition of the factory system left a vacuum within the U.S. government regarding Native American relations.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is formed by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, who creates the agency as a division within his department, without authorization from the United States Congress.
He appoints McKenney as the first head of the office, which goes by several names.
McKenney prefers to call it the "Indian Office", whereas the current name is preferred by Calhoun.
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