General Ely Parker: We Are All Americans

Ely Parker wears his grandfather Red Jacket’s medal. The silver medal was given to Red Jacket by President George Washington in 1792. Photographer unknown, 1850s. Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.

By Reuben Fast Horse

Ha-sa-no-an-da (Leading Name) came into this world in 1828 on the Tonawanda Seneca Indian Reservation in upstate New York. He was the sixth child of seven, born to Jo-no-es-sto-wa (Dragonfly) a.k.a. William Parker and Ga-ont-gwut-twus or Ji-gon-saseh (Lynx) a.k.a. Elizabeth Parker. Both Dragonfly and Lynx walked with one foot in the Seneca Nation and the other in the United States. They immersed their children in the language and heritage of the Seneca Nation and the Iroquois Confederacy. Dragonfly was also a Baptist minister who baptized all his children and gave them Christian names.

When Lynx was pregnant with her son Leading Name, she received a vision about the future of her baby: A son will be born to you who will be distinguished among his nation as a peacemaker; he will become a white man as well as an Indian, with great learning; he will be a warrior for the palefaces; he will be a wise white man, but will never desert his Indian people or ‘lay down his horns as a great Iroquois chief’; his name will reach from the East to the West—the North to the South, as great among his Indian family and the palefaces. His sun will rise on Indian land and set on the white man’s land. Yet the land of his ancestors will fold him in death. When Dragonfly baptized Leading Name at Ely Stone’s Baptist church, he gave his son the name “Ely Parker.”

Parker was educated at Elder Ely Stone’s Baptist School early on in life and was later sent to an Iroquois settlement along the Grand River in Ontario to learn traditional hunting and fishing when he was ten years old. When Ely turned thirteen, he became extremely homesick and left for home in New York. On the road from London to Hamilton in Ontario, some British officers ridiculed him for his poor speech. Parker could understand what they said but was unable to comprehend the humor at his expense. Parker came away from the experience determined to master English.

Parker’s parents approved of his initiative to learn the English language and sent him back to the mission school. His studies excelled, and he earned a tuition waiver to attend the Yates Academy in Orleans County, New York. At the academy he also studied Greek and Latin, which he mastered. Parker became so well versed in the studies and proficient in English at the age of fourteen that his people selected him to serve as their interpreter in their exchange with President John Tyler.

As a teenager, when young people begin to develop and explore their interests, Parker became heavily involved in drafting and interpreting correspondence with the Ogden Land Company. The land company struck a private deal with the Seneca at Cattaraugus and the Seneca at Allegheny. Quaker missionaries advised these other two Seneca bands to sign over the lands of the Seneca at Buffalo Creek and Tonawanda. From 1842 to 1845, the land of the Tonawanda was seized and settled.

Parker finished his studies at Yates Academy and enrolled at the Cayuga Academy in Aurora where he faced some hostility from classmates, though generally he was treated well. In 1846, the Seneca at Tonawanda called him back to defend with words on paper the right for the Seneca to stay at Tonawanda. He was eighteen years old when the Tonawanda Seneca took him with them to appeal their case with President James Polk.

The Tonawanda Seneca appeal took five years to fight, and, in the end, Parker was credited with saving three-fifths of the Tonawanda reservation from the Ogden Land Company and was given fifty acres of land for his personal use.

Parker’s academic pursuits received a boost in motivation when he visited Washington, D.C., in 1847 when he viewed a series of paintings of explorers, traders, and settlers in their meetings with the natives, such as the Pilgrims receiving food from the Indians, Captain Smith and Pocahontas, and Daniel Boone fighting Indians. When he went to church, he was asked to move himself to the seating above, instead of sitting in the main sanctuary.

The slights he received and Parker’s own reflections about the injustices of all Indian peoples moved him to become a lawyer. He applied to Harvard, but received no word on his application. He applied for a clerkship in Washington, D.C., but no position opened up for him. Parker applied to take the bar exam in New York, but was denied when he was told he was not a U.S. citizen.

Parker had become friends with Ely Morgan who tapped his network to get Parker a job as an engineer on the Genesee Valley Canal project. While he gained work experience as an engineer, he learned to country dance from a fellow’s wife. By 1850, Parker’s contacts, unparalleled work ethic, knowledge of the land, and engineering skills landed him a job in Rochester as a civil engineer on the New York canals.

Parker’s friendship with Ely Morgan grew out of Morgan’s keen interest in documenting the changing or disappearing cultural traditions of the Seneca. They worked together and produced Morgan’s League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois which was published in 1851. Morgan’s research and methodology has led many to regard him as the father of American anthropology. Morgan’s book was dedicated to Parker.

Parker’s work with Morgan and legal fight with the Federal court system on behalf of the Seneca came to a head in September 1851. The council of the Six Nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) met and called on Parker to return, where they installed him as one of the fifty sachems of the Iroquois Confederacy. Parker was then selected as the Grand Sachem of the Six Nations. The new sachem was also given a new name: Do-ne-ho-ga-wa, “Open Door.” The sachem who traditionally carried this name was also the Keeper of the Western Door, the one whom all approaches by other tribes were made. Parker was twenty-three.

Parker applied for a position with the U.S. Treasury Department in hopes of getting an assignment in Chicago, but when he was brought on, he was appointed to work on lighthouses on the Great Lakes in Michigan. His work on lighthouses on the lakes eventually brought him from Detroit, Michigan, to work on a public buildings in Galena, Illinois. There, in Galena, Parker became friends with Capt. Ulysses Grant.

Politics in Illinois took a turn for the worse for Parker. The locals called him a stranger and resented his assignment there without their consultation. Petitions called for his removal, but congressmen on the East Coast and his engineering associates in the canals overwhelmingly supported his work assignment in Illinois. Parker resigned after the construction of the Galena custom house was complete.

Throughout Parker’s engineering career, tensions between the North and the South escalated into impending war. At an appearance in Dubuque, Iowa, Parker was called on to speak about the state of the country. He rendered a short speech about the founding of the country and the beliefs of the founding fathers; then Parker reached into his pocket and removed a medal for all to see. The medal was gift to his great-grandfather Red Jacket from President George Washington. Parker’s speech and the medal “awakened the spark of patriotism” of everyone present.

Parker returned to Tonawanda and raised crops while he made every effort to enlist with the Union army. He sought commissions as an engineer, but was repeatedly declined because he was an Indian and not a U.S. citizen, despite the dire need for engineers. Several of his tribesmen found ways to enter the service, but Parker wanted a commission because of his education and experience. Parker waited two years.

Brig. Gen. John E. Smith, a friend of Parker’s in Galena, knew of Parker’s desire to enlist as an officer. Smith got an endorsement from General Grant, another of Parker’s friends, and was commissioned to Grant’s staff as Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers with the rank of captain. The Seneca honored Parker’s commission with a feast and blessing before he went off to serve in the war.

Surrender at Appomattox, painting by Tom Lovell, 1987. Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and staff of fourteen, photo by Matthew Brady, 1860-1865. National Archives and Records Administration.

Parker was barely under Grant’s command a few days when he took ill and nearly died, but after his recovery, he accompanied Grant on the Chattanooga Campaign at the Battle of Orchard Knob and Lookout Mountain. When Grant was promoted lieutenant general and went east to Washington, Parker went with him.

In General Grant’s move to cross the Rapidan River in Virginia, which precipitated the Battle of the Wilderness, Parker saved Grant from capture. On May 7, 1864, Grant was heading toward Confederate General Roger Pryor’s line. Parker sensed a trap and led Grant’s command away from Pryor’s line.

Grant used Parker’s engineering skill to plan and dig entrenchments and post batteries. On one occasion, a Southern woman refused to vacate her home and told Parker that her husband was in command of nearby Confederate forces, and that he’d never fire on their house. Parker told the woman she could stay and he quickly ordered the line behind her house.

In September 1864, Grant promoted Parker to lieutenant colonel, and he served as Grant’s personal secretary the remainder of the war. Parker was eventually promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

On April 7, 1865, General Grant was closing in on General Lee’s command. Grant began a correspondence with Lee through Parker’s hand and on April 9, Lee met with Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House to discuss the terms of surrender with Grant, who took Parker with him.

Grant’s staff met with Lee’s staff in the parlor of William McLean’s house where both staffs were formally introduced to one another. Lee was said to be courteous and cool, offering no further remark to Grant’s staff other than a salutation. When Parker was introduced to Lee, Lee paused for several seconds, startled, then extended his hand to Parker and said, “I am glad to see one American here.” Parker took Lee’s hand and replied, “We are all Americans.” Grant then had Parker compose the surrender papers, which Lee signed.

After the war Grant appointed Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He was the first American Indian to hold this post and resigned from this position in 1871.

Although Parker was recognized more for drafting the terms of surrender at Appomattox, his accomplishments in his life make apparent that he was a formidable man. Despite his difficulties and heritage, he set out to achieve whatever he put his mind to.

Often we hear or read about heroic figures in our past, yet we don’t always hear about the person themselves. Who they were, what they were like, why they did what they did, and what remains, are the facts left for us to decipher about a person. Parker signifies the change we all have to make at some point in our lives to accept, to adapt, and to overcome, not just our obstacles or enemies but ourselves. This is what America is, and to be American is to honor the sacrifices of those who gave and believed in what they so desperately lived, bled, and died for.

Reuben Fast Horse is a traditional Lakota singer, dancer, flutist, drummer, craftsman, storyteller and educator. Born in 1971 on the Standing Rock Sioux (Lakota) Reservation, Fast Horse resides on the reservation at Little Eagle, South Dakota, and was certified by the Tribe and the North Dakota State Board of Education as an “Eminent Scholar.” He taught Lakota culture at the Standing Rock Elementary Grant School.

In 1997, Fast Horse performed with Lunar Drive, a London-based band that draws upon American Indian music and dance for inspiration. Together they played in Belgium, France, and at the WOMAD World Music Festival in Reading, England. The summer of 1998 found Fast Horse performing at regional rendezvous events and powwows, and recording a new album with Lunar Drive. In the autumn of 1998, Reuben performed with Kevin Locke at several residencies, including a week at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

As an educator and cultural ambassador, Reuben speaks eloquently about the contributions of Native America to contemporary life: I love sharing this information and perspective with everyone because we all benefit from the knowledge and practices of the First Nations. If you peel back the layers of American history, you will find roots in Native America. Much of our foods, tools, medicines, and government structures derive from Ancient America. You will not find this knowledge in typical American history books, and as Americans we all should know our history.