JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I came across this very interesting page in the phenomenal work produced as a part of the U.S. Census, Report Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed, printed in 1894 as part of the 11th Census of 1890. (The full text is available at the Internet Archive, here.)  It is a dispassionate recollection of monies spent on “Indian administration on account of treaties and other expenses, including yearly payments for annuities and kindred charges to the government”, from 1776 to 1890, noting that “the military expenditures have exceeded the expenses of the civil administration by hundreds of millions of dollars”.  Indeed–$250,000,000 19th-century dollars (or something on the order of 5 or 10 billion dollars in today’s money). Certainly monies that went to “satisfy” treaty obligations or to support Indians driven from their land and life would have been a fractional amount of the overall expense. 

Details, below: