{"id":2251,"date":"2024-11-21T23:54:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T23:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/?p=2251"},"modified":"2025-09-22T00:41:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T00:41:40","slug":"ely-s-parker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/ely-s-parker\/","title":{"rendered":"Ely S. Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who Was Ely S. Parker?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Born with the name Hasanoanda, meaning \u201cLeading Man,\u201d Ely Samuel Parker was a member of the Wolf Clan in the Seneca Nation, part of Six Nations of the Iroquois. He was raised in the traditions of his Native Nation, and he attended the Baptist \u201cmission\u201d school to learn English.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Education Limited by Racism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

He originally wanted to study law, but was denied entrance to law school on multiple occasions because he was Native American and not considered an American citizen. He switched career paths and became a Civil Engineer. It was during his career as a civil engineer that he met Ulysses S. Grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker had been declined admission to the Union Army during the Civil War because he was not considered an American citizen, even though others had had citizenship granted through their service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He utilized his connection to Ulysses S. Grant and was commissioned as a Captain in 1863 and worked closely with Grant throughout the war. It was Ely S. Parker who wrote up the conditions of surrender at Appomattox. As the story goes, Robert E. Lee shook his hand at Appomattox and said \u201cI\u2019m glad to see one real American here,\u201d to which Parker responded \u201cwe are all American.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, racism continued to block his advancement. In March 1867, he was brevetted brigadier general, which means he was acknowledged for his services during the war but not provided with any of the pensions or authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presidential Appointment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Parker and Grant stayed connected, and Grant appointed\u00a0him as the first Native American to be in charge of the Office of Indian Affairs in 1868. He held that position until 1871, when he resigned following allegations of fraud by disgruntled political opponents. He was cleared of all charges, but still stripped of all authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had a few other jobs throughout his life, from Wall Street to a desk clerk for a police department, but died in poverty after multiple health problems. His final resting places is in Buffalo New York, among other notable Seneca people, and finally given full military burial honors. His widow originally only received $8 a month for a military pension ($307.68 a month in 2025 dollars), but Congress later increased it to $30 a month ($1,153.80 in 2025 dollars).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: The Radical Agenda believes in supporting independent bookstores over big box stores, so we share book links using Bookshop.org. Click on the picture to order your copy of the books that catch your eye, and thank you for supporting small businesses around the country!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One Real American<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Life of Ely S. Parker, Seneca Sachem and Civil War General by Joseph Bruchac<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I could not find this one on Bookshop, sadly, but the author is quite prolific and has dozens of other children’s books about Native Americans. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Warrior In Two Camps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ely S. Parker, Union General and Seneca Chief by William H. Armstrong<\/h3>\n<\/div>
\"Ely<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Ely<\/a><\/figure>
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The White Man’s War<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ely S. Parker: Iroquois General, Poems Based on the Life of Ely Parker by Joseph Bruchac<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Life of General Ely S. Parker: Last Grand Sachem of the Iroquois and General Grant’s Military by Arthur C. Parker <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The internet tells me this was written by his relative!<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who Was Ely S. Parker? Born with the name Hasanoanda, meaning \u201cLeading Man,\u201d Ely Samuel Parker was a member of the Wolf Clan in the Seneca Nation, part of Six Nations of the Iroquois. He was raised in the traditions of his Native Nation, and he attended the Baptist \u201cmission\u201d school to learn English. Education…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biographies","category-books-about-native-americans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2258,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions\/2258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}