Ely S. Parker: The Seneca Engineer Who Drafted Lee's Surrender Terms

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Ely S. Parker, born Hasanoanda on the Tonawanda Reservation in New York in 1828, grew up translating between the Seneca and the white scholars who visited his family. After three years reading law in Ellicottville, he was barred from the bar exam because Native Americans were not considered U.S. citizens. He turned to engineering, helped by lawyer Lewis Henry Morgan, whose Grand Order of the Iroquois studied Haudenosaunee culture through Parker and who helped him into Rensselaer. Parker worked on the Erie Canal and federal buildings in Galena, Illinois, where he met Ulysses S. Grant at the family leather shop.

When the war came, New York's governor refused his Seneca regiment and the Secretary of War called it a white man's war. Grant brought him in as a captain; he served at Vicksburg and became Grant's military secretary, and at Appomattox in April 1865 he wrote out the surrender documents. As Grant's Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first Native American in the post, he led the Peace Policy until a smear campaign by William Welsh led to his 1871 resignation. He lost his fortune in the Panic of 1873 and died in Connecticut in 1895.

Parker held the Seneca title Keeper of the Western Door, a role tied to diplomacy with outsiders.
Morgan dedicated his book on the Iroquois League to Parker.
At Appomattox, Lee remarked on seeing one real American in the room, and Parker replied that they were all Americans.
A House committee cleared him of fraud, but Congress then stripped his office of budget control.
He appears on the 2022 Sacagawea dollar, and a New York appellate court admitted him to the bar posthumously in November 2025.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(16184)

The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow old...

9 Nov 18min

Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, ...

7 Nov 18min

Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaim...

7 Nov 49min

Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, ...

6 Nov 38min

Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, en...

5 Nov 45min

Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of t...

4 Nov 53min

Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

3 Nov 48min

Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

2 Nov 21min