By the 1840s, more white settlers were moving west. To reach California and the Pacific Northwest, many settlers travelled along the southern banks of the Platte River, where a large number of now resided after the raid on the Willow Creek village. The settlers crossing through the region damaged crops, polluted waters, and depleted —a rare and important resource on the Great Plains. In addition, warfare with neighboring tribes further weakened the Pawnee, and a cholera struck, killing twelve hundred Pawnee. The tribe’s leaders found themselves in need of resources and support in order to provide for their people. In 1857, the Pawnee sought to make another treaty with the United States.
In September 1857, leaders agreed to more lands to the United States in exchange for cash, goods, services, and a guarantee that the United States government would protect the Pawnee from enemy tribes. The Pawnee, however, did not agree to give up their values, beliefs, and practices. Nonetheless, the language of the 1857 Treaty reveals intentions and actions on the part of the United States to the Pawnee into adopting a culture that was not their own.
In the 1857 Treaty, the Pawnee gave up their lands north of the Platte river, except for a small reservation.
In order to improve the condition of the , and teach them the arts of civilized life, the United States agree to establish among them, and for their use and benefit, two manual-labor schools, to be governed by such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the President of the United States, who shall also appoint the teachers, and, if he deems it necessary, may increase the number of schools to four. In these schools, there shall be taught the various branches of a common-school education, and, in addition, the arts of agriculture, the most useful mechanical arts and whatever else the President may direct. The Pawnees, on their part, agree that each and every one of their children, between the ages of seven and eighteen years, shall be kept constantly at these schools for, at least, nine months in each year; and if any parent or guardian shall fail, neglect, or refuse to so keep the child or children under his or her control at such school, then, and in that case, there shall be deducted from the annuities to which such parent or guardian would be entitled, either individually or as parent or guardian, an amount equal to the value, in time, of the tuition thus lost
In order to teach the the ways of Western life, the United States will establish manual-labor schools. The rules of these schools will be decided by the president of the United States. The president will also select the teachers and may increase the number of schools. These schools will focus on standard education, farming, mechanics, and whatever else the president thinks is necessary. In exchange, the Pawnee must keep their children between the ages of seven and eighteen at the school for nine months of the year. If any parents keeps their child out of school, their family will not receive all of the allowances that the United States has promised to the Pawnee.
Indian agents assigned to different Native Nations provided reports to the as a way to inform and advise U.S. federal Indian policy. In the years following the 1857 Treaty, some children started to attend the established by the U.S. government. School officials, such as teacher Elmira Platt, who wrote this report for the Pawnee agent, maintained that Pawnee students must learn to think, work, and behave like whites.
The United States eventually turned the control of reservations–including essential services–over to Christian groups. This transfer of responsibility enhanced their efforts to children and families to abandon their ways of living for a culture that was not their own. When the Quakers received control of the Pawnee reservation, they attempted to fill reservation schools with more students in order to promote white, American, Christian culture and Pawnee language, beliefs, values, traditions, and religions.
