The government took a strong paternalistic approach when dealing with the Indians. At the time of the passage of the act authorizing government factories, supporters portrayed the act as a necessary means to protect the Indians from exploitation by unscrupulous traders. 16 American lawmakers also hoped that by passing goods on the Indians, they would become more acculturated and civilized. 17 Licensed traders working through outposts like Fort Harrison continually passed food and manufactured goods, like blankets, pots, and pans, on to the Indian population. The paternalistic efforts of the government to protect Indians from unsavory traders also had a detrimental effect. According to Prucha in his two-volume study of Indian policy, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians, the paternalism fostered by the federal government eventually led to the Native-Americans’ dependency on the United States government and ultimately to an erosion of the Indians’ native culture. In order to acculturate to the ways of white population the Indians had to forsake many of their own ways.
      Surveying the historical literature on the history of Native Americans, a reader begins to notice that the War of 1812 often serves as a marker for historical works. Wars often serve as convenient breakpoints for historic periodization, but this periodization is not appropriate for Indian policy. There are any number of works discussing Indian policy during the pre-national and early republic periods. 18 There are an equal number of terrific books that begin after the War of 1812 and the establishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824. 19 A careful look at the history of federal Indian policy suggests that the War of 1812 simply occurred during a time of great uncertainty and inconsistency in Indian affairs. As the federal government sought to gain control of the frontier through assimilation, negotiation, and force, Congress passed differing acts such as the Trade and Intercourse Laws of 1790, the Treaty of St Mary’s (1818), and The Indian Removal Act of 1830. At the same time the United States was trying to curry favor with various Indian tribes, commercial trading companies were trying to influence federal policy for their own monetary gain. Out on the Western frontier, military outposts wrestled with the shifting rules and regulations sent from the capital in Washington, DC.
      Government sanctioned trade and gift giving had an established history in America’s Indian policy. These policies represented well-articulated humanitarian goals of moral education, acculturation, and assimilation. Effecting the transformation of Indian culture proved more difficult and time consuming than many policy makers anticipated. When federal authorities grew tired of waiting for the Indians to assimilate into American culture, they took a more active approach in their efforts to remove the Indians from the path of the United States’ westward expansion.
      Behind all America’s Indian policies lay the desire to acquire and control these western lands for its migrating population. As the United States transitioned into its new policy of “removal,” it certainly did not want to be reminded the lack of support it showed for its prior policy. From its fiery and highly publicized beginnings to its unfortunate and somewhat anti-climactic conclusion, Fort Harrison existed in a period of legislative ambiguity. During its years as a military fort, the little garrison on the Wabash River operated in the interests of the United States even as those interests were undergoing a transition from a policy of goodwill and assimilation to one of forceful removal. The Chunn court-martial and investigation into events of the last years of Fort Harrison tell the story of the federal government’s desire to affix blame to someone for abandoned policies it had once advocated. The court-martial and Senate investigation were a last look back at a time when the United States government could claim it looked out for the interests of the Indians. By 1830, The Indian Removal Act of 1830 removed all pretense of paternalistic actions and the process of clearing the way for white American citizens began in earnest.