Group Portraits of Council of Indians at Mission Pala, San Diego , 1887

Group portrait made at the Council of Indians Rights Association at the San Antonio de Pala Asistencia (or Mission). They stand in front of the adobe church building and bell tower.

The purpose of the meeting at Pala was for Charles C. Painter, a lobbyist for the Indian Rights Association, to explain to the 100 Indians gathered the provisions of the recently passed Dawes Severalty Bill. Also present was Horatio Rust, who became a U.S. Indian Agent in 1889, two years after this photo has been taken.

Courtesy of The Huntington Digital Collection

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The Indian Rights Association was organized in Philadelphia in 1882. The early leaders of the association, including Herbert Welsh, sought to protect the interests and general welfare of the Indians. Through its monitoring and lobbying activities with executive agencies and Congress, the association, in its first forty years, gained the reputation of being the major non-governmental group to which Indians could turn for protection and support.

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