Going Home

Abstract

This chapter completes Indian delegates’ journeys to colonial capitals by considering the return leg of their travels and their reentry into their home communities. Athough city chiefs often returned laden with gifts and with temporarily enhanced prestige, the chapter points out ways in which their experiences in traveling to the centers of colonial power could negatively affect their standing at home. It profiles several of the prominent figures in the book to show that increasing influence with the colonial government, and especially the national government, often came at the cost of decreasing respect at home, especially when returning chiefs acted as advocates of the U.S. “civilization program” in their personal lives.