Conclusion

INDIAN PEOPLE INVITED AND ESCORTED into town, welcomed by the city fathers, and cheered by enthusiastic crowds; lodging in the finest hotels, wined and dined at formal dinners, and dropping by for breakfast in private homes; touring the city, seeing the sights, strolling in the park, sitting in church, and watching performances at the theater and circus; cared for by physicians, and, if they died, being carried to city burial grounds in funeral corteges of hundreds of people; traveling by stagecoach at government expense and staggering home under the weight of gifts. . . . Contrary to assumptions that Indians were nowhere to be seen in the cities of early America, and that they had retreated as Euro-American settlements advanced, it might seem that citizens could barely walk the streets without bumping into visiting tribal delegates who went about an endless round of social engagements, observing and participating in urban life....