Was a full-blooded Seneca Indian, born on the Tonawanda reservation in New York, in 1820. He was chief of the Seneca tribe and head of the Iroquois Confederation. His Indian name was Do-No-Hoh-Ga-Wa, which means "Keeper of the Western Gate." General Parker was educated at Ellicottsville, where he studied the profession of civil engineering. He also studied law and was admitted to the New York bar, but never practiced.
He lived for a time in Galena, Illinois, where he was a friend of General Grant. General Parker received a commission as captain in the United States army from President Lincoln and joined Grant at Vicksburg in 1862, where he was made a member of the general's staff, with the rank of colonel. He wrote the famous surrender of Lee at Appomattox in 1865. Grant made him a brigadier-general, and when he became President he appointed him Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which place he held until 1871. For several years he had been superintendent and architect of police stations in New York city.
General Parker married Miss Minnie Sackett of Washington, D. C, in 1867. President Grant attended the marriage ceremony and gave the bride away.
An old veteran who was present at the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, told the author that General Parker, who was then Grant's military secretary, had the appearance of a mulatto, and was mistaken for one by some of the Southern generals, who were indignant that General Grant should dictate the terms of capitulation to a "nigger." They were mollified, however, when it was explained to them that the secretary belonged to another swarthy race, which was never enslaved.
General Parker died at Fairfield, Connecticut, August 31, 1895.
XV. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DOCTOR EASTMAN.
Charles Alexander Eastman, whose Indian name is Ohiyesa, "The Winner," was born in Minnesota about 1858. His father was a full-blood Sioux of a leading family, by the name of Many Lightnings, and his mother a half-blood, called in Indian The Goddess, or in English Nancy Eastman. She died soon after the birth of Ohiyesa, who was carefully reared by his paternal grandmother.
When he was four years old the so-called "Minnesota massacre" broke up his family and drove the uncle and grandmother, with the boy, into exile in Manitoba, where they roamed about for ten years, living by the chase. In the meantime Ohiyesa was educated by his uncle, a notable hunter and warrior, in woodcraft and all the lore of the red man.
At the age of fifteen the boy was sought and found by his father, who had in the meantime embraced Christianity and civilization. He brought him to his home at Flandreau, South Dakota, a little community of citizen Indians, and sent him to school. After a year at a mission day-school and two years at Dr. Riggs's Indian boarding-school at Santee, Nebraska, he went east to Beloit, Wisconsin, then to Knox College, Illinois, taking his final year of preparatory work at Kimball Union Academy, New Hampshire. He entered Dartmouth College in 1883, where he was successful both in scholarship and athletics, his specialty in the latter being long-distance running, and graduated in 1887. He graduated in medicine in 1890 at the Boston University.
Immediately after graduation, Dr. Eastman was appointed Government Physician to the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota, and served through the "Ghost Dance War" and for two years afterward. He married, in 1891, Miss Elaine Goodale, of Massachusetts. In 1893 he went to St. Paul, Minnesota, and for several years engaged in medical practice, and also represented the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations among the Indians. He afterward went to Washington as attorney for the Santee Sioux, and for several years furthered their interests at the National Capital.