Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series on “forgotten” ancestors who may not be fully recognized today for their achievements.
Raymond Wilson
Special to ICT
Hiram Chase and Thomas L. Sloan, both Omaha, opened what is believed to be the first Native law firm in the United States in 1891, in Pender, Nebraska, demanding that Native rights be recognized and protected.
Both men argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Sloan was the first Native to argue a case before the highest court, when he made his case in Sloan v.United States in 1904 that he and 24 other Omaha citizens were entitled to land allotments. Only Sloan and one other Omaha person were granted allotments.
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Eight years later, in 1912, Sloan established what is believed to have been the first Native law firm in Washington, D.C., to assist Native people in their meetings with federal officials.
A great-grandson of an Omaha chief, Chase was born on Sept. 9, 1861, and Sloan was born on May 14, 1863. As rebellious teenagers on the Omaha Reservation, they were jailed in the agency blockhouse for criticizing agents and reservation conditions.
Both attended the mission school on the reservation. Chase then went to a Lutheran farm school in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, and later took classes at Bellevue College and Peru Normal School in Nebraska. In 1889, Chase received a bachelor’s degree in law from the Cincinnati Law School and was the first Native to be admitted to the Nebraska bar.
Sloan apparently served in the U.S. Cavalry and Navy, according to Hampton University archives, though the details are unclear. In 1886, he entered Hampton Normal and Industrial School in Virginia, originally a school for Black students that later opened to Native students. He graduated as valedictorian in 1889.
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Recognized as a leader among the Native students at the school, Sloan also wrote articles for the school newspaper regarding federal Indian policies. He initially supported, for example, the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, which gave reservation land allotments to Native residents, but he later realized the devastating results of this failed federal law of assimilation. He decided not to accept a law scholarship to Yale University, and instead worked on the Omaha Reservation and studied law under Chase. In 1892, Sloan was admitted to the Nebraska State Bar.
Both men also won political elections in Thurston County, Nebraska. Chase was elected county judge in 1893. He was elected county attorney in 1898 and won reelection in 1901. Among the positions Sloan held were county surveyor and a village board trustee member in Pender, Nebraska. In 1901, he was elected mayor of Pender.
The two men were also published authors. In 1897, Chase wrote a book, “O MU HU W B Gra Za, The Chase System of Reading and Recording the Omaha and other Indian Languages.” He also wrote articles on Native issues in the Southern Workman, May 1887; Indian School Journal, June 1909; Indian’s Friend, July 1909; Ohio Law Reporter, Oct. 30, 1911; and Carlisle Arrow, Jan. 23, 1914, and June 4, 1915.
Sloan, while at Hampton, was the managing editor of the school’s Native newspaper, Talks and Thoughts. Most of his articles dealt with Native and federal legal issues. and his first publication in March 1887 focused on land allotments on reservations.
Sloan and Chase each had publications in the Quarterly Journal of the Society of American Indians, which was renamed American Indian Magazine in 1916.
Chase and Sloan also played significant roles in the Society of American Indians, a national Pan-Indian organization run by Native leaders that was created in 1911. For example, they both served on SAI committees, and Sloan became the first SAI executive committee chairman in 1911. In 1919, he was elected president.
Granting Natives U.S. citizenship and the use of peyote were two significant issues of the era. Both men favored U.S citizenship for Natives. They also defended the use of peyote by Native people.
Chase died on Dec. 3, 1928, at age 67.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Sloan continued his efforts to seek Native justice and to protect Indigenous land rights. He moved to California, passed the bar, and began representing and offering advice to Native people in Pacific coastal states as well. Sloan was also an active member of the American Indian Federation, which opposed Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier and the Indian New Deal. Sloan died on Sept. 10, 1940, at age 77.
Throughout their careers, Chase and Sloan demanded the end of U.S. government paternalism and the recognition of Native competency to handle their own affairs.
Sources: History Nebraska: Hiram Chase, 1861-1928; Hampton University Archival Sources: Talks and Thoughts, Thomas L. Sloan; and Frederick E. Hoxie, “This Indian Country,” (2012).
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