Indigenous Affairs Committee (and predecessors)

As of 2023, the committee uses the name "Indigenous Affairs Committee."

The first Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting was appointed in 1795 to promote "welfare, Religious Instruction, knowledge of agriculture and useful Mechanic Arts" among Native Americans.

The earliest mission settlement was undertaken by Baltimore Yearly Meeting among western Indigenous peoples at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1804. Philip Dennis remained after the deputation returned to teach the elements of farming. He was succeeded by several others, but the work was suspended in 1811, due to agitation among some Shawnee.

In the late 1830s, the Indian Committees of New York, Philadelphia, Genesee, and Baltimore united to protect the Seneca in New York from the Ogden Land Company. This "care and Attention" continued into the 1860s.

The next mission began in 1866. The Committee expressed its first concern for the Indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi, and Benjamin Hallowell went to Washington to see the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The next year, a Conference on Indian Concerns was called in Baltimore and representatives were present from the Hicksite branches of the Yearly Meetings of Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Genesee, Ohio, and Indiana. A Memorial was taken to Washington expressing willingness to serve with the Indigenous peoples west of the Mississippi. On February 15, 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant proclaimed his "Peace Policy" and the Hicksite Friends were given responsibility for the Northern Superintendency (Nebraska). Friends were to nominate members of their Society to occupy posts of Superintendant and six agents. Samuel Janney became Superintendant until he was succeeded by Barclay White in 1871.

Each Yearly Meeting interested itself in one particular Agency. In 1871, Baltimore assumed responsibility for the Pawnee, whose Agent was Jacob M. Troth. In 1872, William Burgess was named Agent. Various members of the Committee visited annually. In 1876, the Pawnee Agency was moved into the Central Superintendency by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs who desired Baltimore Yearly Meeting to continue its work with the Pawnees. After this, however, their relationship with the Federal Government deteriorated, and in 1879, the Yearly Meeting relinquished all care for the Pawnees and took on the Santee Sioux Agency. The official connection of Baltimore with the Santee Sioux ceased five years later with the retirement of Isaiah Lightner. From the 2021 Manual of Procedure charge: "The ongoing work of the Indian Affairs Committee is inspired by its history. In 1795, Quakers in the northern Shenandoah Valley, following the model established by William Penn in Pennsylvania, set up a fund under the care of Baltimore Yearly Meeting to pay American Indians for lands Quakers had settled. Unable to locate survivors of the natives, the Indian Affairs Committee distributes the interest income from this endowment to organizations which assist and advocate for American Indians."