David L. Shipley was an acting Indian agent in the New Mexico area, serving in the Navajo Agency, during the late nineteenth Century. He too was asked by Carlos Montezuma to write back to him with a list of Native American’s living on his reservation that were able to write read and speak the English Language effectively. Shipley complied with this request and wrote back with only four names that fit the criteria. As an Indian Agent during the time period, Shipley had the task of making sure that native American children, in his case the Navajo Children, were taken from their families and sent off to Boarding schools for the “civilization” process to begin. However, this went against everything that the Navajo people believed in, so in a notorious mission in 1892, Shipley gathered a small police force and raided the Round Rock Reservation. However, due to his poor reputation as being a drunkard, he was met with heavy protest and returned to the boarding school with 0 children. This highlights the inability for some Indian Agents to successfully carry out their jobs and incorporating Children into the civilization process. Outside of a couple random facts about his personal life, there wasn’t anything major that I was able to find regarding his views, outside the knowledge that he was an active Indian Agent seeking to civilize the Native American.
