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Indian Policy,
Resistance, and
the Negotiation ofChange
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Dawes Allotment Act, 1887
How do we definecivilized?
To be civilized is towear civilized clothescultivate the ground, livein houses, ride inStudebaker wagons,send children to school,
drink whiskey [and] ownproperty HenryDawes
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Pros & Cons
Pros:
Promised citizenship
Fastest way to assimilate
Self sufficiency
Value of ownership,possession of land onceIndians adopted thisvalue, they would have
something to pass downas an inheritance to futuregenerations
Intelligently selfish
Cons:
Poor land quality
Diminished entire tribalculture and way of life
Land agreements wereconstantly renegotiated
Promises werent kept
Lack of skills & toolsneeded to manage land andcrops
Intertribal differences overallotment
Corruption of rez agents
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Indian Boarding Schools
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Pros & Cons
Pros:
Increased Indians technical& farming skills
Produced model citizens
with which to encourageother Indians to assimilate
Helped assimilation byteaching ways of whiteculture
Gave credibility to Indians Gave Indians tools to
survive new world
Brought tribes together
Cons:
Abuse & cruelty
Separated families
Segregation
Teaching that Indiansways/language/culture arewrong
Loss of culture
Caught between twocultures once schoolingwas complete
Rendered useless in bothcultures
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A Good Indians Dilemma
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The Indian Problem
After 1790 the United States government facedfour options in shaping its overall policy towardsIndians: (1) exterminate them
(2) protect them in zoo-like enclaves while towns risearound them
(3) assimilate Indians by encouraging them to becomecrop-raising, church-going, school-attending model
citizens (4) transplant them to that inhospitable , unwantedwilderness west of the Mississippi, known as IndianTerritory
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Trail of Tears1838-1839
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John Collier Harshly criticized theBureau of IndianAffairs (BIA) and itsIndian Policies
1928, MeriamReport
1933, appointed asnew Commissioner ofthe BIA
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1934 New Deal/ Indian Reorganization Act(IRA) proposal.
Items targeted: The reorganization of Indian tribes towards self-
government
End of allotment
Multi-million dollar credit fund to foster Indian farmsand businesses
Recruitment of Indians for BIA jobs
Indian court system
Land acquisition
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Other issues IRA concerned with: Indian healthcare system
Indian arts and crafts
Boarding schools day schools Soil conservation and stock reduction programs
Cultural freedoms
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Results of IRA: Gutted version of Colliers
vision passed
Kept: halt to allotment,
voluntary pooling of allotted
lands, restoration of unsold
surplus acreage,
restoration of resource
management to tribes,
limited self-government
$12 million borrowed by 70 tribes
to launch farming operations and
salmon canning factories. By end of
1946, none had failed and nearly all
loans repaid.
Improvement in health delivery
systems
Boarding schools day schools
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[Collier] wanted tribes to keep
their ancient democracy, and
vowed at his swearing-in not tomake a white man of the
Indian. But he did not
distinguish between the Indians
form of participatory democracy,
in which all tribal membersplayed a part and decisions
were reached after struggle for
group census, and the white
mans representative
democracy, where electedspokespeople quickly passed
laws that affected everybody.
Nabokov, 310
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Indian perspectives of the IRA
Pro: Loan funds for farm programs, education
Established self-governing body
Hard to recognize change while in the midst of it
Stopped sale of Indian lands and allotment
Con: Set Indians apart from mainstream and made them a problem,
saw them at the other
Created a socialistic society (rather capitalist), paternalistic type ofgovernment
Self-government still subject to approval of Secretary of Interior
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Big-picture results:
New sense of Indian prideWhat to do with newly-given power?
Frustration by tribes who had livestock herds
reduced
And then
WWII
Henry S. Trumans administration
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Johnny Cash, The Ballad of Ira Hayes
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Life after Collier
1945, Collier resigns after fighting eleven
years of resistance to his reforms
Change in political climate: government
should get out of the Indian business
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Termination
1950, Dillon Myer named Commissioner ofBIA after Colliers resignation
Termination Policy Liquidated Indians special ward status,
governments trust responsibilities Phase out health, economic, educational
benefits
1952, stopped BIA loans
Sought to make Indians regular citizens
Tribe-by-tribe basis Klamath tribe of Oregon
109 tribes terminated
Loss of 1.3 million acres of land
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Urban Relocation
Program
Strategy to persuadereservation Indians tomove to big cities
By 1960, urbanIndians accounted for1/3 of Indianpopulation
As of 2010 census,
urban Indians accountfor 64% of Indianpopulation
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Self-determination
1975, Nixon administration passes Indian Self-Determination and Education Act
Taos Pueblo
Era of cultural
revitalization
Repatriation Maintaining old
ways vs.confronting
economic realities
What is a tribe?
What is Indian?
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Reagan Era
Maybe we made a mistake in trying to
maintain Indian cultures. Maybe we should not
have humored them in wanting to stay in that
kind of primitive life-style. Maybe we shouldhave said, No, come join us. Be citizens along
with the rest of us.
Kill the Indian, save the man
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1981, 82% cut in economic development funds
1983, Economic development plan
1983, Indian aid cut by 1/3
1985, Secretary of State interferes in negotiations
between Peabody Coal Co. and the Navajo
1987, Strategic Mineral Task Force urges
Reagan to declare Indian Country a national
sacrifice zone.
Reagan-era policies: