Indian Policy PPT

7/30/2019 Indian Policy PPT

1/22

Indian Policy,

Resistance, and

the Negotiation ofChange


2/22

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


3/22

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


4/22

Indian Boarding Schools


5/22

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


6/22

A Good Indians Dilemma


7/22

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


8/22

Trail of Tears1838-1839


9/22

John Collier Harshly criticized theBureau of IndianAffairs (BIA) and itsIndian Policies

1928, MeriamReport

1933, appointed asnew Commissioner ofthe BIA


10/22

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


11/22

Other issues IRA concerned with: Indian healthcare system

Indian arts and crafts

Boarding schools day schools Soil conservation and stock reduction programs

Cultural freedoms


12/22

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


13/22

[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


14/22

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


15/22

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


16/22

Johnny Cash, The Ballad of Ira Hayes


17/22

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


18/22

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


19/22

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


20/22

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?


21/22

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


22/22

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:

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Indian Policy PPT

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