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“Pendulum” of Indian policy

“Pendulum” of Indian policy. Cycles of binary thinking (“good” or “bad” Indian) Policy swings between Autonomy and Assimilation Policies intended to assimilate often backfired on gov’t. Early Indian Policies. Treaties, 1770s-1871 Took land but recognized nationhood

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“Pendulum” of Indian policy

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  1. “Pendulum” of Indian policy • Cycles of binary thinking (“good” or “bad” Indian) • Policy swings between Autonomy and Assimilation • Policies intended to assimilate often backfired on gov’t

  2. Early Indian Policies • Treaties, 1770s-1871 • Took land but recognized nationhood • Removal, 1820s-50s • Moved tribes but sparked resistance • Reservations, 1830s-80s • Isolated tribes but retained land base/self-rule

  3. Allotment / boarding schools, 1880s-1920s • Indian New Deal / Reorganization, 1930s-40s • Termination/ Urban Relocation, 1950s-60s • Political Self-Determination, 1970s-80s • Economic/Cultural Self-Determination 1990s? Recent Indian Policies

  4. ALLOTMENT ERA, 1880s-1920s • General Allotment Act, 1887 (Dawes Act) • Privatized Indian lands to create farmers • Non-Indians “checkerboarded” most reservations

  5. Allotment, 1887-1934 Each tribal member received allotment (in trust 25 years) Surplus land sold to white settlers Many allotted lands taken through fraud (via language, kids, etc.) Gov’ts foreclosed lands for unpaid taxes

  6. Effects of Allotment Half of reservation lands lost Notion of individual private property (“break up tribal mass”) Farming failed in some regions. BIA undermined tribal governments Split tribal membership 18 million acres allotted; 49 million acres surplus

  7. Vulnerablelands Rich farmland Forests (timber) Lakefront Minerals/oil

  8. Oneida (1838)2,581 acres (1978 figures)

  9. Lac CourteOreilles (1854)30,529 acres

  10. Bad River (1854)41,802 acres

  11. Lac du Flambeau (1854)40,479 acres

  12. Red Cliff (1854)7,267 acres

  13. St. Croix (1934)1,715 acres

  14. Federal attacks on sovereignty 1885: Major Crimes Act creates federal jurisdiction over 7 crimes between Indians on Indian land: (Murder, Manslaughter, Rape, Assault w/ intent to kill, Arson, Burglary, Larceny) 1886: Kagama decision extends federal “plenary power” over Indians to an “incontrovertible right.” Congress passes ~ 5,000 laws regulating Indians--most without their consent or input.

  15. Boarding Schools • Removal of kids from family, land • Cultural assimilation/Christianizing • Economic training

  16. BIA and Mission School policies • Forced attendance • Native name replaced • Languages forbidden • Hair, clothing changed • Practicing traditions taboo

  17. St. Joseph’s Catholic School, Menominee Res.

  18. Unintended effects • Students learned to • work the white system • Students met other • tribal members • Turned negative into • “pan-Indian” (supratribal) • national movement

  19. Tribal backlashto allotment • 1894 Hopi petition • Allotment ended in Southwest, 1911 • Merriam Report blamed allotment for poverty, 1928

  20. Early Protests xxxxx • Opposed allotment • Christian churches against poverty • Lone Wolf decision kept Indians as federal “wards”, 1903 • Nice decision: wards even if citizens, 1916

  21. Society of American Indians Favored “progressive” (assimilation) solutions Not “traditional” (tribal) solutions But raised public awareness

  22. Indian Citizenship Act, 1924 Some veterans, allottees already citizens Rest of Indians became dual citizens of U.S. & own nation Kept “right of any Indian to tribal or other property” Some traditionalists opposed U.S. citizenship

  23. INDIAN NEW DEAL ERA1930s-1940s • Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), 1934 (Wheeler-Howard Act) • Identified with FDR & BIA’s John Collier • Intended to end allotment, start autonomy

  24. Autonomy Effects of IRA • (Altered) self-rule restored on some rezes • Resisted by some tribes - Hopi, Pueblos • Tensions between traditional Chiefs & IRA “tribal councils” on some reservations - Lakota, Iroquois ak

  25. Assimilationist Effects of IRA • Replaced traditional governance with U.S. model like corporate boards • Companies had picked Tribal Council to sign mineral leases (Standard Oil on Navajo) • Tribes to develop constitutions, hold elections, use foreign parliamentary procedures • Interior/BIA controlled funds, could veto tribal decisions

  26. Indian Claims Commission, 1946 Settled (extinguished) tribal land claims until 1978 Tribe paid estmated “price per acre” of the land at time it was illegally taken ($1200 each to Potawatomi) ICC did not return land; some tribes turned down $$

  27. Cultural Survival through “Dark Ages”

  28. TERMINATIONERA, 1950s-60s Termination Resolution (1953) to “free” successful tribes from federal gov’t, communal lands Ended 109 tribes, subjected to state/local control Federal services lost; private lands lost via tax foreclosure Major cause stimulating Indian rights movement; 13 tribes restored Menominee terminated, 1961-73

  29. Federal moves vs. sovereignty NW Shoshone decision, 1942 (treaty rights only for “temporary occupancy”) Public Law 280, 1953 (state law enforcement on rezes in 5 states, include. WI) Tee-Hit-Ton decision, 1955 (Alaskan tribe has no pre-Conquest “aboriginal rights”)

  30. Activism in 1950s-early 1960s Returning WWII, Korean war veterans fight for rights National Congress of American Indians, 1944 American Indian Chicago Conference, 1961; NIYC 1963 Iroquois protest at U.S.-Canada border for Jay Treaty

  31. Relocation Act, 1956 Force Indians off reservation by offering job training opportunities in urban areas. Individuals made to sign agreements that they would not return to their reservations. Urban populations grew in LA, NY, Chicago, Mpls, Denver, Albuquerque, OKC, etc.

  32. Effects of Urban Relocation, 1960s Loss of Native culture & languages, yet kept touch with rural reservation Increased contact among different tribes; growth of pan-Indian identity Common experience of urban poverty & struggle Exposure to civil rights activism, successes Chicago American Indian Center powwow

  33. POLITICAL SELF-DETERMINATION ERA, 1970s-1980s

  34. American Indian Movement, 1968 Founded at Stillwater Prison; inspired by Black Panthers Urban Indians monitored Minneapolis police brutality on Franklin Avenue Made contact with traditional chiefs on reservations; fused urban and rural activism

  35. Alcatraz 1969 Indians of All Tribes occupies abandoned San Francisco Bay prison Cites law that unused federal property reverts to tribes First major national pan-Indian action

  36. Trail of Broken Treaties 1972 Caravan to Washington, DC for self-determination Unplanned occupation of BIA headquarters before 1972 election Nixon White House embarrassed by clashes

  37. AIM 1972-73 AIM protests beating death of Lakota elder in Gordon, Nebraska Police attack on courthouse protesters in leads to Custer, SD riot AIM backs Lakota traditionalists vs. corrupt Pine Ridge Chairman Dick Wilson, and his Guardians Of the Oglala Nation (GOON)

  38. AIM 1972-73 AIM protests beating death of Lakota elder in Gordon, Nebraska Police attack on courthouse protesters in leads to Custer, SD riot AIM backs Lakota traditionalists vs. corrupt Pine Ridge Chairman Dick Wilson, and his Guardians Of the Oglala Nation (GOON)

  39. Wounded Knee 1973 Taking a stand at the site of 1890 massacre on Pine Ridge

  40. Wilson’s tribal government backed by BIA, FBI, U.S. Marshalls, military

  41. AIM and Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization in W.K.

  42. Traditional Lakota Chiefs redeclared an Independent Oglala Nation Drew Indians from around North America Example of traditional self-rule?

  43. 2 AIM killed; many injured; surrendered after 71 days

  44. AIM leaders tried, but few convicted ( FBI misconduct & COINTELPRO files) After W.K.: 3 years of violence on Pine Ridge; up to 80 Lakota died Oglala, June 26, 1975: 2 FBI , 1 AIM die; Day after land transfer. Peltier later convicted. Aftermath of Wounded Knee Siege

  45. 1960s-1970s romanticism • Support for Native environmentalism • Rebirth of “Noble Savage” images • Chief Seattle speech rewritten to emphasize ecological themes Iron Eyes Cody ad vs. pollution

  46. Pendulum swings to autonomy 1975: Indian Self-determination and Educational Assistance Act lets tribes manage own housing, law-enforcement, health, social service, development. 1978: Indian Child Welfare Act gives tribes authority over most Indian adoption and child custody

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