American Indian Policy

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U.S. Indian Policy after the Civil War The history of federal policy toward Native Americans has reflected changing ideas about whether Indians should be assimilated into white society or whether tribes should retain their sovereignty, and their right to be independent and self-governing entities. Native Americans have always maintained that each individual tribe is a sovereign nation and should therefore be authorized to govern itself without outside influence. Official recognition of Native American sovereignty has fluctuated according to the beliefs of presidents, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Consequently, the rights of Native Americans have been expanded and condensed at various times throughout the nation’s history. When Europeans…show more content…
Under this, the remaining land was made available to settlers and orphans under the age of eighteen and other single people less than eighteen received 40 acres. Moreover, under this act, heads of families and single people over eighteen years were given allotments of 160 acres. The reason for doing this was to protect the native Indians from getting swindled. Another answer to what was the purpose of the Dawes Act is that this act aimed at a gendered training, involving farming and agriculture for men and homemaking for Indian women. All this was also an apparent attempt to civilize the Native Americans. The Dawes Act provided for a civilized channel of education for Native American children in government schools. This was so stringent that the troops took children away if there was resistance from parents. Moreover, boarding was preferred to ensure that the children get away from the tribal influence. According to Dawes Act, the churches were to intervene in policy making and missionary work related to the Native Americans and near the tribes. In addition to this, the agents had the power and authority to convict red Indians if they practiced their religion. Congress hoped that surrounding the Indians with white culture would encourage them to adopt white beliefs and practices, but this policy failed abysmally because most Indians did not want to give up their…show more content…
It cannot be reduced to a simple tale of conquerors and victims, bad presidents and greedy cowards, or the march of progress versus unbending cultures. Ultimately, though, the real history is no less tragic. U.S. Indian Policy after the Civil War Kyle Polk April 12, 2012 Paper 2 Works Cited Brian W. Dippie, The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1982), Francis Paul Prucha, The Indians in American Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 48. Francis Paul Prucha, Indian Policy in the United States (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981), Hoxie, Frederick E., A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate the Indians, 1880-1920 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984) 44. Wilcomb E. Washburn, The Assault on Tribalism: The General Allotment Law (Dawes Act) of 1887 (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1975), 3.
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