Removal Era, 1825–1850s

  • change in federal Indian policy of the government because the declining power of tribes and increasing power of US government
  • 1820s government talked about forcing tribes to move west of the Mississippi
  • Pres. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1803 one day tribes of have to move west of the Mississippi
  • George Washington thought they would just disappear just like wild animals in the forest had disappeared.
  • Americans were openly hostile to Indians and wanted to occupy tribal lands
  • 1829 Andrew Jackson president of the US he wanted a front tier and hostile towards the Indians
  • Jackson supported the removal act
  • removal act 1830 passed by Congress force tribes to move west of the Mississippi River
  • some people wanted them gone so the Indians could avoid learning the bad habits of civilizations so they could be civilized turned to Christians eventually
  • government relocated Indian tribes to Indian territory which is now Oklahoma
  • almost all the tribes and Indians who lived east of the Mississippi were moved to the Indian territory
  • 1830s many tribes including Cherokee went on the trail of tears they were forcibly marched to Indian territory
  • when Cherokee moved in 1838 from Georgia 4000 died of the original 16,000 Cherokees who started the march
  • the Cherokee nation sued the government
  • there are numerous treaty modifications
  • tribes for the Pacific Northwest were also removed to the Indian territory
  • the US promised tribes in new treaties they could keep their new lands forever and the US would protect their ownership

Reservation Era, 1850–1887

  • 1849 discovery of gold in California and Oregon Trail opening citizens began going across the country in areas owned by Western tribes
  • massive migration of whites to California for mining tribal government asked to give up rights to their lands
  • US started a reservation policy of entering treaties with tribes to separate Indians from whites so land battles started
  • US started by buying land like 44,000,000 acres in Wyoming
  • 1851 the Treaty of the Sioux nation included South Dakota and parts of Nebraska Wyoming and North Dakota and Montana
  • later US realized they gave the tribes too much land
  • US came back and asked for new treaties for smaller reservations
  • American settlers wanted to confine and civilize the Indians
  • reservations were designed to keep Indian separate from American society 300 Indian reservations were established by tribal governments and the US
  • the federal government outlawed religion culture and imposed American law and law enforcement to tribal governments on reservations
  • there are federal agents who ripped off the Indians
  • Pres. Grant in 1869 gave management of the Indian reservations to the military
  • the federal government gave reservation land to religious missionaries who try to control Indian religion and culture
  • Congress ended treaty making with the tribes in 1871 as the Senate and House both wanted control over Indian affairs

 

Allotment and Assimilation Era, 1887–1934

  • 1887 Congress enacted general allotment act.
  • Indians used to live undisturbed on reservations where they could be separate from white society
  • the new act made American and European land ownership and farm living the only option for Indians
  • tribal lands are no longer communal like the reservation lands used to be
  • allotment policy was supposed to civilize the Indians into civilized society
  • Indians not allowed to keep their religion or culture on the reservation
  • assimilation became federal policy
  • Bureau of Indian affairs squeezed out Indian government religion and culture
  • Indians were now going to become farmers and ranchers
  • the government wanted open up reservations for settlement by white Americans
  • most allotment of land or lost from Indian ownership by voluntary sales were forced tax foreclosures
  • if land wasn’t allotted it was considered surplus and sold to non-Indians
  • result in a major loss of tribal reservation land and had a checkerboard effect of non-Indian land mix with Indian owned land
  • loss of two thirds of tribal he held land because of the allotment era by 1934
  • most was nearly worthless because they were a desert or semiarid lands 20 million of the 48 million Indian lands were worthless
  • land allotment made them automatic US citizens but most Indians were not made US citizens until 1924 by inactive card grades
  • by the end of the allotment era 40 years of forced assimilation most American Indians were poor because they had no health care system or educational systems

Indian Reorganization Era, 1934–1940s

  • 1928 US government figured out the attempt to assimilate Indians was a total failure and they were living in worse conditions than before allotment was instituted in 1887
  • Indian Reorganization Act Pres. Franklin Roosevelt as part of the New Deal new federal policy ran from the early 1930s to about 1945
  • Indian Reorganization Act was called IRA
  • IRA reversed the allotment policy in the government decided to support tribal governments and tribal sovereignty
  • IRA ended anymore allotment of lands and stop the sale or loss of any remaining lands
  • on Indian reservations today individual Indians own allotments left over from the allotment era of 11,000,000 acres of land on reservations are owned in this way but they cannot sell or lease them without permission of the United States
  • IRA allows Indian people to strengthen tribal government under constitutions and encourages economic development on reservations
  • some people argue that the IRA results in the assimilation of Indians because it imposed American government and judicial systems on tribes

Termination Era, 1940s–1961

  • another turnabout in federal policy tried to and federal tribal relationships and terminate tribal treaty rights and assimilate Indians
  • Congress called for the repeal of the IRA to end the authority and legal existence of tribal governments
  • the US government wanted assimilation again
  • US government ended the legal relationship between 109 Indian tribes and the US
  • federal benefits were lost 209 tribes and they also lost ownership of 1.3 million acres of tribal land
  • trying to save federal dollars
  • in 1953 Congress created state civil and criminal jurisdictions over Indian country in certain states it also transferred educational responsibilities for Indians to the states and healthcare from the Bureau of Indian affairs
  • Bureau of Indian affairs work to relocate reservation Indians to big cities so that the federal government responsibility for Indians would end

Self-Determination Era, 1961–Present

  • federal policy completely changes again in 1960s Pres. Kennedy’s administration refused to terminate more tribes from federal recognition
  • government invested millions of dollars into tribal programs Under Pres. Johnson’s Great Society
  • Self-Determination in 1970 Pres. Nixon landmark federal policy is still official Indian policy today
  • under self-determination tribes are restored to full government to government political relationship with the United States regain the ability to receive federal services and restored most of the hundred and nine tribes that were terminated earlier
  • Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 is the principal federal law that marks this era. It allows tried to contract with the federal government for delivery of federal services and programs to the reservation wall tribal programs continue to be federally funded the tribes implement them
  • the act states that federal domination of Indian affairs is supposed and
  • many laws that protect and support tribal government and tribal courts work towards fostering tribal self-government
  • they manage alcohol regulation environmental control on reservations is all taken care of by the tribes themselves not the federal authority