CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS

Part OneAbyssThis Powerpoint is subject to

continuous revisions.

Written and revised by Scott Fritz, Ph.D. on September 8, 2015 at 1:45 p.m.

Western New Mexico University

Context for the Twentieth Century

A Forced Path Towards Assimilation

Background: The 1800s

Indian Non-Intercourse Act of 1790 Recognized aboriginal title Require federal government approval of Indian land

sales Johnson v. M’Intosh 1823

Private citzens could not purchase lands from Native Americans

Gov. owns Indian land – right of discovery Indian Removal Act 1830 Cherokee v. Georiga 1831

Indians are “domestic dependent nations” Wards to its guardian (federal government)

Worcester v. Georgia 1832 Indians are sovereign nations States do not have jurisdiction on Indian lands

Reservation System

Government removed tribes to reservations as non-Indians enter the West Treaties Annuities

Surveyors Ranges, Townships, Sections

Reservation opened up ‘public domain’ Benefit non-Indian

homesteaders, ranchers, and farmers

Assimilation: An Attempt at Reform

Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania

Richard Pratt in 1878 Who was he?

Cavalry Officer, worked on reservations on Southern Plains

Reassigned: military prison at Fort Marion, Florida, Vocational training program for Indian prisoners

“Kill the Indian; Build the Man” Assimilate Indian youths through education at

boarding schools to remove children from their traditions, and teach them “white man’s road”

Seventeen of the prisoners established Carlisle Carlisle served as model for schools

Established the western states Schools forcibly removed Indian children from

homes to meet enrollment quotas

Instituted an “outing system’ where by Indian children were also sent to live in white houses

In 1903, Indian names were replaced by Anglo names.

Reforming the Reservations

Intellectuals critical of reservation management call on Congress to enact further reforms

Helen Hunt Jackson A Century of Dishonor 1881

Broken treaties, massacres, poverty, etc. In 1882, Jackson employed by Department of

Interior to investigate problems of the Mission Indians in California She writes Ramona in 1884, fictionalized account of

impact on Cahuilla woman Ramona Lubo Jackson inspired reformers to hold the Lake

Mohonk Conference in NY to study Indian problems = agreed on Allotment

Allotment: A Significant Attempt at Reform

1887-1934

Dawes Severalty Act General Allotment Act of 1887 Intentions were: to make Indians into

farmers i.e. Assimilation Assimilate to U.S. economy, make into

farmers See land as private property

Ended reservations throughout the U.S. Allotted 160 acre parcels to Indian

families Reservation lands not given to Indian

families was opened to homesteading and sale to Anglos

Allotted lands to be held in trust with U.S. for 24 years

Severalty: a person’s ownership of property, “separate” from another person.

Cherokee and Choctaw in Oklahoma refused allotment. Went to federal courts, lost.Curtis Act of 1898, dissolved their tribal governments

Text Insert

Life during Allotment Agents became superintendents Bureau of Indian Affairs: Paternalism

BIA provided food, clothing, tools, seed BIA Superintendents oversaw daily lives

Encouraged agriculture: told Indian families how much to plant, etc. Sold crops back to BIA

Provide Employment Code of Indian Offenses (1883)

Traditional ceremonies like Sun Dance Polygamy, etc. Court of Indian Offenses

Problem: Making Indians into farmers who had never been

farmers Land not suited for agriculture

Paternalism: system in which authority supplies needs and regulate conduct of those under its control.

In 1920s, Superintendents for the BIA sought to recruit Apache, Navajo and Hopi for farm work in central Arizona (i.e. cotton picking)

Burke Act of 1906 Discontinued government

guardianship of allotted lands six years early

Indian Families received title to their lands, but still could not compete with Anglo farmers

Indian families still relied on BIA for seeds and tools and markets for their crops

Could not compete with Anglo farmers Lease lands to Anglo ranchers and

farmers

Allotted Indians would be given citizenship in 25 years

In 1891, Indian families allowed to lease land to white farmers and ranchers

Problems: Indians Lost Land

Indians sell land to whites, no more land or home

Unscrupulous land speculators obtained land Anglo might purchase inheritance rights to

land – able to acquire land after owner died Banker extend loan, land collateral, Indian

not pay debt and loose land If Indian family could not pay tax on

improved land, their land was foreclosed Lost some 2/3 of land that tribes had

owned in 1887

Bursum Bill confirm non-Indian claims to Pueblo land that had been held to prior to 1912.

Problems: Indians Could Not Compete with Anglos for water

Arizona Anglo farmers on Gila River upriver

from Pima took irrigation water Papago Indians lost access to water

holes from Anglo ranchers Montana

Anglo farmers dug ditch from Milk River

Took water upriver from Fort Belknap Reservation

Fort Belknap Reservation created in 1889, concentrated Gros Ventres and Assiniboine Tribes, making nomads into farmers

Was Allotment Legal?Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903)

Jerome Commission of 1892 $2 Million to open reservation for white

settlement Kiowa Chief Lonewolf against allotment

Kiowa Chief Lone Wolf Allotment of Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation

was not agreed to by 2/3 of tribe Medicine Lodge Treaty 1867 was broken

Supreme Court: U.S. government could break treaties Plenary Powers of Congress to terminate treaties Congress has had authority over tribal relations since

beginning of country And Indians are “wards” of the government

Reforming the era of Allotment

Early Reform Legislation: Winters Doctrine, 1908

Context: Severe drought in 1904, farmers upstream from Fort Belknap Reservation, taking water from Indians

Indians sued in court Anglo farmers upstream cannot take water down

stream from reservation Fort Belknap Indians won court case

Court case defined Indian water rights Even if non-Indians had claims to land (i.e. Prior

Appropriation, first come, first serve), Indians had claim to water also

Indians have claims to water because of their aboriginal claims to North America

Early Reform Legislation

Healthcare in Indian Communities Indian medical services established in BIA in

1910 Snyder Act of 1921 allocated additional federal

monies for Indian health Indian Citizenship Act, 1924 --gave right to

vote Reward for Indians who served in World War One Hope for more rapid assimilation

Pueblo Land Act of 1924 Overturned the Burke Act of 1906 Evicted Anglo squatters (with compensation)

States like New Mexico, Arizona, and Maine did not extend voting rights until after World War Two.

Resentment of the Burke Act led to formation of the All Pueblo Council in 1922. Helped pass Pueblo Lands Act in 1924 which overturned Burke Act.

Native Americans served in World War I.

Merriam Report 1928

Merriam Report = Institute for Government Research “Brookings Institute”

Inadequate federal programs Health, education, and social problems Report said: “An overwhelming majority of the Indians are

poor…and they are not adjusted to the economic and social system of the dominant white civilization.”

To improve BIA programs through increased funding and efficiency

Advocated continued assimilation, did not question assimilation

Future Director of BIA John Collier recognized problem but did not advocate assimilation – advocated the abandonment of allotment – want to empower tribes

Felix Cohen “Handbook of Federal Indian Law”

Organized diffuse body of law, largely forgotten

Articulated a special federal trust relation with the tribes

Doctrine of tribal sovereignty, a limited sovereignty

Helped lead to IRA 1934

Indians in the 1930s

Indian Reorganization Act 1934

Part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, advised president

Ended the Dawes Severalty Act, 1887 Reversed policy of allotment Reestablished Reservations Gave unsold allotted lands back to tribes

Allowed for tribal ownership of land Tribal sovereignty

Tribal constitutions and councils Supervisors from Bureau of Indian affairs began

“advising” tribal governments Ended policy of assimilation:

Promote day schools on reservations Promoted tribal traditions, religious freedom

John Collier, founded the American Indian Defense Association.

IRA sometimes called “Wheeler-Howard Act.”

IRA also encouraged hiring of Indians in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Johnson-O’ Malley Act of 1934 allowed federal government to contract with states and private companies for providing services to Indian reservations.

Collier encouraged intertribal relations, (i.e. Pan-Indianism) and tribes ultimately established the National Congress of American Indians in 1944.

By 1930 almost half of U.S. Indians are Native American Church members, who believe that the use of the hallucinogenic cactus Peyote can bring back traditions. Seek to include aspects of Christianity into the religion.

Example: IRA impact on Tribes in the Southwest

Tribal Constitutions Written by OIA for the tribes Apache, Navajo, Pima, Papago, Yuman Tribes, Pueblos

Tribal Councils Election, ballots printed in both English and Indian Councilmen had close ties with OIA, relatively wealthy

Examples of Councils Papago Tribal Council lead by “League of Papago

Chiefs”, to unify rancheria leadership Navajo National Council (Window Rock)

Chapter Houses (i.e. at Kaibeto, Tuba City) Controlled by wealthy Navajo wool producers like Chee

Dodge

Indians in the 1940s

Indians Fighting in World War II

Over 25,000 Indians served in U.S. Army

Also worked in war munitions factories

Code Talkers: Choctaw, Comanche, Meskwaki (Fox) Navajo was only code not to be because

they were highly complicated Navajo Code Talkers Some Indians arrested for being

“draft-dodgers”

Ira Hayes, Pima Indian, helped raise flag at Iwo Jima, in 1945.

Indians during World War Two

Some moved to California to work in the shipbuilding yards of Henry J. Kaiser

Worked in mines, like Arizona Indians who worked in Morenci’s copper mines, “…Indian labor practically saved the mines from closing.”

Office of Indian Affairs recruited Navajo and other tribes to work in farm fields, picking cotton, etc.

Indians Claims Commission, 1946

Indian bravery in World War II convinced Congress for need to be fair with Indian tribes

Independent agency created by Congress in 1946

To expedite process of paying for broken treaties Tribes were to be reimbursed with

money for stolen lands and broken treaties

Court of Claims had heard earlier cases, but case became backlogged.

Tribes in Arizona and New Mexico given right to vote

Indians still face challenges in late 1940s

Allotted holdings were not all consolidated

Bureau of Indian Affairs would control many aspects of Indians’ political, economic, and educational lives

During and after Collier’s administration (stopped serving as commissioner in 1945) bills were introduced in Congress to terminate Indian reservation

Office of Indian Affairs changed to “Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947

CONDITIONS ON NATIVE AMERICAN RESERVATIONS

1950s and 1960s

Conditions on the Red Lake Chippewa Reservation

Ojibwe Language (also known as Anishinabe, subset of Algonquian)

Treaty of Old Crossing, 1863 created reservation Red Lake in northern Minnesota

Lumber, Fishing, Rice Control of BIA

Schooling and Churches Employment

Conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation

Lakota (ancestors from Minnesota) Part of what was once the Great Sioux Reservation,

created by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 By the 1950s, BIA was like “the company in a

company town” Schools and Churches Employment Even BIA sold the Indians’ cattle to dealers

Sun Dance (originally banned in 1887) Ceremony representing link with White Buffalo Calf Woman –

who taught Lakota their culture) Kept being practiced in secret during allotment Allowed to be practiced, starting in 1930s-1950s, but

piercing was not allowed.

Conditions on the Quinault Reservation

Western Washington, Olympic Peninsula Diabetes, suicides (few health facilities) Cedar Plank Homes, could have over a dozen

living inside Industry = Lumber 1887 Dawes Act

Quinault given 80 acres, not 160 acres Obtained large one-time payments to clear-cut their

land Reservation reconstituted in 1934 BIA served as trustee of the land 1950s and

1960s and leased to timber companies

Slash:Prevented new growthCreated fire hazardClogged rivers, impacted fish, particularly salmon

The 1950s:A Policy of Termination and Relocation

Termination• Indian Policy of 1950s and 1960s: terminate

tribal sovereignty• Sought to end reservations and tribal governments • Ended trusteeship relationship with federal

government• Allowed state laws to be applied to terminated tribes

• Became subject to state and federal taxes as well as laws, from which they had previously been exempt

• Justification• Assimilate into mainstream American society• To grant Native Americans all the “rights and

privileges” of citizenship• Based on Supreme Court Case Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903)

gave U.S. “plenary power” to abrogate Indian treaties

Example of Plenary Power would be the Commerce Clause in the Constitution

Background to termination

John Collier’s influenced waned in early 1940s, left office in 1945

Post WWII economic boom In 1947, Director of BIA William Zimmerman prepared

list of tribes to be withdrawn from federally recognized tribes

Hoover Commission 1948 – assimilation must be the policy Dillon Meyer, Director of BIA in 1950, pushed for

Assimilation Initiated a voluntary relocation program

Republicans win the 1952 election Senator Author Watkins

Chair of Indian Subcommittee, Utah, Mormon, Isolationist, anti-labor, believed termination would improve lives of Indians

House Concurrent Resolution 108, (1953)

Arthur Watkins introduced bill to terminate reservations Republican Senator from Utah Chaired “Senate Interior Committee on

Indian Affairs” Called for the termination of the:

Flathead (Montana) Klamath (Oregon) Menominee (Wisconsin) Potawatomi (Kansas) Turtle Mountain Chippewa (North Dakota) Most of tribes in California, New York, Florida and

Texas To terminate “as rapidly as possible”

Public Law 280 (passed 1953) Supported by Senator Watkins Gave state governments jurisdiction on

reservations that had not been terminated State courts could try criminal cases involving

Indians on reservations Against Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

State laws are not applicable on Indian land Based on Supreme Court Case Lone Wolf

v. Hitchcock (1903) gave U.S. “plenary power” to abrogate Indian treaties

Examples of Terminated Tribes

Menominee Termination Act, 1954

Wisconsin tribe Good Timber lands Tribal lumber mill, provided income to support

families Tribe sued – BIA miss-managed lumber

income Tribe won Arthur Watkins prevented monies from being

distributed Combined allocation of money with

termination bill 169 out of 3,059 voted in support of

ending reservation

Menominee Termination Continued:

Congressional hearings on Menominee Termination Watkins convince Congress that termination would be good

Congress passed Termination, without Menominee consensus Plenary power of Congress, Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock 1903

Reservation land sold – held in trust “Menominee Enterprises Inc.” Included money, from lawsuit over BIA miss-management of tribal

lumber mill “Menominee Enterprises Inc.”

Voting trust (obstensibly to be controlled by Menominee) but largely controlled by First Wisconsin Trust of Milwaukee

Indian Health Services hospital closed Lumber mill inadequate to earn profits

Now liable to pay taxes Menominee lost hunting and fishing rights

Wisconsin Supreme Court said that these rights had been terminated

Went to U.S. Supreme Court, Menominee v. U.S. (1968)

Even though tribe was terminated, fishing and hunting rights had not been terminated

Klamath Termination Act, 1954 Different than Menominee Termination

Pro-Termination Faction Klamath Indian Wade Crawford supported termination

Led pro-termination faction of off-reservation tribal members living in Klamath Falls

Strong Anti-Termination sentiment in tribal council Led by tribal delegate to Congress Boyd Jackson Helped to shape Klamath termination bill

Tribal member had choice To remain member of tribe Or leave tribe and receive money

78% opted out of tribe Got $43,000 Target for car dealers, appliance sellers, etc. quickly lost

money Tribal members who remained part of tribe

Assets managed by the U.S. National Bank of Portland Oregon

Lost hunting rights Much of reservation became part of Winema National

Forest Anglos hunt on forest, Forest service clear cut

According to 1854 Treaty, they argued they still had hunting and fishing rights. Rights restored in 1968 in Supreme Court Case Menominee v. United States. Wisconsin tribe, even though terminated, retained hunting rights. Applied to other tribes like Klamath

Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, 1954

Terminated numerous bands and small tribes located west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon

Was unique because of the great number of tribes terminated 61 tribes terminated

Lands surveyed, sold, and funds distributed to terminated tribal members

Many moved to cities, impoverished

California Rancheria Termination Act, 1958

Targeted 41 small Indian Reservations Terminated 38 reservations

Lands surveyed Land distributed to individual Mission Indian families Rest of land sold money distributed to Indian families

Assets from some reservations held within a corporation

Each tribal member received several hundred dollars each Still poor, “…most found themselves poorer, bereft of

health care, and suffering a painful psychological loss of community, homeland, and self-identity.” (Wilkinson p. 81)

Indians receiving assets could not received any more federal assistance

Some reservations were restored in 1970s.

Mission Indians of San Diego

Two factions Mission Indian Federation = Pro-termination Spokesmen and Committee Group = Anti-

termination Jonathan Tibbett, non-Indian, founded Mission

Indian Federation in 1919 To end “paternalism” of BIA

James Ponchetti (Santa Ysabel Band of Digueno Indians) – Anti-Termination

Successful in preventing termination Created split between anti and pro-termination

groups

Indian Relocation Act of 1956 “Adult Vocational Training Program” Encourage Indians to leave reservation for work To assimilate into the general population Oversaw by Bureau of Indian Affairs

Provided vocational training Provided jobs in the cities

BIA provided assistance the first 6 months in the city, after that, Indians on their own

Increased the number of “urban Indians”

Conclusions

Supreme Court Cases Reservation System Dawes Act Assimilation Reform of Dawes Act Indian Reorganization Act Indians during WWII Conditions in 1950s Termination: House Bill 108 Public Law 280 Indian Relocation Act of 1956