THE NATIVE AMERICANS

1
THE NATIVE AMERICANS

• CHAPTER 6

2
Early European Contacts

• Misunderstood and ill treated by their conquerors
  for several centuries
• Diverse Ethnicity
• Culture
• Language
• Kinship system
• Political economic
• In 1500, 700 distinct languages spoken in the
  area north of Mexico

3

• Columbus diary
• It appears to me that the people of the New
  World are ingenious and would be good servants.
  These people are very unskilled in arms. With
  fifty men they could all be subjected to do all
  that one wishes (Akwesasne Notes 197222).
• Estimated 10 million in 1500
• About 600,000 in 1800
• 1n 1900, less than 250,000
• This loss of human life can only be judged as
  catastrophic

4
Summary of Contact and Policies

• 1492 Arrival of Columbus
• 1607 Jamestown was founded
• 1620 Pilgrims landed at Plymouth
• 1622 First major Indian retaliation
• 1744 Treaty of Lancaster
• 1778 First treaty between US and
  Indians
• 1803 US Louisiana Purchase

5

• 1824 BIA established and placed in the
  Department of War
• 1830 Indian Removal Act
• 1854 Indian Appropriation Act
• 1862 Railroad Act
• 1868 Fort Laramie Peace Conference
• 1887 General Allotment Act (Dawes)
• 1924 Indian Citizenship Act
• 1944 National Congress of American Indians
• 1947 Indian Claims Commission Act

6

• 1948 Indians allowed to vote in Arizona
• 1953 Termination Act
• 1962 Indians allowed to vote in New
• Mexico
• 1968 Indian Civil Rights Act
• 1972 Indian Education Act
• 1975 Indian Self-Determination Act
• 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act
• 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act
• 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
• 1990 Indian Art Craft Act

7
Treaties and Warfare

• US formulated a policy during 19th century that
  followed precedents established during colonial
  period
• Not to antagonize Native Americans unnecessarily
• Exploits of the Forty-Niners were glorified
• Authorities offered bounties to settlers for the
  heads of American Indians
• State reimbursed about 1 million to reimburse
  people for bullets used to shoot them

8

• The Case of Sioux
• Treatment was especially cruel and remains fresh
  in the minds of tribal members even today
• Fort Laramie Treaty (1868)
• Government agreed to keep Whites from hunting or
  settling on newly established Great Sioux
  Reservation, which included land that is now
  South Dakota west of the Missouri River
• Whites entered Sioux territory spurred by Col.
  George Custers exaggerated reports of gold in
  Black Hills
• Battle of Little Big Horn (1876)
• Last great Sioux victory

9

• Millenarian Movement (Ghost Dance)
• Movement founded on the belief that a cataclysmic
  upheaval would occur in the immediate future,
  followed by collective salvation
• Originated among the Paiutes of Nevada
• English learned by Native Americans gave the
  means to overcome barriers of tribal languages
  and communicate with one another
• Functionalist perspective views millenarian
  movement as a means of coping with the domination
  of White intruders

10

• Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)
• Anticipating Ghost Dance, cavalry arrived and a
  random shot led to the death of 300 Sioux and 25
  government soldiers
• Despite effects of disease and warfare, 250,000
  Indians still lived in 1890
• According to the government, Indian problem still
  remained
• Reservation system established forms the basis of
  the relationship between Native Americans and the
  government from then until the present

11
Ruling The Native Americans

• Internal Colonialism
• The treatment of subordinate groups like colonial
  subjects by those in power
• The Allotment Act (1887)
• A disastrous policy that bypassed tribal leaders
  and proposed to make individual landowners of
  tribal members
• The Reorganization Act (1934)
• Tribes could adopt a written constitution and
  elect a tribal council with a head
• Imposed foreign values and structures

12
Reservation Life and Federal Policies

• Over 1/3rd of Native American live on 557
  reservations and trust lands in 33 states
• A bit more than 2 of the land throughout the US
• Reservation Native American, more than any other
  segment of the population, except the military,
  find their life determined by the federal
  government
• Many 20th century policies were designed to get
  out of the Indian business

13
Native American Legal Claims

• From 1836 to 1946 Native Americans could not
  bring a claim against the government without an
  Act of Congress
• Policy prevented most charges of treaty
  violations
• Only 142 claims were heard during this period
• Indian Claims Commission (1946)
• Established by Congress to hear claims against
  government
• Led to an increase in claims

14

• Commission extended until 1978
• Cases are now heard by the U.S. Court of Claims
• Over the course of 50 years, commission and
  Court, paid claims totaling an average of 1,000
  for each American Indian for all treaty
  violations and related claims
• Allotment Act Trust estimated at 3 billion
• Annually, government pays beneficiaries about
  500 from the fund
• Handling of trust called
• The God standard for mismanagement by the
  federal government for more that a century.

15

• BIA shut down website over fear information it
  gives out could be wrong
• Native Americans express a desire to recover
  their land rather than accept financial
  settlements
• Congress finally agreed to pay 106 million for
  land illegally seized in aftermath of Little Big
  Horn
• Sioux rejected money and lobbied for return of
  the land
• Despite need for housing, food, health care, and
  education, Sioux prefer land to original
  settlement, which now totals more than 330
  million

16
The Termination Act of 1953

• Most controversial governmental policy toward
  reservation Native Americans in the 20th century
• Policy proposed, at that time, was an attempt to
  give Native Americans greater autonomy and at the
  same time reduce federal expenditures
• Services tribes received, such as subsidized
  medical care and college scholarships, should not
  have been viewed as special and deserving to be
  discontinued

17

• Unfortunately, it reduced costs and ignored
  individual needs
• Services were to be withdrawn gradually but were
  stopped immediately
• The effect on Native Americans were disastrous
• Unable to establish some of the basic services
• In 1975, the government resumed the services
• Signaled the end of another misguided policy
  intended to be good for Native Americans

18
Employment Assistance Program

• (1952) BIA began programs to relocate young
  Native Americans
• (1962) Employment Assistance Program (EAP)
• Primary provision was for relocation at
  government expense, had unintended consequences,
  and was unsuccessful
• Provided educational and business assistance
• Impact on the economic development of the
  reservation and the brain drain
• By 1965, 1/3rd to 1/4th returned to the
  reservation

19
Collective Action

• Pan-Indianism
• Refers to intertribal social movements in which
  several tribes joined by political goals but not
  by kinship, unite in a common identity
• Most vividly seen in cultural efforts and
  political protests
• National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
• Founded in 1944 in Denver, Colorado
• 1st national organization representing Native
  Americans and has a political role

20

• American Indian Movement (AIM)
• Founded in 1968 by Clyde Bellecourt and Dennis
  Banks in Minneapolis, MN
• More radical and created a patrol to monitor
  police actions and document charges of police
  brutality
• Fish-ins
• Began in 1964 to protest interference by
  Washington State officials with Native Americans
  who were fishing
• 1969 Alcatraz takeover by Francisco Indian Center
• Red Power movement

21

• Alaska Native Settlement Act (1971)
• Claim of land rights by Inuit Eskimos and other
  Aleuts
• Alaskan Federation of Natives (AFN)
• Native Claims Settlement Act (1971)
• Battle of Wounded Knee II
• Most dramatic confrontation between Native
  Americans and government recently
• PowWows (Pau Wau)
• Referred to the medicine man or spiritual leader
  of the Algonquian tribes but Europeans used word
  to refer to entire events

22
Sovereignty

• While collaborative action gathering cannot be
  minimized, there continues to be a strong effort
  to maintain tribal sovereignty or tribal
  self-rule
• Sovereignty remains linked to both the actions of
  the federal government and the actions of
  individual American Indians
• Government determines which tribes are recognized
  and self-declaration carries no legal recognition

23
Native Americans Today

• Public insult is the continuing use of American
  Indian names as mascots for athletic teams
• Native American population is split between those
  on and off reservations and those living in small
  towns and central cities
• Economic Development
• High rate of unemployment and poverty
• Overall unemployment is more than 30
• Among those with jobs, 1/3rd earned less than
  10,000

24

• Tourism and the double edged sword
• source of income but also a source of degradation
• Indian Arts and Crafts Act
• Severely punishes anyone who offers to sell an
  object as produced by a Native American artisan
  when it was not
• Cottage industries
• Income from mineral rights

25
Casino Gambling

• Recent source of significant income and some
  employment
• Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988)
• States must negotiate gambling agreements with
  reservations and cannot prohibit any gambling
  already allowed under state law
• Gaming money
• supports tribal members, is used to buy back
  tribal lands, and help underwrite cost of the
  Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian opened
  in 2004

26

• Tribes that have opened up casinos experienced
  drops in unemployment and increases in household
  income
• Three important factors
• Tribes do pay taxes
• Nationwide, economic and social impact of
  gambling revenue is limited
• Tribes that make substantial revenue are a small
  fraction of all Native American people
• Even on the reservations that benefit from
  gambling enterprises, levels of unemployment are
  substantially higher and family income
  significantly lower than for the nation as a whole

27

• Another major source of employment for Native
  Americans is the government
• BIA, federal agencies, military, and state and
  local governments
• Dominant feature of reservation life is
  unemployment
• Also high for urban-based Native Americans
• Unemployment statistics range from 23 to 90

28
Native American Education

• Dropout rate is at least 50 higher than that of
  Blacks or Hispanics and three times that of
  Whites
• Many found their educational experience so
  hostile that they had no choice but to leave
• Kickout/Pushout
• More appropriate terms experience of Native
  Americans with school system
• Result of predominance of non-Native American
  teachers that do not recognize Native American
  learning styles

29

• Problems in Native American Education include
• Under-enrollment at all levels, from primary
  grades through college
• The need to adjust to a school with values
  sometimes dramatically different from those of
  the home
• The need to make the curriculum more relevant
• The under-financing of tribal community colleges
• The unique hardships encountered by
  reservation-born Native Americans who later live
  in and attend schools in large cities
• The language barrier faced by the many children
  who have little or no knowledge of English

30
Healthcare

• High rate of
• 1. Alcoholism and mortality
• 2. Under nutrition
• 3. Tuberculosis and death
• 4. High rate of teenage suicide
• 5. High rate of reported crime
• 6. High rate of poverty and few job opportunities
• Lack of access to health care resources

31
Religious and Spiritual Expression

• American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed by
  Congress in 1978
• Act contains no penalties and enforcement
  provisions
• Concern with stockpiling Native American relics,
  including burial remains
• Increasingly seeking return of ancestors remains
  and artifacts
• Native American Church - ritualistic use of
  peyote and marijuana

32
Environment

• Concerns
• Environmental literature stereotypes of native
  people as the last defense against encroachment
  of civilization
• Many environmental issues rooted in continuing
  land disputes arising from treaties and
  agreements more than a century old
• Environmental issues reinforce the tendency to
  treat the first inhabitants of the Americas as
  inferior
• Environmental concerns by American Indians often
  are balanced against economic development needs,
  just as in the larger society
• Spiritual needs must be balanced against demands
  on the environment

33

• CERT was formed in 1976 - Council of Energy
  Resource Tribes
• Consisted of twenty-five of the Wests largest
  tribes
• Other tribes were added later
• Purpose to protect and develop tribal natural
  resources such as natural gas
• Environmental justice

34
Questions
35

• How have land rights been a continuing theme in
  White-Native American contact?

36

• Identify three policies or actions taken by the
  federal government that have significant impact
  today in the daily lives of Native Americans?

37

• How much are Native Americans expected to shed
  their cultural heritage to become part of
  contemporary society?

38

• Do Casinos and other gaming outlets represent a
  positive force for Native American tribes today?

39

• What challenges are there to reservation
  residents receiving effective health care?

40

• Why would it be difficult for a Native American
  child attending schools focused on the dominant
  culture write on the significance of Thanksgiving
  Day or Columbus Day.

41

• Is the governments refusal to encourage business
  development among reservations an attempt at
  forced assimilation? Why or Why not?