American Indian History Notes #8

When did native american assimilation end?

Assimilation and the Reservation Years: 

Post War Reform: 

∙ Congress reformed Indian policy after Sand Creek (1864) – US Indian Peace  Commission

∙ Independent Indians encouraged to sign treaties, move to reservations, receive schooling ∙ Promised rations, medical care, annuities for lands

o Medical care wasn’t the best

o Wanted Indians to become controllable

Coerion: 

∙ Army drove Indians onto reservations by hiring bison hunters

∙ Only 5,000 bison by 1895

∙ Resident doctors and agents often incompetent Tuberculosis, malnutrition was common ∙ Agents kept annuities from presents who wouldn’t send children to school ∙ Congress asserted jurisdiction with Major Crimes Act (1885)

What was the dawes act in simple terms?

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o Plenary Power

The Dawes Act: 

∙ Reformers hate reservations; want to make Indians landowners

∙ 1887 Dawes Act gave 160-acres allotments to adults. Rest of land sold by Interior  Department

∙ 1887-1934: Indians lost 90 million acres

∙ Trust Allotments often leased to companies that stripped resources

Peyotism and Ghost Dance: 

∙ 1880’s reservation Indians sought new sources of power

∙ Some became Christians, retaining older deities

∙ Plains Indians created Native Americans church: Christian morality plus peyote ∙ 1889 Wovoka (Paiute) announced God would restore world whose ancestors still alive ∙ Indians to adopt moral code and Ghost Dance

What happened at wounded knee?

The Wounded Knee: 

∙ Ghost Dancers spread faith using P.O. and freight trains

∙ 1890, after annuities reduced, many Lakotas made medicine shirts, performed Ghost  Dance Don't forget about the age old question of Why is allen ginsberg important?

∙ Army killed several hundred surrendering Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee (Dec 29) Boarding Schools and Pan-Indianism: 

∙ At boarding schools students learned English, civics, manual skills

∙ Some find work on reservations – writers, teachers doctors

∙ Farm friendship with Indians from other nations

Early Indian Activism and Playing Indian: 

Boarding Schools and Pan-Indianism:

∙ Boarding – Schools students learned English civics skills ∙ Formed friendships and networks with Indians from other nations

Society of American Indians: 

∙ Carlisle graduates formed SAI 1911  

o Did get some cases into land claims (1946)

∙ Progressives – favor assimilation, education

∙ Wanted Indian Citizenship and land-claims court

∙ Had about 230 members; folded/disbanded 1923 If you want to learn more check out How are ridges different from valleys?

New Movements: 

∙ Some Indians (10,000) serve in WW1; some opposed draft

∙ 1924 Congress granted citizenship to American Indians

∙ American Indian Defense Association defended Pueblos against land seizure 1922-23 ∙ Meriam Report (1926-28) described failure of federal Indian policy o Included phone operators

o Choctaws (Code Talkers)

White Men Playing Indian: 

∙ 1780 – 1850’s whites form Tammany Society, Improved order of Red Men, New  Confederacy

∙ Feasts, Indian costumes, “Indians” ranks for members

∙ Present Indians as exotic, vanished race; so did novels like Last of the Mohicans

Indians as Timeless or Children: 

∙ Lewis Morgan created modern anthropology If you want to learn more check out What ways is the social construction of gender the foundation of the oppression of women and transgender people via sexism, patriarchy and misogyny?
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∙ Saw Indians as unchanging; assimilated Indian not “real”

∙ 1890’s civic leaders created summer camp movement for urban youth – Campfire Girls, Woodcraft Indians

∙ Teach craft skills, “Indian songs” – Identify Indianness with childhood