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This
peaceful accord between the
U.S.
government and the Native Americans did not last long. After
hearing tales of fertile land and a great mineral wealth in
the West, the government soon broke their promises established
in the Treat of Fort Laramie by allowing thousands of
non-Indians to flood into the area. With so many newcomers
moving west, the federal government established a policy of
restricting Native Americans to reservations, small areas of
land within a group’s territory that was reserved
exclusively for their use, in order to provide more land for
the non-Indian settlers. In
a series of new treaties the
U.S.
government forced Native Americans to give up their land and
move to reservations in exchange for protection from attacks
by white settlers. In addition, the Indians were given a
yearly payment that would include money in addition to food,
livestock, household goods and farming tools.
These
reservations were created in an attempt to clear the way for
increased
U.S.
expansion and involvement in the West, as well as to keep the
Native Americans separate from the whites in order to reduce
the potential for conflict.
These
agreements had many problems. Most importantly many of the
native peoples did not completely understand the document that
they were signing or the conditions within it; moreover, the
treaties did not consider the cultural practices of the Native
Americans. In
addition to this, the government agencies responsible for
administering these policies were irked with poor management
and corruption, in fact many treaty provisions were never
carried out.  The
U.S.
government rarely completed their side of the agreements even
when the Native Americans moved quietly to their reservations.
Dishonest bureau agents often sold the supplies that
were intended for the Indians on reservations to non-Indians.
Moreover, as settlers demanded more land in the West,
the federal government continually reduced the size of the
reservations. By
this time, many of the Native American peoples were
dissatisfied with the treaties and angered by the settlers’
constant demands for land.
Angered
by the government’s dishonest and unfair policies, several
Native American groups, including groups of
Cheyennes, Arapahos, Comanches and Sioux, fought back.
As they fought to protect their lands and their
tribes’ survival, more than one thousand skirmishes and
battles broke out in the West between 1861 and 1891.
In an attempt to force Native Americans onto the
reservations and to end the violence, the
U.S.
government responded to these hostilities with costly military
campaigns. Clearly
the
U.S.
government’s Indian policies were in need of a change.
 Native
American policy changed drastically after the Civil War.
Reformers felt that the policy of forcing Native
Americans onto reservations was too harsh while
industrialists, who were concerned about their land and
resources, viewed assimilation, the cultural absorption of the
American Indians into “white
America
” as the sole long-term method of ensuring Native American
survival. In 1871
the federal government passed a pivotal law stating that the United States
would no longer treat Native American groups as independent
nations. This
legislation signaled a drastic shift in the government’s
relationship with the native peoples- Congress now deemed the
Native Americans, not as nations outside of jurisdictional
control, but as wards of the government.
By making Native Americans wards of the
U.S.
government, Congress believed that it would be easier to make
the policy of assimilation a widely accepted part of the
cultural mainstream of America.
 Many
U.S.
government officials viewed assimilation as the most effective
solution to what they deemed “the Indian problem,” and the
only long-term method of insuring
U.S.
interests in the West and the survival of the American
Indians. In order
to accomplish this, the government urged Native Americans to
move out of their traditional dwellings, move into wooden
houses and become farmers.
The federal government passed laws that forced Native
Americans to abandon their traditional appearance and way of
life. Some laws
outlawed traditional religious practices while others ordered
Indian men to cut their long hair.
Agents on more than two-thirds of American Indian
reservations established courts to enforce federal regulations
that often prohibited traditional cultural and religious
practices. To speed the assimilation process, the government
established Indian schools that attempted to quickly and
forcefully Americanize Indian children. According to the
founder of the
Carlisle
Indian
School
in
Pennsylvania, the schools were created to “kill the indian and save the
man.” In order
to accomplish this goal, the schools forced students to speak
only English, wear proper American clothing and to replace
their Indian names with more “American” ones.
These new policies brought Native Americans closer to
the end of their traditional tribal identity and the beginning
of their existence as citizens under the complete control of
the U.S.
government.
 In
1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, the most
important component of the
U.S.
government’s assimilation program, which was created to
“civilize” American Indians by teaching them to be
farmers. In order to accomplish this, Congress wanted to
establish private ownership of Indian land by dividing
reservations, which were collectively owned, and giving each
family their own plot of land.
In addition to this, by forcing the Native Americans
onto small plots of land, western developers and settlers
could purchase the remaining land.
The General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Act,
required that the Indian lands be surveyed and each family be
given an allotment of between 80 and 160 acres, while
unmarried adults received between 40 to 80 acres; the
remaining land was to be sold.
Congress hoped that the Dawes Act would break up Indian
tribes and encourage individual enterprise, while reducing the
cost of Indian administration and providing prime land to be
sold to white settlers.
The
Dawes Act proved to be disastrous for the American Indians;
over the next decades they lived under policies that outlawed
their traditional way of life but failed to provide the
necessary resources to support their businesses and families.
Dividing the reservations into smaller parcels of land
led to the significant reduction of Indian-owned land.
Within thirty years, the tribes had lost over
two-thirds of the territory that they had controlled before
the Dawes Act was passed in 1887; the majority of the
remaining land was sold to white settlers.
Frequently, Native Americans were cheated out of their
attolments or were forced to sell their land in order pay
bills and feed their families.
As a result, the Indians were not “Americanized”
and were often unable to become self-supporting farmers and
ranchers, as the makers of the policy had wished.
It also produced resentment among Indians for the
U.S.
government, as the allotment process often destroyed land that
was the spiritual and cultural center of their lives.
Between
1850 and 1900, life for Native Americans changed drastically.
Through
U.S.
government policies, American Indians were forced from their
homes as their native lands were parceled out.
The Plains, which they had previously roamed alone,
were now filled with white settlers.
Over these years the Indians had been cheated out of
their land, food and way of life, as the federal
government’s Indian policies forced them onto reservations
and attempted to “Americanize” them.
Many American Indian groups did not survive relocation,
assimilation and military defeat; by 1890 the Native American
population was reduced to fewer than 250,000 people.
Due to decades of discriminatory and corrupt policies
instituted by the
United States
government between 1850 and 1900, life for the American
Indians was changed forever.
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Other articles by
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Stereotyping
of the Irish Immigrant in 19th Century Periodicals by Christine
Haug |
