Federal action

• Manifest Destiny

  • Government encouraged settlement and brought settlers into conflict with NA
  • Governments believed it encouraged to make grants of land across the Plains
  • 1862- Pacific Railway Act- allowed companies to build railways
• Many white settlers believed that Native Americans way of life was at odds with their own

  • They believed they were uncivilised
  • Government allowed NA the right to determine what happened to their land - ended in 1871
  • Government attempted to assimilate them
  • wanted to destroy their tribal structures
  • Their nomadic lifestyle was alien to them
• Impact of reservations

  Government believed that putting NA on reservations would end their nomadic lifestyle

  • Allowed the government to control them
  • Easier for government to educate them
  • After 1871- government pursued a more aggressive policy of assimilation
• Allotment policy

  • Defeat of Custer made some American politicians realise the unrest of reservations
  • Dawes Act 1887- introduced the allotment policy- reservation lands were divided into homesteads
  • Act continued to ignore tribal life
  • Improved rights to some extent
• Policy of termination 1953

  • Government realised the other policies failed
  • Lands of NA were wanted by mining and forestry companies
  • To end the reservation system , government gave them same rights as citizens
  • ended the reservation system and NA were encouraged to relocate , they were offered accommodation and helping to find work
• Economic climate had an impact

  • Before 1865: government established reservations as it attempted to secure land to the unrest of Mississippi- failed to provide aid And cost of Civil war meant reservations were receiving less money
  • Late 1880s: meat subsidies to Sioux were stopped due to financial demands
  • WW2: reversing many gains of New Deal. NA found that financial resources were allocated to war
  • 1980s: programmes introduced depended on federal funding - native capitalism
• Impact of Roosevelt

  • John Collier: helped to form the American Indian Defense Association . Appointed as Commissioner for Indian Affairs- reforms
  • Indian Reorganisation Act 1934
• Presidency of Nixon

  • Educational provision for NA improved via 1972 Indian Education Act
  • NA nations regained recognition and rights- allowed them access to courts
  • Pledge to restore lost lands
  • Louis B Bruce Jr was appointed commissionner for Indian Affairs and a policy of affirmative action was pursued
• Presidency of Ford

  • Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975- set out the process by which tribes could take responsibility for their own education, health and social care
  • Indian Education Assistance Act of 1975- allowed NA to have much greater involvement in their children’s educational process
• Presidency of Carter

  • Native American Religious Freedom Act of 1978- gave NA the right to follow their traditional, religion and use both their sacred objects and rituals
  • Indian Child Welfare Act 1978- attempted to regulate the forced removal of NA children from their families
• Lone Wolf v Hitchcock 1903


  Support of NA rights

  Increasingly mor active
• What happened to the land returned to Native Americans during westward expansion?

  It was smaller and less suited for their life
• What actions did the federal government take in the 19th century regarding treaties with Native Americans?

  They broke treaties for settlers and railways
• What was the determination of Native Americans during westward expansion?

  To prevent being assimilated into American culture
• In what year did the Cherokees challenge Congress regarding their rights?

  1902
• What did the Cherokees challenge in 1902?

  Congress's right to deny their laws
• Who signed a treaty with the government in 1867?

  Lone Wolf along with the Comanches
• What did Lone Wolf and the Comanches challenge regarding the government in 1903?

  The government's right to ignore the treaty
• What was the outcome of the challenge by Lone Wolf and the Comanches regarding treaties?

  It upheld Congress's right to revoke treaties
• Arizona Supreme Court ruling of 1948


  Country recorder, Laveen, refused to let some NA to register to vote

  They successfully challenged as a result to National Congress of American Indians and the American Civil Liberties Union

  Restrictions in the West
• Significance of National Congress of American Indians in 1944

  • Group of educated NA pressure groups that would play an important role in extending rights
  • To involve ordinary NA in the struggle to shop the end of the reservations
  • 1960s- court faced with more challenged via Red Power movement to restore their native sovereignty
• Impact of Native American Rights Fund

  • Put pressure on the Supreme Court to protect NA culture
  • Reinstating their tribes that had been terminated
  • Restoring tribal sovereignty and tribal laws
  • Having the right to vote
• 1974 Oneida v Oneida and Madison counties NY


  Tribe sued for the return of their lands

  • SC ruled in favour of Sioux
• 1986 Charrier v Bell


  SC ruled that remains dug from burial grounds in Louisiana belonged to NA

  • States passed laws which protected Native American burial lands
• 1976 Fisher v Montana

  • NA children had been forcibly removed from families
  • This meant that in the future tribal courts would decide adoption
  • Further move towards the recognition of tribal courts
• 1980 US v Sioux Nation

  • Sioux was entitled to compensation for the loss of their lands - encouraged others to do as well
  • Awarded $17.5 million and 5% interest a year
  • Gave them $106 million
  • They rejected it and wanted the return of their land
• 1982 Seminole Tribe v Butterworth

  • Gave Seminole the right to establish gambling enterprises on tribal land
  • Went against state law
  • Ruled that NA had their own rights on their own land
• Impact of Red Power: 1971 Occupation of Mount Rushmore

  • Attempt to reassert disputed ownership
  • AIM protestors renamed it Mount Crazy Horse below Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt
• Impact of Red Power: 1972 AIM took over Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC

  • Arrival of Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan - buses, cars and vans carrying 1000 protesters
  • Raise awareness of the NA suffering as a result to unjust treatment
  • Protesters found no accommodation- occupied offices
  • Violence broke out
• Impact of Red Power: 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee

  • Protest rose following allegations of the suspected financial dealings of the president of the Reservation and his maltreatment of its Indian inhabitants
  • Violent occupation lasted 71 days
  • All over the media across USA
  • Ended with a negotiated settlement
  • Two leaders were arrested
• Herbert Hoover ( Republican )

  • Appointed Charles Rhoads as Indian Commissionner
  • Helping went against his laissez-faire attitude
  • Continued assimilation policy
  • Offered federal assistance on reservations during Great Depression
• Franklin D Roosevelt

  • Acknowledged Hoover’s failure to fundamentally review the shortcomings in US gov
  • Appointed John Collier as Indian Affairs Commissioner
  • Sympathetic But no laws
• John F Kennedy

  • Pledged to help, but little evidence
  • Created a task-force in 1961 to investigate and report on future Indian policy
  • Only Few policies implemented
  • Congress obstructed his attempts to end termination policy
  • Additional funding for their education
• Lyndon B Johnson

  • Spoke to Congress about Forgotten Americans and failure of assimilation
  • Sympathetic
  • Set out a programme of self help and respect
  • Proposed a National Cloud Indian opportunity to organise and fund far reaching programme of education
• Richard Nixon

  • Appointed Louis B Bruce Jnr , a Mohawk-Sioux as Commissioner for Indian Affairs in 1969
  • Spoke to Congress about oppression and brutalisation
  • Suggested need for emergence of NA leader
  • Indian Education Act 1972
  • Midterm resistance prevented further reform
• Gerald Ford

  • Indian Self Determination Act
  • Indian Education Act
  • Followed Nixon’s work
• Ronald Reagan

  • Native capitalism- population establishing to reduce the financial burden
  • Those on reservations encouraged to start small businesses to provide employment
  • Reservations were exempt from federal gaming laws and casinos were built to generate income