Indian Self-Determination Act

Extermination

Native American lands were obtained by the U.S. government in a variety of ways, including betrayal of trust as expressed in formal treaties. As settlers expanded their land interests and Native Americans were in the way, the U.S. government engaged Indians in a number of treaties that were eventually revoked or ignored to gain control over Indian lands. Initially, many of the treaties allowed Indians to exclusively occupy vast areas of land that provided them with subsistent hunting and gathering, and seasonal or wandering encampments. In exchange for their land, the Indians were granted peace. When settlers wanted and encroached upon these additional lands, the U.S. government failed to enforce the treaties and used troops to force native inhabitants into relinquishing their lands. In addition, the troops and settlers destroyed Indian assets and food sources such as the buffalo.

Allotment and Assimilation

The U.S. government began a policy of placing Indians on reservations and gave individual Indians parcels of land in an effort to transition them into independent farmers and to keep them out of the way of settlers. The allotment and assimilation era began in 1871 and was marked by refusal by Congress to deal with Indian tribes as separate and sovereign nations. In 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, which divided reservation land into family plots; the titles to these lots were held in trust by the U.S. government. It, indeed, may be that dividing [Page 383]reservation land into plots was the only way to protect it from White divestiture. Even so, the parcels of land and life within the reservations were very poor, and the best tracts of land ended up in White hands. In addition to dividing up and privatizing Indian land, other policies sought to wipe out native languages and stamp out tribal cultures.

Native people who refused to be placed upon reservations or who engaged in resistance were hunted down by U.S. troops and returned to the reservations by force. In some noteworthy cases, there were massacres of Indian women and children. Indian resistance was effectively quashed by 1890, and the “Indian Wars” ended.

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