Thesis: Policies and actions in the United States were purposefully put in place and carried out to diminish Native American culture.
When put in place, the Dawes Severalty Act weakened tribal structure of Native Americans on reservations. The Information from the commentary part of this source states that the United States unjustly allotted and sold land. It asserts the fact that “The land the government ‘gave’ to the Native Americans was not the government’s to give. It is the same land it took from the tribes.” [ic.galegroup.com] Not only by doing this was the government minimizing the Native Americans, but it was taking away their land. Many U.S. citizens did not think this act was wrong and they “genuinely believed they were doing the Native Americans a favor by forcing them to abandon the only way of life they had ever known.” [ic.galegroup.com]
This source is an excerpt from a State of the Union Message given by Theodore Roosevelt towards the beginning of his presidency. He spoke about his opinion of many government acts including the Dawes Severalty Act where he stated that “The Indian should be treated as an individual—like the white man. During the change of treatment inevitable hardships will occur.” Many people in the United States wanted to disregard the Native Americans and they thought the way to do this was to treat them as if they were no different.
Information in this source is all factual. It is very informative and includes data about how the lives of Native Americans were affected after this act was implemented. I agree with this source when it states, “Although in some areas a brief period of prosperity followed the implementation of the Dawes Act, its long-term effects were devastating to Native American cultural institutions and to reservation economies.” This act turned native reservations into pieces of land that could be sold and the land was allotted to individuals as opposed to tribes. It had a large negative impact on Native American lives because it decreased their land and their tribal communities.
All of these three sources have similar information about The Dawes Severalty Act. My first source contains an excerpt from the actual act and provides commentary that discusses the thoughts and mindsets of many citizens in the country at the time. It stated that they thought they were doing right. The second proof is an excerpt from the State of the Union Message delivered by Theodore Roosevelt which provides the point of view of a government official. They thought that the culture and way of life of the Native Americans was wrong and through this act, their lives would become better. My last proof just states what the act was, and that it was harsh to Native Americans.
Because of the Dawes Severalty Act, Native Americans lives changed for the worse as their culture was diminished.
The new policies affecting the Native Americans on the Standing Rock reservations, not only intrude on their land but affects their quality of life. As stated in The Atlantic article there are a lot of problems regarding the culture and lives of Sioux at the Standing Rock Reservation. The Dakota Access Pipeline began construction on a major archeological site and the people on the reservation were not informed of its approval. According to a Standing Rock Sioux member, the surveys that DAPL used was outdated when he says that after “reviewing DAPL’s survey work, it appears that they did not independently survey this area but relied on a 1985 survey.” [The Atlantic] It is likely that the DAPL members used the old survey to their advantage because it would be beneficial to the construction of the pipeline, even though it would interfere with Native Land. The area that the pipeline would go through will be devastating to the reservation’s only water source and sacred land. The Sioux Tribe presented documents to the court arguing “that the pipeline will pass through and likely destroy Native burial sites and sacred places.” [The Atlantic] There are documents that prove it is likely that a very respected leader is buried near the construction site and it is probable that some of the important features have been ruined. The Dakota Access Pipeline easement process has been very difficult for the Sioux Tribe at the Standing Rock Reservation. The Sioux Tribe have had a lot of support from other tribal nations and protesters against the DAPL easement. In August of 2016, over 500 people went to Washington, D.C. in support of the Sioux Tribe. In early September, while waiting for the easement ruling, “Dakota Access bulldozed an area of the pipeline corridor filled with Tribal sacred sites and burials that had been identified to the Court just the previous day. Demonstrators trying to prevent the destruction of the sacred site were pepper sprayed and attacked by guard dogs.” [Earthjustice] This is an example of current discrimination against Native Americans. The protesters were fighting and standing up against wrong, only to be further mistreated. On December 4, 2016, the Dakota Access Corporation was denied the easement for the DAPL construction. When this occurred, Earthjustice attorney, Jan Hasselman, who represented the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe stated this after the easement was revoked: “Today is a historic day both for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and for indigenous people everywhere. This pipeline should never have been routed near these sacred lands in the first place, and it absolutely never should have received permits without a thorough and meaningful discussion of the risks and benefits to affected Indian Tribes.” [Earthjustice] The denial of this easement was a very significant historical moment for native peoples. Historically, Native Americans have been disregarded of basic rights, and they had finally won while protecting their land. However, after the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, on February 8, 2017, the easement was issued and construction began again. Many acts against Native Americans were in the past, but this current fight against the easement of a pipeline, only proves that Native Americans, their culture, and their lives aren’t important to our current administration or big oil companies. Time and time again, Native Americans have been treated with disregard by the government. From being forced to move into assigned territories to now the natives at Standing Rock being denied their sole water source, the government’s respect–or lack of–is appalling. Because of the easement of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the life and culture of the Sioux Tribe of the Standing Rock Reservation have been weakened.
The Peace Policy, put in place by President Ulysses S. Grant, was supposed to bring peace in the country, but it ridded the culture of the Natives. At the time, the Secretary of the Interior James Cox, along with other government officials, believed that westward expansion and the civilization in the west couldn’t happen with “hostile tribes” on the land. Many people thought they were a danger and to prevent that, there needed to be a change in their lifestyle. The Peace Policy would “encourage them in civilization” by teaching them agriculture and giving them “clothing adapted to their new mode of life.” [Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior] James Cox attempts to justify his statements by stating that the government can “even for a time, leave a large part of them out of the operation of our system.” By doing this, he is implying that it was okay to change and take away their only lifestyle they had known and replace it with something very different. This shows that many white Americans felt as if they were inferior to the Natives and had the right to take away the lives they had known.
A quote from Clifford Trafzer summarizes what the Peace Policy was, and that Christian Americans believed that they were superior to all other people. “In reality the [peace] policy rested on the belief that Americans had the right to dispossess Native peoples of their lands, take away freedoms, and send them to reservations, where missionaries would teach them how to farm, read and write, wear Euro-American clothing, and embrace Christianity. If Indians refused to move to reservations, they would be forced off their homelands by soldiers.” Native Americans were treated with hostility and were taught to completely change themselves for the satisfaction of the white man.
When Ulysses S. Grant was running for president he used the slogan “Let us have peace.” When he said this, he was referring to having peace from the Native Americans. He and many other Americans, believed that Native American tribes and white citizens could not live in accord so he put in place the Peace Policy. The Peace Policy would grant them citizenship as the would become more civilized through the programs of the policy. The main goal was to have the Native Americans assimilate into society by having Protestants, Catholics, or Quakers teach them a new way of life.
The Peace Policy was derived from the fear that Native Americans and American citizens could not live peacefully. Instead of eradicated them, Grant and other government officials thought it would be best to change their way of living by making them good Christians and they would become citizens. This act was extremely detrimental to Native Americans because it actually caused the Natives to lose their culture.
The Peace Policy is an example of a government policy that stripped Native Americans of their culture.
The Indian Removal Act of 1930 completely changed the lives of thousands of Native Americans when it forced them to move west of the Mississippi River.
The Indian Removal Act was “forced-emigration process” that demanded of Native American tribes to move to new lands. It was considered an “exchange of lands”, however it wasn’t the United States’ land to be exchanging. In the official act, it states that “such lands shall revert to the United States, if the Indians become extinct, or abandon the same.” I believe that this implies that the U.S. was acting as if all of the land was theirs to begin with.
President Andrew Jackson was a main contributor to the Indian Removal Act. He believed by forcing Native Americans to move into western lands, this act “would protect Native American tribes from the negative influences of white culture.” Not only were the tribes affected by this act unjustly persecuted, but they were also promised a year’s worth of supplies and financial compensation, however it wasn’t taken into account that the environment of their new land was different from what they were used to.
This source explains that not only were Native Americans forced to move, but were treated very poorly when it states that “people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.”
The Indian Removal Act was very harmful to Native Americans. Not only did they suffer but so did their culture. This evidence proves that with this act in place, Native Americans and their culture were treated with total disregard.
The Indian Removal Act is an example of a government policy that stripped Native Americans of their culture.
The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871, gave more power to the government when it considered Native peoples as individuals instead of tribes.
When this source states that, “Like other groups throughout history, Native Americans were viewed through prejudiced eyes. They were considered inferior to whites and were treated unfairly,” this helps explain why the United States Government, unfairly put the Indian Appropriations Act in place. “In order to entice white citizens and immigrants to risk everything they owned to settle in the western territories, the government needed something to offer, so it offered land for a very low price, or completely free. But those lands were already occupied by Native Americans who had lived there for many generations.”
The Indian Appropriations Act ended treaty-making between Native American tribes and the U.S. Government. “This statute deprived Native Americans of one of the basic rights in the common law: the right of free choice of counsel for the redress of injuries.”
Native Americans all existed in tribes and this act stated that no tribe can negotiate a treaty. “Provided, That hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty.”
The Indian Appropriations Act supports my thesis because it was an example of a policy that was harmful to Native Americans. The United States government sold land for almost nothing that belonged to different native tribes.
The Indian Appropriations Act is an example of a government policy that stripped Native Americans of their culture.
Because of constant policies and acts involving Native Americans, they changed from being free people, to being forced to live on a specific land with fewer rights.
Before contact with europeans Native Americans were free to live however they want to. Now, their lives on reservations are very difficult. Even “comparable to Third World.” (May 5, 2004, Gallup Independent). There is a major lack of housing and jobs for the people living on reservations.
Prior to contact with Europeans, some Native Americans were nomadic, some settled by streams or rivers, and others both settled down and moved. All Native Americans were very resourceful and grew crops and hunted and used animals not just for eating, but for clothes, blankets, and tools.
“Along with the nomadic bison hunting popularized in the movies, Native Americans engaged in raiding, trading, pastoralism, agriculture, diplomacy, politics, religious innovation and syncretism, warfare, migration, wage labor, lawsuits, lobbying, and gaming.
Through these adaptive strategies, the Plains peoples worked to protect and enhance their political power and their ability to sustain themselves economically, and to maintain their cultural distinctiveness.”
The Native Americans had to endure a lot of struggle and change as different policies made their lives more difficult.
Native American culture changed a lot from prior to any contact with Europeans to countless policies forcing them to change their lives. These examples of Native American culture help show how their culture has changed.
These examples of Native American culture, show how it has diminished through the years.