Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Assimilation of native Americans
Us government treatment on the natives
Westward expansion and indian removal
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Assimilation of native Americans
Native Americans experienced extreme lifestyle changes between 1860 and 1900 due to the Indian Wars, the US government’s not knowing what to do with the uprooted population, and the ‘white man’s burden’. Due to manifest destiny, the removal and containment of Native Americans was an easy decision for the US Government to make, but a nearly detrimental one for all of the tribes involved. The Indian Wars were the most logical outcome due to the mindset of the US in the early 19th century. The US believed Indians had a ‘carelessness’ towards the land, ignoring small pieces while roaming around large pieces of land. Indians believed in the natural right to roam a region rather than the westernized idea of owning parcels of land. The US also justified …show more content…
Part of the reason this passed was because without the Indians controlling the land and roaming freely, the US was free to spread out and do as they pleased (expansion wise). Another reason was because of the white man’s constant need to ‘save’ the Indian. They believed that moving them away from settlers and onto reservations would avoid conflict, despite the fact that the settlers were moving onto the Indians’ land. In 1887, the Dawes General Allotment Act was passed by Henry L. Dawes who, at the time, was chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. He believed that in order for the Indian to be properly assimilated, they had to ‘forget’ everything about their past culture. Dawes felt that if the Indian didn’t assimilate, didn’t completely separate themselves from who they used to be, they were doomed to a life of savagery and death. His feelings were later mirrored by Carl Schurz, a German immigrant who practiced law. He originally was not a major backer of pushing the Indians off their land, but later changed his views due to 19th-century reformers. He became a strong proponent for assimilation and made strong pushes while serving as secretary of the interior, such as not allowing Native religions to sway who became reservation agents (Gorman, 2013, p. …show more content…
Nine years later, an army officer by the name of Richard Pratt opened up the first boarding school for Native American youth in Carlisle, PA. His motto was ‘kill the Indian, save the man.’ (Stout, 2012, p. xvi). It was the first of its kind, even having before and after pictures taken of the students to showcase their transformations into proper westerners. There was to be no representation of Native culture at any point in order to be properly assimilated into US culture, according to the Carlisle School. The government thought it was ‘saving’ the youth, providing them with a proper, western, protestant-catholic education. Many more schools started to appear on the horizon, following the teaching methods of Richard Pratt. By the early 1900’s, there were twenty-five federally funded schools devoted to Indian education. They didn’t take into account was the fact that after all of the previous tragedy, ripping away children from their families only to attempt to strip away their identities wouldn’t be an easy task. Many of the experiences would be described as harsh, especially for the younger children. Initially, a lot of the students were children of Indian leaders, or prominent figures. The US felt that educating these children and keeping them from their parents would keep those communities pacified. Many women were forcibly removed as well in order to train them to be proper housewives
In the 1950s and 1960s, the government began abolishing the compulsory residential school education among Aboriginal people. The government believed that Aboriginal children could receive a better education if they were integrated into the public school system (Hanson). However, residential schools were later deemed inappropriate because not only were the children taken away from their culture, their families and their people, but the majority of students were abus...
It had previously been the policy of the American government to remove and relocate Indians further and further west as the American population grew, but there was only so much...
As the frontier moved west, white settlers wanted to expand into territory, which was the ancestral land of many Indian tribes. Although this had been going on since the administration of George Washington, during the administration of Andrew Jackson the government supported the policy of resettlement, and persuaded many tribes to give up their claim to their land and move into areas set aside by Congress as Indian Territory. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Resettlement Act, which provided for the removal of Indians to territory west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson was President, the government negotiated 94 treaties to end Indian titles to land in the existing states.
On February 8, 1887, the United States Congress decided to pass the Dawes Act also known as the General Allotment Act. The Dawes Act was named after its writer Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts. The congressmen who sought to pass and enforce the Dawes Act aimed at pushing the Native Americans into assimilation at a high pace. The reformers of the act also expected Native Americans owning private property to build a foundation on which the natives could support themselves and their families (Stremlau, 265). The Act allowed the President of the United States to break up Indian reservation land into 160 acre allotments, and divide it out among each individual Native American. The Dawes Act Stated, “To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; and to each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, one-sixteenth of a section…” (PBS-Archive of the West). The act also determined which tribal lands were too allotted. Tribes such as the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and many mo...
- In 1879, Indian reformer Captain Richard H. Pratt opened the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. He believed removing children from their communities would eradicate their heritage and enable them to assimilate into American life. Spotted Tail, a Brule chief, had agreed to send some of his offspring to the
Beginning in the 1860s and lasting until the late 1780s, government policy towards Native Americans was aggressive and expressed zero tolerance for their presence in the West. In the last 1850s, tribal leaders and Americans were briefly able to compromise on living situations and land arrangements. Noncompliance by Americans, however, resumed conflict. The beginning of what would be called the "Indian Wars" started in Minnesota in 1862. Sioux, angered by the loss of much of their land, killed 5 white Americans. What resulted was over 1,000 deaths, of white and Native Americans. From that point on, American policy was to force Indians off of their land. American troops would force Indian tribe leaders to accept treaties taking their land from them. Protests or resistance by the Indians would result in fighting. On occasion, military troops would even lash out against peaceful Indians. Their aggression became out of control.
Starting with the opening of the Carlisle Indian industria school in pennsyvania in 1879 native Americans boarding schools have historically played a large roles instriping redfinesing and discovering native American identity. During this early period of the bording schools the united states government established sevel schools as foligations under American Indian treaties. The earliestboareing schools for native American children were run by government paid religious associations with the goal to save the sole of native American children by having them assimunlate to eropean American views values and relgion. President grant himself said that the single major objective of the Indian educational system was “ the civilization and ultimate citizenship” of native Americans. The bureau of Indian affairs would later use this assumulation model in their own boarding schools. They wished to replace Indian culture with the primer and the hoe. It was believed that the children could be assuminated into American society by having them be fully surrounded by a Christian enlgish only enviromentmany. Children were forced to adent church service at times and certain school it took up over half of their time of learning. children were taken from their families and often send thousands pf miles away from their families to attend these schools often times they were literally torn away from their parent showever not all were sent by force some parents valentarly sent their children to schools often so that theirer children would have a chance to learn and find their place in the new evolving world. In the words of a kiowa apache elder “we in white mans world now. Today we got to go that way. Sadly many families also sent their children voulentry ...
In return the indians were befriended by the United States Government. Also in this treaty it gave the government the right to build roads and have military posts within their land. In return the government will protect the indian land. In 1887 the general allotment act was put into place. The general allotment act divided up the land on the reservations and was divided for individual indians. The goal of this was to make the indians into individual land owners and farmers so they can assimilate into
Residential schools were first established in the 1880's to solve Canada's “Indian Problem”. Settlers in Canada thought of the First Nations people as savages, and the goal of the residential schools was to civilize them and integrate them in to white Canadian society. The first operators of residential schools thought of their forced integration as a benefit to native peoples. One of the overseers of residential schools wrote to the Sisters in charge of St. Joseph's Mission at Williams Lake that “It now remains for ...
Since the first Europeans landed on “the new land” with a thirst to conquer and deplete everything on their path, Natives to this land fought to retain as much as they could. But in reality, by the time the new settlers where finished they had decimated the natives in numbers and with that sought to remove and relocate the few that remained. The Indian Removal Act was enacted to relocate Indians from the east to west of the Mississippi. One may wonder how such a heinous act came into play; this essay will focused on a brief history of the events that lead to its fruition and finalization. It will also provide a personal evaluation of the effects of such act on the people enacted on.
Indian War, [1622-1890]. The biggest conflict between white settlers and native American. The unequal treatment and the imbalance of society pushed forward this war and deepened the conflict between two races, white settlers obtained resources from native American and intimated some ideology and policies from them which caused the rejection and remittance of native American. In 1866, the Red Cloud’s War out broke since the over interference of white people, that was the defense of the whole tribe, during a series of India war, native American displayed their great courage and ethnicity to fight against the White, as the consequence, the leader of Indian tribes was killed by the white and the whole Indian tribe failed eventually. However, the U.S army suffered its greatest loss during the Indian war and decrease the development speed of the whole American society. To conclude, Indian War is the cruel looting
It was a demanding and extensive mission, for the US government policy.In 1886, a contributor quoted that the Indians were going to be transferred to ‘Christian civilisation’. In order to do so, the Indians had to forcefully perform all these tasks:convert to Christianity, learn and speaking English, adapt to western clothing, children were kidnapped and sent far off to schools and inevitably blend and become a part of the Americans. The Dawes Act of 1887 separated the Indian Reservation lands into small farmlands and designated to individual Native Americans. These Reservation lands were not allowed to be sold for 25 years, however, reservation land left over was allowed to be sold to outsiders. This became a golden opportunity for ‘land-hungry white American’s to achieve and snatch the Indian land. The permission was given by the 1903 Supreme Court decision, in which they were given the power to retrieve Indian land without the consent of the Indians involved.Therefore , the amount of Indian land decreased from 154 million acres in 1887 to an only 48 million, only half a century later.
The Indian Removal Policy is a very controversial subject in American History. This Policy was very crucial because the passing of the law gave Americans more land for farming and cultivating, but the Cherokee would be forced off the only land they knew. The American Government believed removal was the only option, and the natives were forced to leave their beloved land. The Jackson’s administration's decision to remove the Cherokee Indians to land west of the Mississippi river in the 1830’s significantly continued throughout the previous social, political, and economic policies pursued by the colonies and the United States towards the American Indian tribes.
The Dawes Allotment Act of 1887 brought about the policy of Cultural Assimilation for the Native American peoples. Headed by Richard Henry Pratt, it founded several Residential Schools for the re-education and civilization of Native Americans. Children from various tribes and several reservations were removed from their families with the goal of being taught how to be c...
Even though slavery had been abolished, the whites still sought to gain more power over all. Beginning in the early 1860’s, the government began to concentrate the plain tribes onto reservations. The plan was to move the tribes into these reservations to allow them to have their own land. However, the intentions were more deceitful, as the main goal was to break the spirit of the Indians. "The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” said by Philip Sheridan, was an infamous saying that had been thrown around. I believe that it encompasses the true spirit of the typical white tyrannical settler of that era. Land had become a very touchy situation during that period though. This eventually passed into congress, allowing the Dawes Act to be passed in 1887, a little further ahead. This would allow cultural assimilation of the tribes into the typical white and black communities. Basically leaving the Indians to having nothing, famished, and left ashamed of what had become of their