Topic 7, Lesson 7: How far did the post-war lives of Native Americans change?

Topic 7, Lesson 7: How far did the post-war lives of Native Americans change?

Native Americans and the Impact of WW2

War Contributions:

• 25,000 Native Americans served in the armed forces (including the famed Navajo Code Talkers fighting in the Pacific)

• 40,000 worked in war production

Urbanisation:

• Many Native Americans left the reservations to live in the same way as white Americans in cities and war production centres

Reservations:

• There were concerns the reservations were no longer viable that too many Native Americans were living in poverty and that this was unacceptable in a wealthy society

Topic 7, Lesson 7: How far did the post-war lives of Native Americans change?

Indian Claims Commission

The Indian Claims Commission was established in 1944 to offer Native Americans financial compensation for their lost lands but not to return their stolen lands.

This was meant to compensate Native Americans as a prelude to them taking their place as American citizens.

Topic 7, Lesson 7: How far did the post-war lives of Native Americans change?

Native Americans Termination Policy (Causes)

House Resolution 108:

In August 1953, House Resolution 108 announced that reservations would be broken up and Native Americans would be encouraged to move to urban areas to live like other Americans.

The Plan:

The idea was that the federal government would discharge itself of any responsibility for Native Americans as a seperate group.

Native American Reservation Lands:

Their lands would be sold off for profits distributed among tribal members who would go to urban areas to find work and live as normal US citizens.

Topic 7, Lesson 7: How far did the post-war lives of Native Americans change?

Native Americans Termination Policy (Consequences)

Termination begins:

Termination began with the sale of valuable lands belonging to the Menominee and Klamath tribes in Wisconsin and Oregon respectively. The plan was a disaster from the start. The Federal Government was trying to end its responsibilities and save money without any real effort to acclimatise Native Americans to urban life. Many who left difted into unemployment and alcoholism.

Termination by 1960:

Only 13,000 out of 400,000 Native Americans had permenantly moved and only 3% of reservation land had been lost. The policy was abandoned.

Rise of Red Power:

The ill-feeling caused by termination led to the rise of “Red Power” and more militant Native American actions in the 1960s

Topic 7, Lesson 7: How far did the post-war lives of Native Americans change?

Red Power

• A phrase attributed to author Vine Deloria Jr

• exressed a growing sense of pan-Indian identity in the late 1960s

• social movement led by Native American youth

• demand self-determinatin for Native Americans

• infleunced by both the African American civil rights and black power movements

• organisations that were part of the Red Power Movement included American Indian Movement (AIM) and National Indian Youth Council (NIYC)

• took a confrontational and civil disobedience approach to inciting change in the United States

• Red Power centred around mass action, militant action and unified action