Native American Civil Rights

Reservation Policy

• Attempt at assimilation - tribes put on reservations

• Restricted nomadic lifestyle - epidemics, starvation, alcoholism

• Boarding schools - attempt to break tribal ties

• Indian agents corrupt

• Navajo Tribe - SUCCESS - adapted farming → govt rewarded ^ 10.5mil acres

Fort Laramie Treaty

• 1868

• Change to reservation policy had to be negotiated with tribe → but countered 1871

Battle of Little Bighorn

• 1876

• Sioux + Cheyenne Indians left Reservation, refused to return + defeated Custers unit of 200 → reservations cut + negative attitudes

Massacre at Wounded Knee

• 1890

• 200 unarmed Sioux NA murdered, after seeing ‘Ghost Dance’ tradition as threat

Dawes Act

• 1887

• Remove reservations, families allotted in land - process of assimilation

• Alien to NA beliefs - land ownership, to male usually (matriarchal)

Lone Wolf v Hitchcock

• 1903

• Right of Congress to revoke all previous land treaties

• Court - ‘ignorant and dependent race’

Society of American Indians (SAI)

• 1911

• Set up by 50 educated NA, campaign for education + healthcare

• Lack of NA support - collapsed

WW1

• (1914-18)

• 10,000 NA fought + integrated → govt recognition

• Govt sponsored NA families to move to urban areas + work in industry - assimilation

Indian Citizenship Act

• 1924

• Potential outcome of war

• Right to vote - BUT 2/3 of NA already had vote, intention to assimilate further

American Indian Defence Association (AIDA)

• 1923

• Campaigns for laws protecting Indian rights

• Blocked Bursum + Leavitt bills

• John Collier

Bursum Bill

• 1922

• Authorised acquisition of pueblo lands

• Blocked by AIDA

Leavitt Bill ‘The Dance Order’

• 1926

• Threatened to remove right to perform traditional dances - Pueblo tribe

• Blocked by AIDA

Meriam Report

• 1928

• Report of bleak effects of assimilation - NA as most impoverished in US

• Condemned Dawes Act - depriving NA of land

• Commissioned by Fed Govt

• Pres Hoover supported recommendations + appointed New Indian Commissioner - nothing done about allotted lands

Harrison v Laveen

• 1948

• Ruled in favour of 2 NA not originally allowed to vote → some states still excluded NA voting

Wheeler Howard Act

• 1934 - attributed to John Collier

• Radical reverse of govt policy

  • Allotment process brought to end, stopped selling of NA land to individual buyers

  • Overthrew laws that banned traditional dances

  • NA given more influence over reservation admin

WW2

• 100,000 left reservations - 25k armed forces, 75k urban to work

• Those remaining on reservation - hardship, funding into war\

  • worsened by ‘relocating’ Japanese Americans

  • Post war, NA soldiers forced back to reservations - discrimination

National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

• 1944

• 1st realisation for need for unity in progress

• Campaigned for education, employment discrimination, breaking of treaties

• Used to SC to bring change

Indian Claims Commission (ICC)

• 1946

• Congress set up - NA war efforts

• NA meant to regain lands given to them by treaties

• 370 petitions filed

• BUT worked slowly + temporary, largely financial compensation (some tribes refused), assimilation drive - end govt responsibility

Termination

• 1940s

• Ended recognition of existence of NA tribe + treaty rights + end fed control of BIA

• Recognised as independent Americans

• End reservation - Voluntary Relocation Programme » urban migration

Urbanisation

• 1960 - 60,000 NA left reservations to cities

• Small % of NA - urban middle class

• Urban dwelling - poverty, unemployment alcoholism- 25% classed as ‘poor’

• Urban clusters

• Culture chock 40 - 70 % resettled NA returned to reservations

National Indian Youth Council (NIYC)

• 1961

• Protest against injustices experienced by NA

• ‘Fish-in’

• NA becoming aware of gap between econ. situation vs white Americans

AIM (American Indian Movement)

• 1968 (Red Power Movement)

• Militant org prompting improvement for NA

• Issue of racial discrimination against NA youths → patrolled streets, monitoring police - v in young NA arrests

• ‘Native sovereignty’

• 1972 took over BIA

‘Fish in’

• 1968 (Red Power Movement)

• NA in Washington state asserted old treaty Fishing rights in Colombia river

• Staged after SC didn’t uphold old rights

Siege of Alcatraz

• 1969 (Red Power Movement)

• Led by Richard Oakes, had belonged to Ohlne tribe

• NA invaded wanted its return - eventually 80 occupants

  • offered original price paid to NA for island - $24

• World median coverage, accelerated militant action, AIM, promoted later govt change

• Didn’t receive land back

NARF (Native Americans Rights Fund)

• 1970

• Defend NA rights + preserve tribal way of life

• Pressed cases in SUPREME COURT → Big changes

Oneida v Oneida

• 1974 (NARF)

• Oneida tribe sued for return of lands → in favour

• opened flood gate for land claims from other tribes

Charrier v Bell

• 1986 (NARF)

• Agreed remains dug from Louisiana belonged to NA - 30 states passed laws in aid of this

• Preserved tradition