Native Americans and Civil Rights in the USA Study Notes

Native Americans and Civil Rights in the USA
Key Question

  • How and to what extent did Native Americans achieve equality in the USA after 1945?

Native Americans before 1945 (Background)

  • 17th Century Colonization: European powers applied the "Doctrine of Discovery" to justify claiming lands. Native populations were viewed through the lens of "Manifest Destiny," suggesting that white settlement was divinely ordained.

  • Treatment of Native Americans: Regarded as sovereign but "dependent" nations, Native Americans saw their communal land ownership systems clash with European concepts of private property.

  • Post-Independence: The U.S. Constitution (ratified 1788) mention "Indians not taxed," excluding them from the census and citizenship. The Declaration of Independence (1776) explicitly marginalized them to justify frontier expansion.

  • Declaration of Independence (DOI): The document contained the following grievance against King George III:

"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."

Native Americans in the 19th Century

  • Westward Expansion and Removal: The Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to the "Trail of Tears," where thousands of Cherokee and other tribes died during forced relocation to Oklahoma.

  • Displacement and Decimation: By the late 1800s, the "Indian Wars" concluded with the massacre at Wounded Knee (1890). Tribes were confined to reservations on arid, resource-poor land.

  • The Dawes Act (1887): This act sought to break up tribal lands into individual allotments, forcing private ownership and further eroding tribal unity and communal culture.

  • Education and Assimilation: The mantra "Kill the Indian, Save the Man," coined by Richard Henry Pratt, defined the federal boarding school system. These institutions aimed to systematically strip children of their languages, religions, and social structures.

Native American Boarding Schools

  • Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Opened in 1879, it served as the model for over 350 schools. Students were forced to cut their hair, wear Western uniforms, and adopt Christian names.

  • Visual Documentation: Archival photos of Chiricahua Apache students show a forced metamorphosis from traditional attire to Victorian-style clothing, symbolizing the intended erasure of indigenous identity.

Native Americans 1900-1945

  • Citizenship: The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (Snyder Act) granted full U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans. However, many states used local laws to prevent them from voting, similar to Jim Crow laws in the South.

  • The Meriam Report (1928): A landmark government-commissioned study titled The Problem of Indian Administration. It exposed the horrific conditions on reservations, including extreme poverty, high infant mortality, and the failure of the allotment system.

  • Racism and Forced Sterilization: Eugenics programs in the early 20th century targeted marginalized groups. The Abenaki of Vermont were targeted for "sanitization." Later, between 1973 and 1976, the Indian Health Service (IHS) was accused of sterilizing roughly 25\% of Native women of childbearing age without informed consent.

Voting Rights for Native Americans

  • Constitutional Gaps: The 14th Amendment (1868) failed to include Native Americans. Even after the 1924 Act, states like Arizona and New Mexico argued that Native Americans living on reservations were not residents of the state because their land was under federal jurisdiction.

  • State-Level Struggles:

    • 1948: Harrison v. Laveen overturned Arizona's ban on Native American voting.

    • 1962: Utah became the final state to guarantee voting rights by removing "wards of the state" clauses used to disenfranchise reservation residents.

The Roosevelt Years (1933-1945)

  • The Indian New Deal: Commissioner John Collier shifted federal policy from assimilation to cultural preservation.

  • Indian Reorganization Act (1934): Crucial legislation that ended the allotment policy of the Dawes Act. It encouraged tribes to form their own governments and corporations to manage their assets, though some tribes felt the "standardized" governments were still a Western imposition.

Impact of WWII (1945-1950)

  • Military Contribution: Roughly 25,000 Native Americans served in the military, including the famous Navajo Code Talkers who used their native language to transmit secure messages in the Pacific Theater.

  • Post-War Activism: Returning veterans were no longer willing to accept second-class status. This period saw the birth of the "Red Power" sentiment, as veterans applied their organizational skills to civil rights advocacy.

  • Indian Claims Commission (1946): Established by the Truman administration to hear grievances regarding treaty violations. While it paid out millions, it offered money instead of returning the land, which frustrated many tribes.

The Eisenhower Years (1953-1961)

  • Termination Policy (HCR 108): A policy designed to end the special relationship between tribes and the federal government. The goal was to withdraw federal recognition of tribes and subject them to state laws and taxes.

  • Indian Relocation Act (1956): Provided incentives for Native Americans to move from reservations to urban centers like Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles. This often led to isolation, poverty, and the formation of urban "ghettos," but it also inadvertently fostered inter-tribal unity in cities.

Increased Native American Assertiveness (1960-1980)

  • Demographics: By 1960, the Native population was growing, but unemployment reached 40\% to 80\% on many reservations, and life expectancy was significantly lower than the national average.

  • National Congress of American Indians (NCAI): Founded in 1944 to oppose termination and assimilation. During the 1960s, it focused on litigation and lobbying to protect treaty rights and tribal sovereignty.

National Indian Youth Council (NIYC)

  • The "Fish-ins" (1964): Inspired by the "sit-ins" of the Black civil rights movement, the NIYC organized protests in Washington state to assert treaty fishing rights. This culminated in the landmark Boldt Decision (1974), which allocated half of the annual fish harvest to treaty tribes.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

  • Founding (1968): Founded in Minneapolis by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, and George Mitchell to combat police brutality against urban Native people.

  • Direct Action Tactics:

    • Survival Schools: Created to teach Native children their culture and history.

    • Red Patrols: Monitored police activities in the Twin Cities to document and prevent abuse.

Celebrities and Activism

  • Alcatraz Occupation (1969-1971): Led by Richard Oakes and the "Indians of All Tribes," they cited the Treaty of Fort Laramie, which stated surplus federal land should return to Native peoples. The occupation lasted 19 months and drew global media attention.

20-Point Position Paper (1972)

  • Trail of Broken Treaties: A cross-country caravan that ended in the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building in Washington D.C.

  • Demands: Demanded the restoration of a treaty-making relationship, the protection of Native religious freedom, and the abolition of the BIA, which was seen as a colonial administrator.

Occupation of Wounded Knee (1973)

  • The Standoff: AIM activists and Oglala Lakota members occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for 71 days. They were protesting the corrupt tribal government of Dick Wilson and the federal government's failure to honor the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

  • Outcome: The U.S. Marshals and FBI responded with armored vehicles and snipers. Two Native activists were killed. Though the occupation ended without immediate policy changes, it galvanized a generation of activists.

Federal Government Responses (1960-1980)

  • Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975): This Nixon-era policy (signed by Ford) was the most significant turning point. It allowed tribes to contract with the federal government to run their own health, education, and social programs, effectively ending the Termination era.

Court Decisions and Legal Progress

  • 1978 Supreme Court Rulings:

    • United States v. Wheeler: Confirmed that tribal sovereignty was "inherent" and existed before the U.S. Constitution.

    • Oliphant v. Suquamish: A setback, ruling that tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over non-Indians for crimes committed on reservation land.

Current Landscape of Native Americans (Late 20th Century)

  • Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, 1990): Required federal agencies and museums to return human remains and cultural items to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated tribes.

  • Summary of Progress: By the year 2000, the Native population reached approximately 2.5 million. While legal recognition of sovereignty improved, issues like environmental justice (e.g., uranium mining or pipelines on tribal land) and economic disparity continue to be primary sites of struggle.