Contemporary American Indian History

Government Policies and Native Relations in the 20th and 21st Century

In its first century, this young country, newly emancipated from the British throne, developed ideas of how to govern its land and hoped that the opportunity to expand would soon be realized. In order to expand, the government needed to determine how it would acquire land from the indigenous populations that inhabited most of North America. Throughout history, Congressional decisions as it relates to how the United States viewed and interacted with the Natives seemed to vacillate back and forth. Initially, tribes were seen as sovereign entities. This notion was obstructed when tribal lands, along with the resources they could yield, began to interest the government. As a result, the government developed new policies and eventually the Bureau of Indian Affairs to attempt to manage the indigenous populations of North America.

One of the first policies to be enacted was the removal policies of the 1830s and the creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau’s main role at its start was to help oversee the daily functions of the tribe and provide support. However, the Bureau’s relations with Natives was contentious so much that Charles Wilkinson refers to the Bureau as  a “master”.⁵ Removal policies were rooted in the United States government efforts to expand and create additional settlements. Still to acquire these lands, the government relied on coercion and bribery as they manipulated Native Americans to move to more remote parts of the continent.⁶  

Following the Removal policy, the General Allotment Act of 1887, or the Dawes Act, was implemented. The goal of the Dawes Act was to assimilate Native populations into the fabric of United States culture. Congressional members felt this could be best achieved by converting Native Americans into roles as farmers. For the United States, this policy would prove to be a victory as the country’s land expanded by 86,000,000 acres. At the same time, the efforts to turn Native groups into farmers proved to be unsuccessful. To further the goals of assimilating American Indians into United States society, the Indian Citizenship Act was passed in 1924. This was an effort to give American Indians access to the American dream, but for many Natives, it resulted in a dramatic loss of their language, religion and family structure, plus removal from their homelands. ⁷

After viewing the devastation and poverty on reservations that resulted from the aforementioned Congressional decisions, the United States government perceived that Natives needed more unwarranted assistance. Somehow, legislators missed that the devastation Natives experienced and the vast lack of resources, both economic and agricultural, directly correlated to the ineffective policies inflicted on Native cultures by Congressional decisions. Instead, many government officials rationalized that the reason for the mass devastation on tribal lands were because Native groups relied on special privileges and assistance from the government which caused tribes to be too dependent and unable to sustain themselves. Thus, in an effort to once again improve the situation of Native cultures, talks of termination became prevalent amongst Congressional groups in the 1940s with Senator Arthur Wilkes of Utah as the main proponent. The goal of termination was to eliminate reservations, free Natives from federal supervision, limitations and disabilities.⁸ Congress insisted that the federal government should no longer assist in the daily operations of tribal life. Instead, these responsibilities would be handed over to the states,⁹ which in many cases opened the door for confusion and injustices for tribal members. As with other government policies, termination resulted in over one million acres of land confiscated from Native tribes. Ultimately, this policy adversely effected 109 tribes and 11,000 individuals. The first tribe that the federal government used to experiment with this policy was the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin, which turned into a unique story of resilience and resistance.