Native American mock q Flashcards
4
To what extent did the Native Americans benefit from the Gilded Age? - YES
Two off reservation boarding schools were set up in Virginia and Pennsylvania because the quality of education on the reservations was so poor. They provided vocational training for boys and skills for domestic service to girls. The education provided gave some NAs the opportunity to find better jobs with some working for the Indian Agency and others as interpreters or scouts in the army.
Some NAs used the reservations to set up farming communities. The reservations gave some NAs the opportunity for better healthcare & tribal life continued on the reservations in spite of US government intentions maintaining their culture and a sense of belonging.
The Navajo tribe were able to increase their land from 4 million acres to 10.5 million and the number of sheep and goats from 15000 to 1.7 million, resulting in an increase in wealth and population.
The Dawes Act turned some NAs into landowners giving them (theoretically) full rights as US citizens. Alice Fletcher & her fellow “Friends of the Indians” were motivated by a genuine desire to help them.
5
To what extent did the Native Americans benefit from the Gilded Age? - NO
By 1885 the extinction of the buffalo & the seizure of most NA land (breaking the 1851-71 treaties) had destroyed the NAs’ traditional lifestyle & confined them to reservations.
In practice reservation life was a failure. The NAs lost their freedom, were denied civil rights & most importantly their pride, forcing them into an humiliating dependence on federal govt. aid. The Ghost Dances & attempts to escape from reservations which led to the massacres at Fort Robinson & Wounded Knee showed their despair.
Government subsidies were insufficient and were often cut when there were other national priorities. Corrupt officials often sold food meant for NAs for their own profit.
Atrocities were committed like the massacres at Fort Robinson 1877 & Wounded Knee 1890 (right).
The education on the reservations was often poor quality (largely confined to basic literacy, numeracy & agricultural skills) and those taken away to off reservation boarding schools often failed to get jobs and returned to the reservations. Having been taken away from their culture they were often distrusted when they returned.
The off reservation boarding schools like the one at Carlisle openly aimed to destroy NA culture by separating NA children from their families & forcing them to change their names, language, clothes, religion & way of life: “kill the Indian, save the man”. Any resistance was met by brutal military style discipline
4
Did the New Deal improve the position of Native Americans? - YES
The Indian Reorganisation Act (Wheeler-Howard Act) of 1934 gave Native Americans a greater role in the administration of the reservations including the restoration of tribal self govt. Corporations were established to ensure that resources on the reservations were better managed
The Act was a turning point in the sense that it was the first attempt by whites to protect the Native Americans’ right to practise their own religion and assert their cultural identity. This included the use of peyote in their religious practice. Previous acts banning NA religious practices & ceremonial dances were repealed.
Their children were allowed to attend local schools and learn about Native American culture rather than having western culture forced upon them. The closure of the “Indian Boarding Schools” was completed in the 1930s & NA women were encouraged to go to uni, e.g. Gladys Tantaquidgeon studied anthropogy & worked for the Indian Bureau, promoting native arts and supporting women’s co-ops.
The act ended the allotment policy, theoretically stopped the sale of Native American lands and called for the restoration of unallocated land to create new reservations.
4
Did the New Deal improve the position of Native Americans? - NO
The poverty of American Indians was so great that these measures did little to relieve their situation. Their traditional lifestyle had been irrevocably destroyed by the extinction of the buffalo & land seizures during the Gilded Age so any attempt to revive their traditional culture was bound to be superficial.
Although tribes were organised into self governing bodies most NAs were suspicious of Collier’s plan for self govt., many preferring assimilation; in fact only 39% of NAs voted for the IRA.
The use of the secret ballot among tribes to see if they accepted the act was unpopular. Democracy was seen as alien and part of the ‘white man’s culture’ & Collier like previous white reformers (e.g. Alice Fletcher) made no effort to ask NAs what they wanted before announcing the IRA.
The improvements were not maintained after WW2 so they were only short term; the Termination policy of the 1950s marked a return to forced assimilation.
The IRA was heavily diluted by Congress, conceding far less in terms of self govt. & land restoration than Collier wanted. The idea of a separate federal court for Native Americans was abandoned.
4
the Black Power movement on Native American activism - YES
The Black Power movement’s tactics inspired younger Native Americans to abandon more peaceful methods of legal cases which were slow. The AIM activists who occupied the BIA offices in Washington in 1972 resisted violently when police tried to evict them & the occupiers of Wounded Knee resisted the FBI, federal marshalls & even the US Army. In 1975 2 FBI officers were killed in a shoot out on the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation.
Many Native Americans liked the popular appeal of Black Power. This encouraged a similar response from Native Americans who saw the NCAI as limited in its appeal to those who had been assimilated and were doing OK. Calling such NAs “Red Apples” was comparable to Black Power activists who called Martin Luther King an “Uncle Tom”. They noticed that the promises JFK made to the NCAI were never fulfilled, like so many white promises in the past. This convinced them that working within the white political & legal system would never work b/c it was intrinsically racist & served only white interests.
The term “Red Power” was taken directly from Black Power with similar ideas of empowerment and pride in one’s race and culture. This was strongly influenced by books like “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee”, published in 1970, which helped to inspire the occupation of that site 3 years later.
Red Power activists directly copied some Black Power tactics, e.g. AIM in 1968 started their own “patrol the pigs” campaign wearing red rather than black berets & jackets while monitoring police activity.
4
the Black Power movement on Native American activism - NO
There were already clear signs that Native Americans were more unified from WW2 before the emergence of Red Power and this can be seen in the resistance to government policies and the failure of the Termination policy. The NCAI had been formed as early as 1944 to campaign for the civil rights of all NAs.
Militancy had been a feature of some Native American protest groups before this, an example being the National Indian Youth Council which was formed in 1961.
The development of protest movements could just as easily be seen as being a reaction to wider developments in US society like the Great Society and counter culture movement. The NIYC was to some extent an NA version of SNCC & in 1964 100s of them marched on Washington to demand that NAs be included in LBJ’s “Great Society” anti-poverty programme.
The militancy can also be seen as a direct response to urbanisation: the % of NAs living in cities rose from only 8% in 1940 to 30% in 1960. Many Native Americans found themselves trapped in “ghettos” b/c poverty & discrimination denied them access to more desirable white areas. This inspired a more radical response which also inspired them to try to maintain their culture and way of life.
5
“THE POLICIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILED TO SUPPORT THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF NATIVE AMERICANS”. TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS VIEW OF THE PERIOD 1865-1992? - political rights
The Indian Citizenship Act 1924 was part of the assimilation policy & in any case the federal govt. made no effort to ensure that NAs’ right to vote was actually enforced in the states.
NAs living on tribal reservations did not gain the right to vote until 1968.
BUT:
The Dawes, Curtis & Indian Citizenship Acts between gave the vote (at least in theory) to 2/3 of NAs by 1924.
The IRA 1934 tried to restore tribal self government.
From the end of Termination in 1968 fed gov policy became much more sympathetic, finally abandoning forcible assimilation.
5
“THE POLICIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILED TO SUPPORT THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF NATIVE AMERICANS”. TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS VIEW OF THE PERIOD 1865-1992? - economic rights
Fed gov policy 1851-90 during the Indian Wars was to subject them militarily to white control & seize their land; this + the slaughter of the buffalo by 1885 destroyed NAs’ traditional lifestyle.
The Dawes Act 1887 led to 2/3 of what little land NAs still had by selling “surplus” land &, b/c the NAs usually failed as farmers, fell into debt & often had to sell the land allotted to them.
Despite the IRA land seizures continued, especially of economically valuable land which contained oil or timber. Little land was restored b/c fed gov funding was limited. The Indian Claims Commission after WW2 offered only financial compensation, not the return of land which the NAs wanted.
Federal govt. sympathy & support for NAs declined after the mid 1970s & NAs were hit by increased unemployment & poverty in the 1980s.
BUT Collier’s IRA ended the allotment policy, banned the further sale of NA land & said any unallotted land not yet sold should be returned.
5
“THE POLICIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILED TO SUPPORT THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF NATIVE AMERICANS”. TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS VIEW OF THE PERIOD 1865-1992? - cultural and social rights
Indian Boarding Schools aimed to destroy NA culture (“kill the Indian, save the man”) by separating children from their families & forcing them to change their religion, language, clothes & lifestyle.
Govt. support for NAs declined when the USA entered WW2 in 1941, marking the effective end of the IRA. Although NAs were recruited into the armed forces & war work, many were forcibly returned to reservations when the war ended.
The Termination policy of the 1950s marked a return to forcible assimilation after the more sympathetic IRA.
BUT:
The IRA marked the first real white recognition of NA culture.
The Supreme Court made a series of judgements in favour of NAs from Oneida v Oneida in 1974 giving the Oneida tribe the right to sue for the return of lost land to Charrier v Bell in 1986 which established the principle that NA burial grounds must be respected.
2
“THE POLICIES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILED TO SUPPORT THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF NATIVE AMERICANS”. TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS VIEW OF THE PERIOD 1865-1992? - response to NA activism
Even whites sympathetic to NAs like Fletcher (Dawes Act) & Collier (IRA) made no effort to ask NAs what they wanted before imposing significant changes; most NAs opposed the Dawes Act & only 39% voted for the IRA.
BUT fed gov policy was much more responsive to NA activism in the early 1970s, e.g. Nixon’s Indian Education Act 1972 & a series of sympathetic Supreme Court judgements 1974-86.
