American Indians in the 20th Century: Issues and DebatesHistoryEras1870-1890 Final defeat, loss of land & control1890-1920 Neglect, misery, despair1920s-1940s Period of reform, constrained self-government. Cultural/religious recognition, pan-Indianism1950s Counter-reform: termination, relocation, urbanization1960s-1970s: Activism inspired by civil rights (Courts start supporting legal claims)1980s-1990s: Growing resurgence of culture, growing emphasis on economic development & legal/political autonomy1870-1890 Final DefeatUS starts reneging on treatiesLoss of political self-controlMuch land earlier reserved to native peoples is lost to whitesMany reservations become “checkerboarded” with whites owning land inside reservationsPopulation reaches low point of 200,000 in 1890. (From 2 million – 30 million before Europeans.) Near genocide.1890-1920Largely ignored by whitesStarvation, despair, surviving on food rations only sometimes deliveredContinued attacks on political, cultural autonomyBoarding schools: children taken from parents, forced cultural & linguistic & political assimilation1920-1940Age of reform, concernAnthropologists & missionaries: respect culture, religion, language. First protection for religious, cultural freedom.Citizenship 1924.Some were US citizens before by treaty.Unilateral by US to deny special status of indigenous people, who did not generally want thisIndian Reorganization Act 1934. Permits self-government, but under rules of US making. (Alaskans 1836)1940s, 1950s1946 Indian Claims Commission. Suppose to settle all land claims in 5 years. (Still going.)1940s National Congress of American Indians (still exists). Pan-Indian, grounded in boarding schools.1950s Counter-movement. Back to forced assimilation, forced relocation to cities.½ become urbanBoarding schools, forced adoptions continueTermination = cancel treaties, force people to be legally like everyone else. Attacks on self-determination using the language of equality & liberation.1960s-1970sInspired by Civil Rights Movement, renewed activismDisruptive protests, occupationsMilitant exercise of treaty rightsFish-ins etc. Militant exercise of treaty rights as a protest.Occupation of Alcatraz Island 1969-1972Trail of broken treatiesDevelopment of Indian legal defense teamsAssertions of nationhood, cultural autonomyUrban Indians & reservation Indians interact.Trail of Broken Treaties 1972 demandsRecognition of sovereigntyNew treaties and enforcement of oldIncrease land base of native peopleFunds for economic and educational developmentAlcatraz Proclamation (1969) - excerptsTo the Great White Father and his PeopleWe, the native Americans, reclaim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery.We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land, and hereby offer the following treaty:We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red cloth, a precedent set by the white man’s purchase of a similar island 300 years ago. We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than what was paid when Manhattan Island was sold, but we know that land values have risen over the years. Our offer of $1.24 per acre is greater than the $0.47 per acre the white men are now paying the California Indians for their lands.We will give to the inhabitants of this island a portion of the land of their own to be held in trust . . . by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs . . . in perpetuity -- for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers go down in the sea. We will further guide the inhabitants in the proper way of living. We will offer them our religion, our education, our way of life -- ways in order to help them achieve our level of civilization and thus raise them and all their white brothers up from their savage and unhappy state. We offer this treaty in good faith and wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with all white men.Alcatraz Proclamation, more excerptsWe feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island is more than suitable for an Indian reservation, as determined by the white man’s own standards. By this, we mean that this place resembles most Indian reservations in that:•It is isolated from modern facilities, and without adequate means of transportation.•It has no fresh running water.•It has inadequate sanitation facilities.•There are no oil or mineral rights.•There is no industry and so unemployment is very great.•There are no health-care facilities.•The soil is rocky and nonproductive, and the land does not support game.•There are no educational facilities.•The population has always exceeded the land base.•The population has always been held as prisoners and kept dependent upon others.AlaskansSimilar patterns in Alaska, but less White settlement, not forced into reservationsAlaska oil pipeline: settlement creates corporations of native people who will own some of the rights.1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement ActAlaskan people able to benefit from some of the lessons of those in the “lower 48”Alaskan regional corporations1980s –2000sGrowing cultural revitalization – powwows, etc.Specific tribal culture & languagePan-Indian movements, cooperationGrowing emphasis on economic development on the reservation so a separate life can be viableContinuing legal actions to defend treaty rights, press land claims & political sovereigntyEmphasis on separateness, distinctiveness of indigenous people. “We are still here.”“We are still here”American Indian MovementNative American Rights FundNational Congress of American IndiansEconomic development organizationsPow-wows, spiritualityFAQs about AmerIndsSaved copy of HTML version of BIA FAQ fileBasic Issues/ConflictsPan-IndianismEmphasis on own tribe/cultureTeach the language; bilingual instructionMay be hostility/conflicts with other tribesvsEmphasis on commonalities as “indigenous peoples”National Congress of American IndiansAmerican Indian MovementTies with indigenous people in other countriesMany do bothLegal status● acknowledging and valuing special culture, history, legal statusVERSUS● treating everybody "the same," getting rid of American Indians as a distinct cultural/legal groupWhat is culturally/politically important about "Indians“?Economic development"White": Indians have to join the 21st century: Close down the reservations, move to cities, assimilate, become culturally White."American
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