Indian Reservations Quotes
This law provided for Individual Indian ownership of land which was seen as an essential step to stimulate assimilation of Indians into American society. For some it had that effect, but it also weakened the tribal community as the allotted land was then no longer controlled communality by the tribe and civil governance of the allotted lands were transferred to the state and local government and away from the traditional tribal government. In some cases traditional tribal government became impossible. Also, the Indians who were allotted the land could and often did sell it to whites. Land owned by Indians decreased from 138 million acres in 1887 to 48 million acres in 1934—a 65 percent reduction. This Act also imposed a patriarchal household onto many matrilineal Native societies, in which women had controlled property and descent, since under the sexist American law at that time all family property was owned and controlled by the husband. In 1934 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt supported the US Indian Reorganization Act. It ended allotment and created a "New Deal" for Indians, including renewing their rights to reorganize and form their own governments. Much of the damage of the Dawes Act had already been done however. See Senator Henry Moore Teller’s criticism of the Dawes Act {633120}.
His Indian Removal Policy forced Native American to leave their lands which were theirs by treaties signed by the United States and marched to the poorest land in Oklahoma where they were "resettled". This is often referred to as the "Trail of Tears". What made his actions evern wors was the fact that The Supreme Court had already ruled that such land belinged to the Cherokee Indian Tribe and the government of the United States may not force them from it. Jackson was the only President in Amrican History to defy a Supreme Court order.
The months later, Colorado “volunteers” attacked a Cheyenne village flying and American and White flag, killing the women and children at what would come to be known as the Sand Creek Massacre.
Standing Bear and some other Indians left the Indian territory where the government had assigned their tribe and with an invitation went to live on another Indian reservation designated for another tribe. The Government sent the military police to take the Indians back to the Indian Territory. The Indians claimed that they had the right to live wherever they wanted and did not have to live in the place the government had assigned them. The Indians won and since then, Indians like all other Americans were free to go wherever in the country that they wanted so long as they were not trespassing or violating other laws.
Many American leaders wanted to comply with and enforce the Indian treaties, but the remoteness made it difficult. There were always those whites who did not want to be restricted by Indian treaties who took advantage of the situation when there was a leader like Clinton who wanted to enforce the treaties. However in many cases, the American leadership really did not want to enforce the treaties and in some cases, as with President Andrew Jackson, wanted to abrogate the treaties with the Indians.
He and the 7th Cavalry were themselves whipped and killed shortly thereafter.
See {633119} for the basic provision of the Dawes Act.
Much reservation land was by law and policy divided amongst the Indians. The theory of this “Allotment System” was that if Indians owned land individually rather than communally, they had an asset which could be mortgaged, sold, rented and otherwise used as whites do their land assets. However, so many Indians had been cheated and swindled out of their land that Congress passed stringent laws regulating the manner and procedures for sale of Indians’ land. Many whites and some Indians complained that it was getting too cumbersome.
By 1887 the government behavior towards Indians had come far from the Andrew Jackson days of Indian Removal and the government and reformers were trying to do better with Indian policy. This law was very well intended, and yet angered some Indians and tribes Where there was good agricultural or grazing land, the law required that the land be divided amongst the individual Indians who would thereafter own the deed and control the land. The problem had been that there was no concept of individual land ownership in most tribes. There were no deeds and whites would buy land unknowingly (and sometime knowingly who claimed to (or did) speak for the tribe. With this law, farm and grazing land would pass to the ownership of individual Indians. There are over 500 different Indian tribes—nations in America and they are very diverse. This law was good for some tribes and negative for others. With no communal say in the use of the land, the reservation was like a white farming community where the individual was dominant and not the town, group or culture. It minimized the dependency that Indians had on each other and the group. Within individual tribes there were often those Indians who preferred collective ownership and those who preferred individual ownership as provided in this legislation.
