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Summary Civil Rights in the USA (): Native Americans
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All key knowledge pertaining to native American's civil rights in the USA between 1865 and 1992.
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Section 3: Native Americans 1865-1992:The Plains Indian:
- Most Native Americans lived in the Great Plains, an area between the Appalachian
and Rocky Mountains.
- They were originally left alone by white settlers because the Great Plains were
deemed unsuitable for settlement.
- The Native American lifestyle:
- Most tribes were nomadic - following buffalo herds that they survived on
- NAs had their own culture, religions, and ceremonies
- NAs had their own tribal laws and government
Early threats to Native Americans:
- Westward Expansion: Settlers were encouraged to move West to open up the rest
of the continent. This was partly due to their belief in ‘manifest destiny’ which
inspired the government’s desire to assimilate Native Americans.
- Settlers also moved westwards due to the gold rush and the construction of
railroads into the west.
- The railroad construction across the Plains added to the destruction of buffalo
herds which in turn made Native Americans dependent on the government for
food.
- The 1830 Removal Act was passed to move tribes from Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia onto the Plains in Oklahoma.
Plains Wars, 1862-68:
- With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the government withdrew troops who
had been stationed on the Plains. Many new volunteer groups were brought in but
they had little interest in the Native Americans.
- As a result, driven by hunger as the government was no longer providing food
because of the demands of war, violence broke out.
Native Americans and the loss of land:
- The federal government was determined to control the land and created a series of
federal territories. Treaties were made with the Native Americans that resulted in
them handing over land, including the:
- Fort Laramie Treaty, 1851
- Fort Wise Treaty, 1861
- Medicine Lodge Treaty, 1867
- Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868
- The government encouraged more settlers to move west by passing the
Homestead Act in 1862, which gave farmers a 160-acre plot if they farmed it for
five years. This brought another 20,000 settlers onto the Plains.
- As a result, the Native Americans were already under pressure at the start of the
period because:
- They had given away land
- Buffalo nearly became extinct due to the hunting and slaughter by white
settlers.
- There was not always support from the government
- Government policy had weakened their position
1865-1914:
- During this period, the aim of the federal government was to assimilate the Native
, Americans. This was to be achieved in a number of ways:
- Reservation policy
- Education
- Conversion to Christianity
- The Dawes Act
The Reservation Policy:
- The Reservation Policy started in the 1850s, with the Treaties Native Americans
had signed providing them with land to occupy.
- The government would enforce policies within the Reservations:
- Forbidding polygamy
- Forbidding herbal remedies
- Abolishing tribal laws
- Ending communal living
- Ending the powers of the tribal chief
- Sending children to off-reservation boarding schools
- The reservations preserved some elements of Native Americans’ tribal lifestyle as
they were still together as a community.
- The reservation Policy was unsuccessful but there were some cases of successful
reservations such as the Navajo reservation who were able to increase the farm
lands and livestock given to them.
The Dawes Severalty Act, 1887:
- The Dawes Act divided reservations into allotments, which were given to the
Native Americans, turning them into landowners and citizens.
- This undermined their belief that the land was communal, and forced them into
farming, an occupation unknown to them. Many were unable to farm the land,
because it was generally unsuitable for crops, and sold it to white people, adding to
their decline.
- By 1914, land that had been given to them by treaties had been taken away. Two
court cases: Cherokee Nation v. Hitchcock, 1902, and Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock,
1903, further weakened their position.
- In Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, the Supreme Court upheld the right of Congress to
revoke all treaties made with the Native Americans and, therefore, take away more
land.
1914-45:
- In this period, over the two world wars, Native Americans were granted citizenship
and there was some improvement in their lives with the New Deal in the 1930s.
However, it must be remembered that the gains made were not what the Native
Americans wanted.
Indian Citizenship Act, 1924:
- The Indian Citizenship Act extended the right to vote to Native Americans, but
most did not want citizenship or the right to vote (already established for some by
the Dawes Act).
- The extension of the right to those living on reservations was not intended to
increase the speed of their involvement, but rather to increase the speed of their
assimilation.
- Citizenship did not restore their sovereignty. Attacks on their culture, such as the
Dance Order, which banned some of their traditional dances, further weakened
their position.
The Meriam Report, 1928:
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