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Summary Native American essay plans A level
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A* essay plans on Native Americans, broken down into themes in accordance to OCR mark scheme requirements. Using past and made up questions.
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Native Americans- essay plans1. To what extent do you agree that the Dawes Act (1887) was the most important turning
point in the development of Native American civil rights in the period from 1865 to 1992?
Introduction: the Dawes Act of 1887 was passed by the federal government and involved allotting
each Indian family 160-acre homesteads from their reservation land. Whilst on the surface this act
seems to be a positive turning point for the development of Native American civil rights as it was
giving them land rights, in reality it was overtly negative and only served to weakened their social,
economic and political rights. It was not only a complete disregard of the actual desires of Native
Americans, who wanted self determination and the protection of their tribal lifestyle, but it also
marked the beginning of the federal government’s policy of assimilation which acted as a hinderance
to the development of Native American civil rights throughout the period. Thus, the Dawes act is
rendered as unhelpful to the progression of Native American civil rights, and rather it was the New
deal polices, specifically the 1934 Indian reorganisation act, that is often held as the most important
turning point. It arguably replaced forced assimilation with respect for Indian culture and customs,
whilst also preventing the alienation of more tribal land and granting Indian communities a measure
of governmental and judicial autonomy. The 1970s and the red power movement is also regarded as
a turning point particularly in terms of activism for civil rights.
Theme 1: Political
One could argue that the Dawes act was the most important turning point in the development of
Native American civil rights as it led to to the acquisition of citizenship for NA who owned the
farming land for 25 years. However, Native Americans did not desire citizenship, they wanted self-
determination. The ultimate premises of citizenship, of which being that they would be treated as
any other American citizen who was subject to the laws enforced by the federal government,
evidently contradicts their aim to be political autonomous. Moreover, the fact the citizenship act of
1924 was passed to grant NA full citizenship demonstrates the Dawes act wasn’t even an important
turning point in giving them something they didn’t want, as clearly it had not achieved its objective
of granting citizenship. This thus not only proves the lack of political impact the Dawes act had on
NA’s, but that the development of political rights aligned with their ideas of self-determination was
still not achieved by the 1920s.
Alternatively, it could be argued that the Dawes act was an important turning point for the
development of their political rights as it sparked the beginning of Native American activism.
Resistance was shown by the 5 civilised tribes who despite being initially exempt, under the Curtis
act of 1898 were subject to the allotment policy. This led to Muskogee Convention in 1905 which
proposed a separate state of Sequoyah for Native Americans to inhabit; although it was rejected by
congress it marked the beginning of Native political activism and unity amongst tribes with the
specific aim of advancing their self-determination rights. Therefore, the negative repercussions of
the Dawes act could be seen to positively spark activism.
However, one would still argue that the Indian reorganisation act was a more important turning
point for the development of NA political rights. There was a demonstrable increase in Native
American representation in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and an increased self-determination within
tribes, they had more of a hand in the management of reservations. Moreover, Native American
women were given voting rights. In essence, the new deal represented a change in attitude of the
, federal government in which the plight of Native Americans became a political agenda. One could
also view the Red Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s as the most significant turning point in
the acquisition of NA political rights. A more coherent Native American political group was created
whereby political demonstrations and protests were effectively made against the oppression of
Native Americans, this gave Native Americans far more political power as prior to this Native
Americans were still divided by tribal boundaries and thus could be largely ignored by the
government.
JUDGMENT- RED POWER AND INDIAN REORGANISATION
Theme 2: Social- cultural rights
The Dawes Act ultimately served as an attack on their cultural rights and way of lifestyle and was
indicative of the governments pursued policy of assimilation; they wanted to strip them of their
traditional way of life and customs in order to ‘americanise’ them into becoming farmers. Many
Native Americans were resistance to such a dramatic restriction on their cultural rights, therefore
suggesting it was not the most important turning point in the positive development/protection of
their cultural rights but rather symbolised the start of a long, gruelling period in which their cultural
rights would continually erode. It also served to contradict the traditionally matriarchal family
dynamic within tribes, adversely affected the social status and rights of NA women. In the Cherokee
tribe for example, all family property belonged to wives whilst the men were responsible for
hunting. However, under the Dawes act land was allotted to the male head of the family as part of
assimilation into white society.
Compare with – Indian reorganisation Act (1934)- the act preserved and recognised the traditional
culture of Indian tribes. Their right to practice their own religion and to assert their cultural identity
was more protected, allotment policy was recognised as a detriment to NA’s and was subsequently
reversed. This act was also seen to overthrow the 1883 law that had banned ceremonial dances and
celebrations. Also seen to encourage education e.g. Gladys Tantaquidgeon studied anthropology at
Uni of Pennsylvania. Collier also tapped into the resources available through other New deal
agencies to build hospitals, schools and irrigation systems on the reservations to improve social
conditions. Clearly the reorganisation act and the pivotal work of collier had overt social benefits for
NA’s in comparison to the Dawes act which only served to restrict them.
Theme 3: Economic- land rights
Dawes Act on the surface seemingly secured them economic rights as they now had the ability to
legally own a plot of land. Moreover, it was providing them some form of economic stability in the
form of food from working the land. Yet the common theme underpinning the negative impact of
the Dawes act was that it did not represent the interests of Native Americans and actively
contradicted their way of life. Owning land went against their traditional beliefs that land is not a
possession but is rather accessible to all creatures on earth. Moreover, the land in which they were
granted was often incredibly poor and could subsequently not be farmed, leaving them in an even
more dire position economically.
Compare with –WW2, approximately 75,000 Native Americans worked in urban industry and were
able to work in munitions factories and defence industries during the war which improved
employment opportunities and their economic position. However, those who remained on the
reservations experienced great hardship economically during WW2 as resources were directed to
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