AIS/HSTAA 332, Winter 2010
American Indian History since 1840

LECTURE OUTLINES

January 5

LEGACIES OF HISTORY BEFORE 1840

I  Before European colonization

A. 15,000 years of human migrations and evolving societies

B. As of 1492, numerous diverse, dynamic indigenous societies

II. European intrustions

A. Ecological and demographic repercussions

B. Trade and alliances

C. Conflicting interests and wars

D. A hybrid culture of relations between nations

III. 18th-century challenges

A. Defeat of Indians' French allies

B. Expanding British colonies

C. United States independence and desire to expand


January 6

U.S. EXPANSION INTO INDIAN COUNTRY

I.  Expulsion of Indian nations from east of the Mississippi River

A.  U.S. policy dilemma: "civilize" Indians or remove them?

B. Indian strategic culture change

C. Indian Removal Act (1830) and treaties

II. American activity in the West before the 1840s

III. New non-Indian settlements and extensions of U.S. power

A. In Kiowa and Comanche territory (Texas, 1836+)

B. In Shoshone and Ute territory (Utah, 1847+)

C. In Chinookan, Salish, Sahaptin, etc. territories (Oregon and Washington, 1830s+)


January 11

THE INVASION OF THE FAR WEST

I. Review of U.S. expansion in the 1840s

II. California

A. Diverse aboriginal peoples

B. Spanish and Mexican colonization, 1767-1848

C. Early American settlers and Indian labor

D. American rebellion and then war against Mexico, 1846-48

E. Early California state Indian policies

F. Indian struggles for survival

G. U.S. government plans for Indians

III. Oregon and Washington

A. Indians and fur traders, 1790s-1840s

B. American influx to the Willamette Valley and the creation of Oregon Territory

C. First efforts to settle matters with Oregon Indians, 1851

D. The creation of Washington Territory and treaties with Indians there, 1853-55

E. Armed Indian resistance, 1855-58


January 13

CONFLICT AND TREATIES WITH THE U.S., 1851-1868

I. Treaties and war in Washington Territory, 1854-1859

II. First treaties between the U.S. and Great Plains tribes

A. Ft. Laramie (1851, northern tribes), Ft. Atkinson (1853, southern tribes)

B. Treaty aims and terms

C. Reasons for ineffectiveness

III. Effects of the U.S. Civil War

A. More removals to Indian Territory

B. More non-Indians and more conflict in the West

C. Calls for reform of U.S. Indian policy

IV. New U.S. peace-making efforts

A. Indian Peace Commission

B. Treaties at Medicine Lodge Creek (1867, southern tribes) and Fort Laramie, (1868, northern tribes)

C. Provisions for reservations, U.S. aid, education, farming instruction


January 19

LOSING THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM ON THE PLAINS

I. U.S. government pacification efforts

A. U.S. Indian Peace Commission, 1867-1868

B. Terms of treaties at Medicine Lodge Creek and Fort Laramie

C. The so-called peace policy of the Grant administration

D. The Board of Indian Commissioners policy proposal

E. An end to treaty-making? 1871

F. Putting Christians in charge of reservations

II. Continuing, debilitating conflict

A. Harassment of off-reservation Indians

B. Intermittent, scattered battles

C. Growing Army effectiveness

D. Effects of Indian custom and history


January 20

RESERVATIONS IN THE 1870s

I.  The late 19th-century Indian wars in retrospect

II. More ammunition for reformers' attack on government policy

A. Standing Bear's resistance to Ponca removal

B. Northern Cheyenne resistance to removal

C. Nez Perce suffering during exile in the Indian Territory

III. U.S. commitment to a reservation system, late 1870s

A. Conditions on reservations

B. Indians' dissatisfaction


January 21

REFORMERS AND "THE INDIAN PROBLEM"

I.  Criticisms of the reservation system

A. Grounds for Indian discontent

B. Objections of White humanitarians

II. Emergence of a grassroots reform movement, 1879+

A.  Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, Women's National Indian Association, Indian Rights Association

B.  Friends of the Indian

C. Reasons for the urge to help Indians?

D.  The reformers' beliefs and goals

III.  A three-part program to "civilize" Indians


January 25

A PLAN TO CIVILIZE AND ASSIMILATE INDIANS

I.  "Friends of the Indian," humanitarian reformers (1880s+)

A. Anti-racist but ethnocentric

B.  Their goal for Indians: elevation and integration

C.  Their 3-part reform program: private property, citizenship, education

II. Allotment (privatization) of tribal land

A. Indigenous property relations, actual and imagined

B. Reformers' Jeffersonian/agrarian ideal

C. The General Allotment Act, 1887

III.  Citizenship and law for Indians

A. Citizenship for allotment owners

B. Indian police on reservations

C. Courts of Indian Offenses

D. The Major Crimes Act, 1885

IV. Education and civil service reform


January 26

THE ASSIMILATION PROGRAM IN PRACTICE

I. Review of U.S. policy, 1880s-1920s

A. Goal: absorption of Indians as individuals into U.S. populace

B. 3-part program: private property, law and citizenship, education

C. Growing Indian Service bureaucracy

II. Land allotment in practice

A. Reformers' belief in the power of law to change Indian societies

B. Gradual, partial implementation

C. Diverse Indian desires and reactions

D. Impediments to Indian farming

E. Transfers of land to non-Indians

F. Problems following from inheritance of allotments


January 27

ACTUAL RESULTS OF THE ASSIMILATION PROGRAM

I.� Land allotment in practice (continued)

A. Impediments to Indian farming

B. Transfers of land to non-Indians

1. Surplus (unallotted) land

2. Leases to non-Indians

3. Inheritance by non-Indians

4. Sales of inherited allotments

C. Major change in the Allotment Act: Burke Act of 1906

1. Indefinite federal guardianship for some Indians

2. Early end to guardianship for other Indians

II. Contradictory messages about Indianness and the possibility of assimilation

A. Indian identity defined in law instead of eliminated

B. The influence of racial ideology

III. Perpetuation of the Indian Service and reservations


February 1

REACTIONS TO THE REPRESSION OF INDIAN SOCIETIES

I.  Encouraging knowledge or preservation of some Indian traditions

A. Non-Indian interest in Indian customs and history

1. Treaty Day at the Tulalip agency

2. Edward Curtis and other ethnographers

B. Opportunities for Indians?

1. Indians in Wild West shows

2. Indians on exhibit at world fairs

II. Indian religious responses

A. Ghost Dance movement, 1889-1890

B. The Native American Church


February 2

CHANGING PUBLIC DISCOURSE ABOUT INDIANS AND INDIAN POLICY

I. Indian responses to assimilation programs

A. Distinct Indian "Christian" religious movements

B. Educated Indians seeking citizenship and respect for Indian culture

C. Pan-Indian organizations (Society of American Indians and others)

II. Fading influence of Friends of the Indian

A. Emphasis on government efficiency in the Progressive Era

B. Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 1903

III. Effects of World War I, 1917-1919

A. Indian participation in the war

B. Rising hopes for Indians' integration

C. Indian Citizenship Act, 1924


February 8

END OF THE ASSIMILATION POLICY

I. Last hurrah for the assimilation policy

A. Indian participation in World War I

B. Indian Citizenship Act, 1924

C. Continuing, intrusive federal supervision for most Indians

II. Growing criticism of federal policy and practices

A. John Collier, relentless critic

B. Meriam report on government failures, 1928

III. A New Deal for Indians, part 1

A. Indians in the Great Depression

B. Emergency relief programs

1.  Work relief jobs

2. Conservation and development of reservation resources


February 9 and 10

THE INDIAN NEW DEAL, PART II (SELF-GOVERNMENT)

I. Collier's proposal

A. A vision of autonomous tribes with collective resources

B. Initial non-Indian and Indian reactions

C. Opposition in Congress

II. Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), 1934

A. What Congress rejected

B. What Collier got

III. Implementing the IRA

A. Collier's use of executive powers

B. Referenda on the reservations

C. Helping (pressuring?) tribes to established IRA governments

D. Problematic repercussions of the IRA

E. Beneficial consequences of the IRA


February 16

END OF THE INDIAN NEW DEAL

I.  The Indian New Deal in retrospect

A. Some positives for Indians: economic benefits, arts and crafts, bi-cultural education

B. A common criticism: imposition of non-Indian government forms and "scientific" resource management

C. Collier's constant battle with opponents

II. Effects of World War II

A. Weakened BIA

B. Indians drawn off reservations

C. New arguments for advocates of Indian assimilation

D. New Indian leadership


February 17

TALK OF FREEING INDIANS FROM U.S. SUPERVISION

I.  Settling up for U.S. wrongs to Indians

A. The Indian Claims Commission, 1946-1978

B. Effects on tribes

II. Overview of "termination" policy

III. Factors contributing to the policy change

A. The recent fight against fascism

B. Cold War pressure for conformity

C. The postwar economic boom

D. The rhetoric of freedom

IV. Political/legal developments

A. A BIA proposal to phase out supervision, 1947

B. GOP control of Congress, 1952

C. House Concurrent Resolution 108, 1953

D. Public Law 280, 1953

E. Individual tribes "terminated"


February 18

TERMINATION POLICY IN PRACTICE

I.  Laws terminating U.S. responsibility for particular tribes

II. The Colville termination controversy

III. BIA program to relocate Indians to cities

IV. The policy's gradual loss of favor

A. Discrediting factors

B. Organized Indian opposition

C. Political power shift

D. Kennedy Administration attitude

E. American Indian Chicago conference, 1961

F. Young Indian activists


February 24

RECENT ROOTS OF THE TRIBAL RENAISSANCE

I. Issues highlighted in the town meeting

II. Organized Indian opposition to termination, 1954+

A. Seeing reasons to oppose termination and insist on federal responsibility

B. NCAI lobbying efforts and growing national Indian political consciousness

C. Growing pan-Indian cultural consciousness

D. More educated Indians and published Indian writers

III. Other factors in the national context

IV. The War on Poverty, 1963+

A. Aims and process

B. Effects in reservation communities


March 1

THE SIXTIES FOR INDIANS 

I. Effects of the War on Poverty

A. Tribal government revival

B. Modest, temporary economic gains

II. Ambiguous federal policy

A. Special presidential message, 1968: a right to self-determination

B. Indian Civil Rights Act, 1968

III. Increasing urban Indian populations


March 2

MILITANTS

I. The urban experience

A. Keeping ties to the reservations

B. Finding other Indians in the city

C. Founding the American Indian Movement, 1968

II. Factors encouraging Nixon to address Indian concerns

III. Demonstrations and occupations

A. Precedents in the 1950s and '60s

B. Alcatraz, 1969

C. Fort Lawton, Seattle, 1970

D. Trail of Broken Treaties, 1972

E. Wounded Knee, 1973

F. Reactions

1. The American public

2. Reservation leaders

3. Nixon Adminstration


March 3

BATTLING WITH GUNS AND WITH LAWYERS

I. Climax of militant Indian protests

A. Wounded Knee occupation, 1973

B. Reactions to militant activists

1. The American public

2. Reservation leadership

3. Nixon Administration

II. Indian claims in federal courts

A. Native American Rights Fund

B. Stopping state interference with tribal rights

1. Williams v. Lee, 1959 (jurisdiction over Indians on reservation)

2. U.S. v. Washington. 1974 (treaty fishing rights)

C. Clarifying the nature and limits of tribal sovereignty

1. U.S. v. Wheeler, 1978 (double jeopardy)

2. Oliphant v. Suquamish Tribe, 1978 (tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians)

3. Tribes' power to tax

D. Asserting rights to resources such as water

E. Determining and enforcing federal responsibilities to Indians


March 8

SELF-DETERMINATION POLICY, 1970s-80s

I. Review of relevant court rulings

A. Cases about tribal and state powers

B. Cases about federal responsibility

C. Your questions

II. Nixon administration support for a policy of tribal self-determination

III. American Indian Policy Review Commission report, 1977

IV. Federal legislation reflecting respect for tribal rights

A. Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, 1975

B. Indian Child Welfare Act, 1978

C. Indian Religious Freedom Act, 1978


March 10

SELF-DETERMINATION SINCE THE 1980s

I. The problem of economic dependency

A. Obstacles to economic development

B. Reagan Administration funding cuts

II. The promise and perils of casinos

A. Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, 1988

B. Growth and consequences of tribal gaming enterprises

III. Determining who is entitled to "special" Indian rights

A. Tribes recognized by the U.S. government

1. A history of political relations

2. Federal recognition and acknowledgment process

B. Individual Indian status

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