VI.

Allotment Period

Since its beginnings, the United States government had treated Native Americans as sovereign peoples and used treaties as the legal basis for most of its relationships with them. Between 1778 and 1871, Congress had approved more than 370 treaties with Native American groups, while hundreds more were negotiated but never approved.

This policy changed after the Civil War. Reformers who were concerned about the plight of Native Americans and industrialists who wanted their land and resources decided that assimilating native peoples into American society was a preferable policy. In 1871 the federal government enacted a law stating that the United States would no longer treat Native American tribal groups as independent nations. This legislation signaled a fundamental shift in the government’s relationship with Native Americans. Congress would no longer regard tribal groups as nations outside of its jurisdictional control, but rather as wards of the federal government.

By making the native peoples wards of the government, Congress believed it would be better able to promote their assimilation into the cultural mainstream of white America. Corporate interests intent on developing the West and eastern reformers critical of the government’s past policies toward Native Americans all believed that assimilation was the most effective resolution to what they called the “Indian problem.” The new policy would bring Native Americans one step closer to the end of their tribal identity and the beginning of their existence as individuals under the control of the United States government.

The government’s policies of assimilation extended into all areas of Native American life—economic, political, cultural, and spiritual. For example, government regulations that remained in force until the 1930s sought to destroy the essence of Native American culture by forbidding the practice of traditional spiritual ceremonies. Reservation agents used such tactics as withholding rations and goods to encourage attendance at Christian churches. With government support, some of these churches established day schools and boarding schools where children were taught English and forbidden to speak their native tongues. Government or church-appointed superintendents settled disputes and dictated political and economic decisions, assuming roles that had formerly been filled by tribal leaders. The Major Crimes Act, enacted in 1885, gave the United States government criminal jurisdiction over native peoples who committed any of seven major crimes, including murder and burglary. Agents on more than two-thirds of the reservations established courts to enforce federal regulations that, in many cases, outlawed traditional cultural and spiritual practices.

In 1887 Congress passed the centerpiece of the assimilation program, the General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Act. The objective of this legislation was to “civilize” Native Americans by teaching them to become farmers and ranchers. Congress wanted to break up the reservations, which were communally owned, and give individual Native Americans their own plots of land. Heads of households received about 30 to 60 hectares (80 to 160 acres), depending on the suitability of the land for agriculture and ranching; their wives and children, as well as unmarried adults, received smaller plots, usually 20 to 30 hectares (40 to 80 acres).

The allotment process was not accepted willingly by most native peoples. For many, the land was the spiritual and cultural center of their lives. To treat the land as an economic commodity undermined their sense of identity and their values. The division of reservations into small parcels led to a rapid reduction in the amount of land owned by Native Americans. Within 30 years, tribes had lost two-thirds of the territory they had controlled in 1887. The government sold most of the land remaining after the allotment process to white settlers. Over the years, individual Native American landowners were often forced to sell their allotments to pay bills or to feed their families.

For the next several decades Native Americans lived under a policy that outlawed their traditional means of existence, yet failed to provide adequate resources to support educational, health, and economic programs necessary for a new life. In 1924 Congress extended American citizenship to all Native Americans, although by this time nearly two-thirds of native peoples were already citizens, including those who served in the United States military during World War I (1914-1918). The right of American citizenship did not replace Native American tribal membership, nor did it necessarily free native peoples from their position as wards of the government. Citizenship also did not offer significant improvement in living standards, and reformers continued to find fault with the government’s policy toward Native Americans. Many of their criticisms were confirmed by the Merriam Report, an independent study commissioned to review the administration of Native American affairs. The report, published in 1928, described the loss of tribal lands through the allotment process, the poor health and educational levels of Native Americans, and the lack of control native people had over their own lives.