Historical Overview of Native Americans: Pre-European Settlement to Modern Politics - Prof, Exams of Introduction to Sociology

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Sociology 220 Pamela Oliver

Historical Overview for Native Americans

Pre-Europeans Americans arrived from Asian via land bridge, 25,000 - 40,000 years ago. spread south. Urban horticultural empires in Mexico, Central America, Peru. Higher population densities, settled agriculture. Spanish colonialists added layer on top, native population still there in many places. (Will return to this for "Latinos.")

What is now US and Canada was more sparsely settled; over 300 languages. Highest ests of NA pop in 1500 are 12 - 15 million, lowest is 5 million (current pop of entire state of WI). No large empires, no kings. Small decentralized bands, sometimes organized into loose confederations, but with little centralization of power, led to varied and shifting response to Europeans; not just impose European king at the top of a hierarchy.

Initial Confrontations: Colonial Period 1500-1800. Horses from Mexico lead to Plains culture, buffalo hunting on horseback. Fur trading leads to reorganization of economies. Some adoption of new agricultural methods, especially in the southeast. European settlement dense only along northeast coast. French and English competing to settle; each forms alliances with different American groups, who are drawn into their ongoing wars. Some groups move west , out of the way; others fight; others try to live in peace. Many die in warfare, dislocation, or disease. In first census of the new US govt in 1800, NA pop counted at 600,000. Quite a few European males married into American tribes; their mixed-ancestry descendants probably increase in relative numbers due to high death rates among Americans.

European-American Conquest 1800-1900. Once independent, the US govt encourages a flood of immigration from Europe and turns west to conquer the continent. Rough timetable: 1800-1830, eastern seaboard; 1830-1860, to Mississippi + California; 1860 - 1890, Plains wars, opening of "Indian territory" to Europeans, final battles in southwest and northwest. By 1850, census counts 250,000 "Indians." By 1900, it is well under 200,000. General pattern: Initially native groups vary in response, some fight wars of resistance, others try to create "peaceful coexistence," others adopt European ways and try to assimilate, either as groups or individuals. (The descendants of some who int ermarry do successfully assimilate and blend into the "white" population.) Outcome of the process is native people are pushed off their land and forced to relocate to "reservations" in more or less coerced treaties which guarantee them rights to reservation land in exchange for giving up fighting and giving up their claims to their original land. Some reservations are large enough and have enough resources to permit economic development and the creation of a viable way of life; most are not. After treaties are signed, European-Americans covet reservation land, and use various strategies to reduce the sizes of reservations still further. Once on reservation, NatAms try to figure out how to create a new life, defend themselves from further attacks by EurAms. Many different groups are dumped and jumbled together on reservations as "Indians," have to find some way to get along.

1824 BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) created under the War Dept. (Moved to Department of the Interior in the 20th century, after the wars are over.) 1830 Indian Removal Act. Eastern tribes to move west of Mississippi. SE: Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole moved to Oklahoma. "trail of tears." Formerly separate groups forced to live together and share space in "Indian Territory." Initially left alone, by 1850s, pressure starts again. EurAms violate treaties and official US law, and move into Indian Territory (Kansas, etc.). "Indians" complain, resist, attack settlers; US army sent in to protect EurAm settlers. 1860 Civil War divides self-governing "civilized" tribes in Indian Territory, who aren't sure who to side with. Some stay out, some join North, some join South. General dislocation and disruption. After the Civil War among EurAms is over, the EurAm war against the Indians on the Plains heats up. Beginning 1870, tribes regroup in the Okmulgee Council, originally 14 tribes, up to 22, create a kind of federated structure in Indian territory, try to welcome and incorporate Plains Indians being "cleared" from the plains. 1871 Indian Appropriations Act. US decides it will no longer sign treaties, will just legislate. This land belongs to Eur-Ams, who will decide what to do with NatAms. 1870s - 1890s. The last "Indian wars." Lots of tales of struggle and despair, as many bands give in and t ake forcible relocation, while some make valiant stands in final battles to t he death. Ghost Dance spreads. 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn, last Sioux victory. 1890, army breaks up a Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee Creek on Pine Ridge, SD reservation; 300 Sioux (including women and children) and 25 soldiers killed; final defat for Sioux. 1887 General Allotment Act. Give every individual 160 acres so you could farm like a European. "Surplus" parcels available to whites. Break up collective holdings. Five Tribes have legal self government, hold out against allotment. 1898 Congress passes Curtis Act, forcing allotment and division of their other property, terminating their government. Dept of Interior takes over their schools, turns them into a public school system. 1901 Tribal citizens declared citizens of US and Territory of Oklahoma, 1907 Oklahoma admitted to the Union as a state. Mixed bloods settle in as citizens. Full bloods often refuse, live in reclusive destitution with no basis for survival at all.

Legacies and Contradictions: 1890- Fundamental contradiction: Nat Am view is that they are separate groups who have certain things guaranteed to them by the treaties which they got in exchange for their surrender and the loss of their land and livelihood. Eur Am view is that there shouldn't be any culturally- distinct Nat Ams, that they should just assimilate into EurAm society on EurAm terms. 20th century is constant tension between these ideas. NatAms generally hate their dependent situation and governance by BIA. But abolition of their special status leaves them no protection against EurAm attacks on their land, livelihood, and way of life. Periodically, US Congress proposes and sometimes passes laws whose purpose basically is to pay NatAms money in exchange for their historic claims, to buy their way out of the legacy of the past. But, of course, they don't want to pay too much. These efforts in Congress encounter organized legal and political resistance, generally led by educated relatively assimilated NatAms (often of mixed ancestry). 1920s-1930s. Several successful campaigns against bills in Congress to allot timberlands held by NatAms and to recognize the "rights" of EurAm squatters on reservations. 1924: US Congress declares remaining Indians to be US citizens. 1928 government commission finds

shocking levels of poverty, disease, suffering, discontent, non-adjustment; leads to reform movement; 1932 Protestant churches join reform movement. 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. Generally reformist; permits self-govt (on terms defined by Congress); stops allotments; allocates money. Sympathetic reformers give positive publicity to Indians; religious freedom is tentatively extended to Indian religions. Sympathetic but colonial: give mixed bloods full voting rights, insist on one government per reservation regardless of how many groups live there; many full bloods refuse to participate, and there are often two or more competing govts with different bases of legitimacy on a reservation. US govt, BIA deal only with the "official" one. WWII: Many Indians join military, gain sense of potency. (Like other groups.) Others rejected for illiteracy; tribes call for more education. 1944 National Congress of American Indians, presses land claims, legal strategies. 1946 Indian Claims Commission. Supposed to hear and settled "all" claims in five years, but st ill meeting. Will only pay 19th century value of illegally seized land, then deduct cost of "services" provided by BIA. 1950s. Some anti-reform EurAms launch a counter-attack, decrying to lerance for native religion, using language of "freedom" to call for abolition of all special status for Indians. Termination: stop special status of tribes. Several actually terminated; a disaster for those affected. NatAms "encouraged" to move to cities, live city life. Over half are no w urban. 1960s- Changing climate created by Civil Rights Movement gives legitimacy to group claims, inspires militancy, gives hope. 1964 Fish-in in Washington, exercising 1854 treaty rights; civil disobedience; 1964 Supreme Court rules in favor of Indians. 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island. 1969-74 (Nixon Years): many land claims settled, but also increased militancy, as govt listens only to most conservative Indians; militant American Indian Movement formed in 1972. 1973, Battle of Wounded Knee II, Russell Means; begins as internal conflict among Sioux, then 300 occupy Wounded Knee, SD, for 70 days, 2 die; great publicity. Means eventually imprisoned. 1975 Council of Energy Resource Tribes, modelled after OPEC; getting very large settlements, used to diversity economies. 1982, st ill over 100 million acres of land worth billions of dollars tied up in land claim disputes. After 1960s, courts almost always rule that native land claims and 19th century treaties are valid. 1988, 1/3 of BIA schools still boarding schools (1/ Indian kids attend BIA schools). Very low rates of college enrollment, 5/1000 for Indians vs. 80/1000 for blacks and 825/1000 for whites. Current Politics: Continuing struggles over land claims, "special" rights, privileges, status stemming from 19th century treaties. Native claims linked up with environmentalism, as an international trend. EurAm state and local govts hold conventions to try to figure out how to counter native claims. Extreme poverty, alcoholism, lack of any viable economic basis on most reservations, but urbanization and jobs means loss of traditional way of life. Although gerrymandering of electoral districts was an issue in a few areas, especially in southwest, in most places there are too few Indians for them to be an electoral threat. Debates about pride in US citizenship versus rejection of US; debates about pan-Indian identity versus particular group; debates about who really counts as an Indian (given mixed ancestry, etc.)