Native American History Midterm
The Policy of Negotiation (1785-1830s)
In August 1787 Congress advocated dropping "a language of superiority and command" in favor of dealing "with the Indians more on a footing of equality,... and instead of attempting to give lands to the Indians to proceed on the principle of fairly purchasing of them".
Domestic Dependent Nations
In defining tribal sovereign powers, Justice Marshall described tribes as "domestic dependent nations," meaning that although tribes were "distinct independent political communities," they remained subject to the paternalistic powers of the United States.
The Removal Act (1830)
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy.
The Paris Peace of 1783 and the Theory of Conquest
The Peace of Paris (between U.S. and GB after revolution) ignores Native peoples' rights. The Peace of Paris, the set of treaties (Treaty of Paris and the Treaties of Versailles, 1783) that end the American Revolutionary War, defines the territorial claims of the United States from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. ("We claim the country by conquest," federal agents informed Delawares and Wyandots in 1785.)
Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia (1831)
The court said that the Cherokee Nation did not possess original jurisdiction because the tribe was not a state. Despite their claim in Cherokee Nation V. Georgia, the United States Supreme Court labeled the Cherokee Nation tribe as a "denominated domestic dependent nation."
Stereotypes
Native Americans were seen as uncivilized, brutal savages all propaganda fueled by the US government
Romanticization: 'Noble Savage' and 'Vanishing Indian'
(mid 1800s) Native Americans were portrayed as relics of the past and this narrative was used to further portray how Indians should assimilate and adopt western civilization; propaganda used to get rid of the Indian culture now and try and make honor of the past
The "Peace Policy"
1868: President Grant advances "Peace Policy" with tribes. President Ulysses S. Grant advances a "Peace Policy" to remove corrupt Indian agents, who supervise reservations, and replace them with Christian missionaries, whom he deems morally superior.
The Allotment Act (Dawes Act) 1887
A federal law intended to turn Native Americans into farmers and landowners by providing cooperating families with 160 acres of reservation land for farming or 320 acres for grazing. authorized the President of the United States to survey American Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians.
Federal Recognition
American Indian tribal recognition in the United States most often refers to the process of a tribe being recognized by the United States federal government, or to a person being granted membership to a federally recognized tribe. There are 567 federally recognized tribal governments in the United States.
"Great Sioux Uprising" (aka The Dakota War) 1862
By 1862, the treaty and reservation system significantly changed Dakota culture and shrank its land base to a small tract of land along the Minnesota River. The war itself resulted in the deaths of hundreds of settlers, soldiers and Dakota, and depopulated much of southwest Minnesota for more than a year. With the abrogation of the treaties after the war, all Dakota land in Minnesota was opened to settlement. Passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 virtually guaranteed that this newly vacated land would be filled quickly with white settlers. Exiled from the state, the Dakota were left to create new lives on reservations further west in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota or north in Canada. The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 set the stage for continued warfare with the Lakota in the coming decades, ultimately resulting in Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn and the massacre at Wounded Knee.
The Homestead Act of 1862
Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act encouraged Western migration by providing settlers 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. The measure, which had been proposed years before, was originally intended to give an additional economic advantage to individual farmers over slave plantation owners.
Five 'Civilized' Tribes
The term "Five Civilized Tribes" derives from the colonial and early federal period in the history of the United States. It refers to five Native American nations—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole. ... The term has been criticized for its ethnocentric definition of civilization.
Settler Colonialism
a distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that, over time, develops a distinctive identity and sovereignty.
Tecumsah/ Handsome Lake
a leader and prophet, played a major role in reviving traditional religion among the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), or Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. He preached a message that combined traditional Haudenosaunee religious beliefs with a revised code meant to revive traditional consciousness to the Haudenosaunee after a long period of cultural disintegration following colonization. This message was eventually published as the "Code of Handsome Lake" and is still practiced today.
Trust Doctrine
a legal obligation under which the United States "has charged itself with moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust" toward Indian tribes. Over the years, the trust doctrine has been at the center of numerous Supreme Court cases, thus making it one of the most important principles in federal Indian law. The federal Indian trust responsibility is also a legally enforceable fiduciary obligation on the part of the United States to protect tribal treaty rights, lands, assets, and resources, as well as a duty to carry out the mandates of federal law with respect to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages
"Battle of Sand Creek" 1864
a massacre in the American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864, when a 675-man force of Colorado U.S. Volunteer Cavalry[3] under the command of U.S. Army Colonel John Chivington attacked and destroyed a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho in southeastern Colorado Territory,[4] killing and mutilating an estimated 70-163 Native Americans, about two-thirds of whom were women and children.
"Total Institution"
a place of work and residence where a great number of similarly situated people, cut off from the wider community for a considerable time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life. The concept is mostly associated with the work of sociologist Erving Goffman.
Cultural Genocide
a term used to describe the deliberate destruction of the cultural heritage of a people or nation for political, military, religious, ideological, ethnical, or racial reasons
Manifest Destiny
coined in 1840, this 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.
Richard Henry Pratt
is best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is associated with the first recorded use of the word "racism", which he used in 1902 to criticize against racial segregation, as well as the phrase "kill the Indian... and save the man" in reference to the efforts to educate Native Americans.
Plenary Power
that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution is the basis for congressional plenary power (power that has been granted to a body, or person, in absolute terms, with no review of, or limitations upon the exercise of that power) over all Indian affairs. ... To regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.
Decolonization
the act of getting rid of colonization, or freeing a country from being dependent on another country.
Tribal Sovereignty
the concept of the inherent authority of indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.
Assimilation
the process of taking in and fully understanding information or ideas.
Erasure (Genocide)
the removal of writing, recorded material, or data; obliteration
Ely Parker
was a Seneca attorney, engineer, and tribal diplomat. He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel during the American Civil War, when he served as adjutant and secretary to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. He wrote the final draft of the Confederate surrender terms at Appomattox. Later in his career, Parker rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general. President Grant appointed him as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1871, the first Native American to hold that post. HE WANTED PUBLIC OVERSIGHT OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION. HE WANTED NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO OVERSEE THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN POLICY. HE thought THIS WOULD HELP WITH ROOTING OUT THE MISMANAGEMENT. • HE WANTED TO ESTABLISH AND PROTECT SPECIFIC LAND RIGHTS FOR TRIBAL COMMUNITIES. HE SAW THE piecemeal CHOPPING AWAY AT TRIBAL LAND BASES AS LEADING TO MUCH OF THE STRIFE AND TENSION IN THE WEST. So, HE WANTED TO PROTECT AND MAINTAIN SPECIFIC LAND TITLES. • HE also wanted TO bureaucratize THE OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.
Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
was a case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional. The opinion is most famous for its dicta, which laid out the relationship between tribes and the state and federal governments, stating that the federal government was the sole authority to deal with Indian nations. It is considered to have built the foundations of the doctrine of tribal sovereignty in the United States.
"Red Cloud's War" (1866-1867)
was an armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho on one side and the United States in Wyoming and Montana territories from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the western Powder River Country in present north-central Wyoming. This grassland, rich in buffalo, was traditionally Crow Indian land, but the Lakota had recently taken control. The Crow tribe held the treaty right to the disputed area, according to the major agreement reached at Fort Laramie in 1851. All involved in "Red Cloud's War" were parties in that treaty. With peace achieved under the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, the Lakota and their allies were victorious. They gained legal control of the western Powder River country, took down the forts and permanently closed the Bozeman trail. Their victory however, only endured for 8 years until the Great Sioux War of 1876, when the US started to take some of their territories again, including the sacred Black Hills.
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder (R) of New York and granted full U.S. citizenship to the indigenous peoples of the United States, called "Indians" in this Act. an all-inclusive act, was passed by Congress. The privileges of citizenship, however, were largely governed by state law, and the right to vote was often denied to Native Americans in the early 20th century.