APUSH: Native American Policy Students will be able to review Native American policy of the U.S. government from 1816 to 1974 Warm-Up: Write down three events that are important to know in Native American history. Describe the significance of each. Be prepared to share with a partner and then the class. Announcements: Extra Help- Extra Credit: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Extra Credit- FivePrep.com HW: Posted under assignments tab. Please note: Castle Learning assignments have been added.

Native Americans Native Americans: teepee, scalp, headdress, buffalo There are many culturally different Native American groups in America. Only some lived in teepees or hunted the buffalo; scalping was introduced to Eastern Native Americans during the early days of the French and British colonies by army officers, who offered bounties for Indian allies of their enemies. During America’s history many Native American tribal groups have been regarded as sovereign nations. Clashes and conflicts have been the rule in the relationships between these tribal groups and white European Americans. There have been few exceptions.

The Declaration of Independence states, “He [King George III] has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. . . .” In 1820, the Five Civilized Tribes of the South (Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles) were forced to give up their lands by the Indian Removal Act. It gave the president the power to use force to move them west of the Mississippi River. President Jackson ignored Marshall’s rulings, which supported the claims of the Cherokee Nation to lands in what had been the British colonies of Georgia and North Carolina in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. Later, in Worcester v. Georgia, Marshall ruled that the Cherokee were a distinct political community entitled to federal protection against claims by Georgia. Jackson and the state of Georgia forced the Cherokee Nation to cede its land and travel the Trail of Tears westward.

In 1868 when the government signed peace treaties with a number of the warring tribes, Native Americans were forced to settle in one of two huge reservations, one in present-day Oklahoma (Medicine Lodge Treaty) and the other in present-day Montana and South Dakota (Fort Laramie Treaty). The government did not keep its promise to help with farming and supplies. The land assigned was poor agricultural land. When gold was discovered on part of the Lakota reservation in the Black Hills, the Lakota were required to vacate their lands. When they resisted, the U.S. government waged war against them. At the Battle of Little Bighorn, a combined force of Lakota and Cheyenne destroyed a cavalry force under the command of George Custer. Congress formed the Board of Indian Commissioners in 1869 to reform the reservation system. One of the major problems was whites who criminally defrauded Native Americans and stole their reservation lands. Another was that ambiguous federal laws were poorly enforced. On reservations, the government forced Indians to live in complete dependence on government assistance.

A reformer, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor in 1881 to call attention to injustices against Native Americans. The Dawes Severalty Act ended collective tribal ownership of land and divided reservations into 160-acre farms that were assigned to Native American families. The Bureau of Indian Affairs designed these schools to Americanize the Native Americans, as it was believed that the Indian culture prevented their assimilation into mainstream society and that it must be discarded. The motto of the Phoenix school was as follows: “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” The male students learned vocational trades, and the females learned how to maintain a traditional white American home. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was established to support the reservation system and promote both the assimilation of Native Americans and the use of the English language by Native Americans.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 recognized the interests of Native Americans and halted the sale of tribal lands. It restored tribes as legal entities that could apply for charters of incorporation and allowed them to pursue business ventures as tribes and to seek enforcement of earlier treaties. It ended the period of assimilation. Under President Richard Nixon, tribes were given control of governmental programs and schools on their reservations. The schools were to have a built-in cultural relevance to their students. The Indian Claims Commission restored lands and paid claims to Native Americans of Alaska, the Lakota, and Penobscot Indians of Maine, among others. Tribes began to pursue rights granted to them in earlier treaties.

Part B: Themes From a white settler’s viewpoint, Indians were uncivilized brutal savages, did not have a written language, and did not properly use the land they occupied; they were a nuisance, did not follow laws, and broke treaties. White America forced the destruction of Native American culture and settled Native Americans on reservations. After 1887, the common themes focused more on the harm done to Native Americans, including loss of culture, harmful reforms, forced assimilation, dishonest land agents, and forced dependency. After the 1920s and 1930s, the common themes were preservation of Indian traditions and recognition of Native American interests.

Exit Acitivity Complete Handout 22: Changing Policy toward Native Americans. Use the information from Handout 21 to develop a thesis statement for each of the prompts below. Formulate a short essay for one on the back of the worksheet. You need five supporting sentences and a conclusion. Extra credit for additional short essays (of high quality) written!

Exit Acitivity Might mention the Declaration of Independence, Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, and Supreme Court rulings, as well as tribal reservation policy, the decline in the buffalo population, the Fort Laramie and Medicine Lodge treaties, Black Hills, Board of Indian Commissioners, and George Custer and Little Big Horn; all aimed at protecting the white interests at the expense of Indians. Might mention the unintended consequences and harm these reforms inflicted on the Native Americans because of forced assimilation, as well as the corrupt practices of Indian agents, the loss of Indian land, and the loss of culture. Might discuss policies that attempted to allow self-determination among Indian tribes, to reduce interference by the government, to allow tribes to incorporate and seek profit from business ventures, to restore land, and to pursue reparation claims.