Transcript legal geographies

“Pendulum” of Indian policy
• Cycles of binary thinking
(“good” or “bad” Indian)
• Policy swings between
Autonomy and Assimilation
• Policies intended to assimilate
often backfired on gov’t
Early Indian Policies
• Treaties, 1770s-1871
– Took land but
recognized nationhood
• Removal, 1820s-50s
– Moved tribes but
sparked resistance
• Reservations, 1830s-80s
– Isolated tribes but
retained land base/self-rule
Recent Indian
• Allotment / boarding
Policies schools, 1880s-1920s
• Indian New Deal /
Reorganization, 1930s-40s
• Termination/
Urban Relocation, 1950s-60s
• Political Self-Determination,
1970s-80s
• Economic/Cultural
Self-Determination 1990s?
ALLOTMENT ERA, 1880s-1920s
• General Allotment
Act, 1887 (Dawes Act)
• Privatized Indian lands
to create farmers
• Non-Indians
“checkerboarded”
most reservations
Allotment, 1887-1934
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Each tribal member
received allotment
(in trust 25 years)
160
Alloted acreage
80
40
Head of
household
Single
adults
Kids
Surplus land sold to
white settlers
Many allotted lands
taken through fraud
(via language, kids, etc.)
Gov’ts foreclosed lands
for unpaid taxes
Effects of Allotment
Half of reservation lands lost
private property
(“break up tribal mass”)
156
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Notion of individual
Millions of acres
Farming failed in
78
some regions.
BIA undermined
tribal governments
1881
1900
18 million acres allotted;
49 million acres surplus
Split tribal membership
Vulnerable
lands
Rich farmland
Forests (timber)
Lakefront
Minerals/oil
Oneida
(1838)
2,581 acres
Tribal
18%
Alloted
82%
(1978 figures)
Lac Courte
Oreilles
(1854)
30,529 acres
Tribal
13%
Alloted
87%
Bad River (1854)
41,802 acres
Tribal
20%
Alloted
80%
Lac du Flambeau
(1854)
40,479 acres
Alloted
38%
Tribal
62%
Red Cliff (1854)
7,267 acres
Alloted
30%
Tribal
70%
St. Croix (1934)
1,715 acres
Alloted
30%
Tribal
70%
Federal attacks on sovereignty
1885: Major Crimes Act creates federal jurisdiction
over 7 crimes between Indians on Indian land:
(Murder, Manslaughter, Rape, Assault w/ intent to kill, Arson,
Burglary, Larceny)
1886: Kagama decision extends federal “plenary
power” over Indians to an “incontrovertible right.”
Congress passes ~ 5,000 laws regulating Indians--most without
their consent or input.
Boarding Schools
• Removal of kids from family, land
• Cultural assimilation/Christianizing
• Economic training
BIA and Mission School policies
• Forced attendance
• Native name replaced
• Languages forbidden
• Hair, clothing changed
• Practicing traditions taboo
St. Joseph’s
Catholic School,
Menominee Res.
Unintended effects
• Students learned to
work the white system
• Students met other
tribal members
• Turned negative into
“pan-Indian” (supratribal)
national movement
Tribal backlash
to allotment
• 1894 Hopi petition
• Allotment ended in
Southwest, 1911
• Merriam Report
blamed allotment
for poverty, 1928
xxxxx
Early Protests
• Opposed allotment
• Christian churches
against poverty
• Lone Wolf decision
kept Indians as federal
“wards”, 1903
• Nice decision: wards
even if citizens, 1916
Society of American Indians
Favored
“progressive”
(assimilation)
solutions
Not “traditional”
(tribal) solutions
But raised
public awareness
Indian Citizenship Act, 1924
Some veterans, allottees already citizens
Rest of Indians became dual citizens of U.S. & own nation
Kept “right of any Indian to tribal or other property”
Some traditionalists opposed U.S. citizenship
INDIAN NEW DEAL ERA
1930s-1940s
• Indian Reorganization
Act (IRA), 1934
(Wheeler-Howard Act)
• Identified with FDR
& BIA’s John Collier
• Intended to end
allotment, start
autonomy
Autonomy Effects of IRA
• (Altered) self-rule
restored on some rezes
ak
• Resisted by some tribes
- Hopi, Pueblos
• Tensions between
traditional Chiefs &
IRA “tribal councils”
on some reservations
- Lakota, Iroquois
Assimilationist Effects of IRA
• Replaced traditional
governance with U.S.
model like corporate boards
• Companies had picked Tribal
Council to sign mineral leases
(Standard Oil on Navajo)
• Tribes to develop constitutions,
hold elections, use foreign
parliamentary procedures
• Interior/BIA controlled funds,
could veto tribal decisions
Indian Claims Commission, 1946
Settled (extinguished) tribal land claims until 1978
Tribe paid estmated “price per acre” of the land at time it
was illegally taken ($1200 each to Potawatomi)
ICC did not return land; some tribes turned down $$
Cultural Survival through “Dark Ages”
TERMINATION
ERA, 1950s-60s
Termination Resolution (1953)
to “free” successful tribes from
federal gov’t, communal lands
Ended 109 tribes, subjected
to state/local control
Federal services lost; private
lands lost via tax foreclosure
Menominee terminated, 1961-73
Major cause stimulating
Indian rights movement;
13 tribes restored
Federal moves vs. sovereignty
NW Shoshone decision, 1942
(treaty rights only for “temporary occupancy”)
Public Law 280, 1953
(state law enforcement on rezes in 5 states, include. WI)
Tee-Hit-Ton decision, 1955
(Alaskan tribe has no pre-Conquest “aboriginal rights”)
Activism in 1950s-early 1960s
Returning WWII, Korean war veterans fight for rights
National Congress of American Indians, 1944
American Indian Chicago Conference, 1961; NIYC 1963
Iroquois protest at U.S.-Canada border for Jay Treaty
Relocation Act, 1956
Force Indians off reservation
by offering job training
opportunities in urban areas.
Individuals made to sign
agreements that they would
not return to their reservations.
Urban populations grew in LA,
NY, Chicago, Mpls, Denver,
Albuquerque, OKC, etc.
Effects of Urban
Relocation, 1960s
Loss of Native culture &
languages, yet kept touch
with rural reservation
Increased contact among
different tribes; growth of
pan-Indian identity
Chicago
American
Indian
Center
powwow
Common experience of
urban poverty & struggle
Exposure to civil rights
activism, successes
POLITICAL SELF-DETERMINATION
ERA, 1970s-1980s
American Indian Movement, 1968
Founded at Stillwater Prison;
inspired by Black Panthers
Urban Indians monitored
Minneapolis police brutality
on Franklin Avenue
Made contact with traditional
chiefs on reservations; fused
urban and rural activism
Alcatraz 1969
Indians of All Tribes
occupies abandoned
San Francisco Bay prison
Cites law that unused
federal property
reverts to tribes
First major national
pan-Indian action
Trail of Broken Treaties 1972
Caravan to Washington,
DC for self-determination
Unplanned occupation of
BIA headquarters before
1972 election
Nixon White House
embarrassed by clashes
AIM 1972-73
AIM protests beating
death of Lakota elder
in Gordon, Nebraska
Police attack on
courthouse protesters in
leads to Custer, SD riot
AIM backs Lakota traditionalists
vs. corrupt Pine Ridge Chairman
Dick Wilson, and his Guardians
Of the Oglala Nation (GOON)
AIM 1972-73
AIM protests beating
death of Lakota elder
in Gordon, Nebraska
Police attack on
courthouse protesters in
leads to Custer, SD riot
AIM backs Lakota traditionalists
vs. corrupt Pine Ridge Chairman
Dick Wilson, and his Guardians
Of the Oglala Nation (GOON)
Wounded Knee 1973
Taking a stand at the site of 1890 massacre on Pine Ridge
Wilson’s tribal government
backed by BIA, FBI,
U.S. Marshalls, military
AIM and Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization in W.K.
Traditional
Lakota Chiefs
redeclared an
Independent
Oglala Nation
Drew Indians
from around
North
America
Example of
traditional
self-rule?
2 AIM killed; many injured; surrendered after 71 days
Aftermath of
Wounded Knee Siege
AIM leaders tried,
but few convicted
( FBI misconduct &
COINTELPRO files)
After W.K.:
3 years of violence
on Pine Ridge;
up to 80 Lakota died
Oglala, June 26, 1975:
2 FBI , 1 AIM die;
Day after land transfer.
Peltier later convicted.
1960s-1970s romanticism
• Support for Native environmentalism
• Rebirth of “Noble Savage” images
• Chief Seattle speech rewritten to
emphasize ecological themes
Iron Eyes
Cody ad
vs. pollution
Pendulum swings to autonomy
1975: Indian Self-determination and Educational
Assistance Act lets tribes manage own housing, lawenforcement, health, social service, development.
1978: Indian Child Welfare Act gives tribes
authority over most Indian adoption and child custody
Wisconsin occupations, 1970s
Gresham
Menominee still poor after 1973
restoration; needed hospital
Menominee Warrior Society
occupies Alexian Novitiate
near Gresham
Battles with white vigilantes;
National Guard separates sides
Milwaukee Coast Guard Station
occupied, 1971 (used as school)
Milwaukee
1970s Activism
International Indian
Treaty Council, 1974;
hemispheric networks
United Nations
Indigenous Peoples
Conference,
Geneva, 1977
Longest Walk
(SF to DC) opposes
legislation, 1978
Treaty rights backlash, 1980s
• Began in Northwest
fishing conflicts, 1960s
• Sportsmen &
reservation whites
oppose tribal land use
• “Wise Use” resource
& corporate interests
• WI, MN groups part
of national movement
Self-Determination
extends to economy
& culture,early 1990s
Seminole casino
• Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act, 1988
• Tribes allowed same
level of games as
their states
• Casinos give tribes
new jobs, influence
Columbus Day
Reburial ceremony
• Public awareness of
Columbus, mascots,
sacred sites, etc.
Big Foot Memorial Ride
Commemorating
journey leading up to
1890 Wounded Knee
massacre
Oka 1990
Armed standoff between
Mohawk Warrior Society &
Canadian Army over burial
site threatened by golf course
Early 1990s romanticism
• “Noble savages”
in Dances with Wolves
• New Age groups
exploit spirituality
• But growing support for
Native environmental
movement
2000s backlash?
• Gaming revenue conflicts
WI Republican video of
tribes “scalping” taxpayer
– “Rich Indians” message
(like Termination, anti-Semitism?)
• Reservation jurisdiction
conflicts
– More conservative judges
• Tribes now have means
to fight back in this cycle?
Schwarzenegger ads against
tribal campaign donations :
The New “Terminator”?
Pendulum of Federal Indian Policy
Era
Policy trend
Global trend
1880s-1920s:
Assimilation
Imperialism/racism
1930s-1940s:
Autonomy
Economic reform
1950s-early 60s:
Assimilation
Cold War/individualism
1970s-early 90s:
Autonomy
Civil rights/liberation
Late 1990s-2000s: Assimilation?
Anti-multiculturalism