Happy #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth. Everyday this month I am sharing a little lesson. #WeAreStillHere #NativeIn2019
Today's lesson is about US policy towards Indians post 1900.
Today's lesson is about US policy towards Indians post 1900.
87% percent of state history curriculum standards about Native Americans cover events BEFORE the year 1900. I always tell ppl talking about Native issues would be like if anytime I told some one I was a feminist they responded by saying “Its so messed up you can’t vote.”
People's understanding of Native history drops off a cliff circa 1900. So here are some US policies towards Native Americans passed AFTER 1900 every one should know about.
1.) Indian Boarding Schools were designed to assimilate Native Americans to under the slogan “kill the Indian, save the man.” In addition to children being beaten for speaking their languages, the schools were also places of well documented sexual and physical abuse.
You probably were never taught about the boarding school system because only Arizona, Washington, Oklahoma, and Kansas include it in their state curriculum.
2. Voting rights and Citizenship: Native Americans did not become citizens of the United States until 1924. Indians in New Mexico and Arizona didn’t gain the right to vote until 1948. Many Native people living on reservations did not gain full voting rights until the 1970’s.
And for many tribes, when we gained U.S. citizenship it was through a political processes that weakened the sovereignty of our own tribal governments and broke up treaty territories.
3. From the 1940s-1960s Congress sought to end the US's treaty and trust responsibilities by "terminating tribes". Over 100 tribes lost their federal recognition during this time. While the era is over, Congress STILL has that authority to take away a tribe's legal status.
4. The Indian Relocation Program was designed to move Native people off reservations or away from their home communities to assimilate them to mainstream, US society. While the program promised jobs, many families faced poverty, homelessness and racism.
However, Urban Indians created new and robust communities in cities like Baltimore, New York, San Francisco and Minneapolis. Many of these urban centers became the grounds for indigenous organizing and resistance in the ’60’s and ’70’s.
5. Between 1973 and 1976 3,406 Native women were sterilized by IHS without their permission or knowledge. In 1974, a study of Cherokee and Choctaw women found that 1 in 4 had been sterilized without their consent. Full-blooded Native women were targeted for sterilization.
6. When the Indian Childhood welfare Act of 1978 was passed, congress admitted that 25-35% of Native children had been adopted out of their homes, families and tribes by White and non-Native families. Native communities lost a full third of that generation.
ICWA was created to keep Native children with their tribes and in Native communities and stipulates that when a Native kid is up for adoption they should be prioritized to be place with a family member, tribal member or other Native home.
