Essay on American Indians and World War II

However, this ban did not prevent the whites from trying to obtain the portions of land that the Indians owned. The Dawes Act was “a land grab that forced the Indians to sell large portions of their land to the government for white settlement” (Kauffman). This Dawes Act also had the potential to deprive the Indians of their lands. The rule was, “if the Indians did not select their land within four years, then government agents would select it for them” (Kauffman). The government had agents sent out to select the land for the Indians. The agents gave the poor and infertile lands to the Indians while making sure that the finest lands were sold to the whites and railroad investors. These agents were who conned the Indians into giving up their lands before they fully owned them. By giving the Indians infertile land, it made farming very difficult. This caused the Indians to sell or even give the land to the whites. These agents also contributed to the idea that critics had about the Dawes Act being just another attempt by the whites to take the Indians

It was wrong for the government to reduce the Indian’s land by 90 million acres. Was it not enough forcing them onto reservations? They were taken from their native lands, placed in reservations, and then had their land reduced. How could this possible be considered okay? In the course book on page 546, it talks about how in order to protect the Indians from land speculators, the government held the allotted land in trust. The Indians could not sell the land for 25 years. I did some research on the Dawes Allotment Act and found an article titled, “Cleveland signs devastating Dawes Act into law”, written by the History.com Staff. In this article, it talks more about the trust the lands were put in. As you can see the American ideals of “freedom”

Throughout American history, Native Americans have been mistreated and forced off their reservations by encroaching white settlers. However, in the 1940s, Native Americans were no longer leaving their reservations by force, but rather by choice. World War II was not only a global turning point for major world powers, but also a turning point for Native Americans, who found themselves fulfilling new roles at home and overseas. During the United States’ involvement in World War II, Native Americans were among the many minority groups who fought on and off the homefront to help America succeed. Many left their reservations and contributed to the war effort by joining the military in non-combat and combat positions, playing a key role in the United

The Dawes Act of 1887 was one of the biggest debates in history after the Civil War. The plan was meant to help American Indians, but it had many flaws and downfalls that it hurt them more than it helped. The act, proposed by Senator Henry Dawes in 1887, granted plots of land of different sizes, depending on family rank and age, to Native Americans. It also made it possible for any Native American born in the United States a path to citizenship. It stated that all the Native Americans had to do was adopt an American way of life. This part of the act was called assimilation, it stated that the Native Americans should adopt a new way of life that is more similar to the American culture. Many Native Americans didn’t want to change how they live

Passed in 1887, the General Allotment Act, or the Dawes Act, allotted, or parceled, portions of Native American reservations into individual and family hands. The authority of allotment was granted to the President of the United States.

Fewer acres were given to single people or minors. The allotted lands then had to be held in a trust for 25 years in order for the occupant to get the title to the land. If an Indian were to be alloted land or leave their way of life in a tribe, they could get Citizenship. The goal was to get the Indians to adopt a ‘civilized life’ and quicken the civilizing process & assimilation. This caused a change in the

“There was no way to return the land that had been taken to its rightful owners, and besides, the powerless remnants of once great Indian tribes were lucky to survive from one year to the next”. (VanDevelder 2) When the Dawes Act was repealed in 1934, alcoholism, poverty, illiteracy, and suicide rates struck the reservations. Another reform incident was the effort of civilizing the natives before, from Turner's frontier thesis saw the natives as less intelligible being and reasoned that it was their jobs to educate the Native American children. They were required to attend the

The Native Americans were exhausted when they touched base in Oklahoma, . Most of their belongings were lost on the trail. They felt betrayed and cheated by the government, who guaranteed them nourishment and supplies. With no learning of this new place, the Native Americans had no real option except to take what they had left to settle. Years later an alternate law would be passed to change the lives of the Native Americans once again. Formally titled the General Allotment Act of 1887, the Dawes Act approved the president of the United States to subdivide tribal reservations into private bundles of area that would then be "assigned" to individuals from every tribe. Intended to detribalise Indians and assimilate them into standard white society by changing them into self supporting ranchers and farmers, the Dawes Act turned into a cultural crisis amongst the Native Americans. The Dawes demonstration was made to attain to six objectives; to separate tribes as a social unit, empower singular activities, further the advancement of local agriculturists, decrease the expense of local organization, secure parts of the reservations as Indian land, and opening the rest of the Native American area to white pilgrims for benefit. All in all, the Dawes Act changed the legal status of Native Americans, and allowed President Cleveland to assimilate

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, also known as the Wheeler Howard Act or the IRA, had a major impact on the everyday lives of Native American Tribes that were scattered across the United states. The Indian Reorganization Act provided the means and tools for tribes to form their own governments and constitutions. The IRA stopped the general allotment act that was put into effect by the Dawes of 1887. The Indian Reorganization Act granted the Secretary of Interior a tremendous amount of power over Native American affairs ranging from land, livestock, employment, government, etc. According to the reorganization plan, after a tribe or nation voted to accept the IRA, it would draw up a constitution and bylaws, submit it to a referendum,

Indigenous peoples of the United States have been persecuted against since the birth of the nation. As years progressed, the Indians were stripped of their identity and exposed to the realities of the American lifestyle—a lifestyle that failed to coincide with the traditions and culture they possessed years prior to the influx of Americans into western territory. As desire for this territory increased due to economic ventures, and the ultimate desire to expand due to Manifest Destiny, measures needed to be taken to ensure the land was to be in full possession of the government. Thus, the Dawes Act was enacted in 1887, which allotted new lands to Indians in exchange for American citizenship. While its promise could be construed as a generous gesture by the government, the act in reality was nothing but a gesture; it was a burden. Therefore, the Dawes Act of 1887, along with other attempts of Indian assimilation, threatened family ties and culture, stripped them of sacred lands, and proved that citizenship came with a fatal denunciation of their culture.

Opportunity was sought out by the idea of starting a new life unknown vast of land but had destroyed many lives. America was thought to be great open land with no inhabitants for settlers but instead; millions of Native Americans living and calling that land their home already. Placard 2A titled “Getting Oriented” America was considered a place to be able to live freely and create opportunities that were not given Europe. As colonists were expanding, the Native American population was declining. Colonists were infecting Native Americans with diseases that they had no immunity to and the aspiration of settlers desiring more land. President Andrew Jackson was one of the many people who were against Native Americans and believed all of the land in America belonged to the colonists and only them. In 1830, the Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, allowing the president to negotiate with Indian tribes to be relocated to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their homelands. The tribes that were removed were Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. Some tribes signed the treaties peacefully and the ones who rebelled were forcefully taken to the Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. There were little to none opportunities made for Native Americans, they were striped of their pride, homes, and dignity. To whereas the colonists, they had gained more than they had lost and their

Native Americans in the American Civil War composed various Native American bands, tribes, and nations. Native Americans fought knowing they might jeopardize their freedom, unique cultures, and ancestral lands if they ended up on the losing side of the Civil War. A few Native American tribes, such as the Creek and the Choctaw, were slaveholders and found a political and economic commonality with the Confederacy.

The Allotment Act of 1887 also known as the Dawes Act would bypass the tribal leaders and proposed making individual land owners of tribal member the only problem with this is they could not sale their land for 25 years (Schaefer, 2014).

During the World War II, many ethnic groups such as the Native Americans, Latinas, Japanese Americans and African Americans were struggling and fighting for their freedom and equal rights, many of the ethnic group achieved their goals due to the effort they all had to go through.

The Indian Act was first proposed in 1876. The Indian Act was mainly used as a way for the federal government to control aspects of Native American lives. During the 1880’s the federal government told Indian families that if they wanted their children to have an education, it was to be done under them. These institutions would be known as Residential Schools. Residential Schools were not good for the Native Americans due to the education being taught was there to “take away” the Indian within the children, in other words, to make them act like they are not Indian.