Federal Indian Policy OS215 Contemporary Native American Issues Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Dec 30, 2015
Major Policy Eras
• 1775-1820s: Sovereign to Sovereign
• 1830s-1850s: Removal
• 1850s-1890s: Reservation
• 1870s-1930s: Assimilation
• 1930s-1950s: Self-Rule
• 1950s-1960s: Termination
• 1960s-1988: Self-Determination
• 1988-Present: Self-Determination/Self-Governance
1775-1820s: Sovereign to Sovereign
• The United States Congress shall have power “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) (1787)
• Johnson v. McIntosh (1823)
• Treaty Signing
Chief Justice John Marshall
Sovereign to Sovereign
• Treaty with the Chippewa, 1842, ARTICLE 2: “The Indians stipulate for the right of hunting on the ceded territory, with the other usual privileges of occupancy, until required to remove by the President of the United States, and that the laws of the United.”
1850s-1890s: Reservation
• Treaty with the Chippewa, 1854
• L’Anse Indian Reservation:
• 44,379 acres (81% of the total land mass) has been lost since 1854 to present.
1950s-1960s: Termination
• Immediate termination of Federal relationship with the Menominee
and Klamath tribes in 1953
• Belief that Native Americans would be better off assimilated into
mainstream American society