The Allotment and Assimilation Era: 1887-1928
Assimilation was not a new concept – Spaniards had assimilated American Indians with Mission schools since the 1500's – but the U.S.'s civilization policy only began centuries later.
"It was recognized that ruthless destruction must stop. Instead, the Indian should be assimilated, gradually losing his identity until he became indistinguishable from a white man. This done successfully, the Indian problem would disappear" (Stevens).
"The United States decided that the cheapest, easiest way to avoid an Indian war along its entire frontier and also to acquire Indian land was to “civilize” the Indians. Civilization included Christian religion. It included an English education and commercial agriculture. If you can convert Indians from hunters into farmers, if you could confine them to a small acreage, then you would have all this surplus land, which could be a good white settlement."
- Theda Perdue |
"With the civilization policy, many Cherokees had switched from being hunters to farmers. . . . Their children learned Christian religion and English in mission-run schools. A Cherokee alphabet was created, and . . . the Cherokee Nation began publishing a bilingual newspaper. They established a government and constitution that was patterned after the United States'" (Race). |
Indian General Allotment Act (Dawes Act), 1887
"In all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been or shall be located upon any reservation ... the President shall be authorized to cause the same or any part thereof to be surveyed ... whenever in his opinion such reservation or any part may be advantageously utilized for agricultural or grazing purposes by such Indians, and to cause allotment to each Indian located thereon to be made in such areas as in his opinion may be for their best interest not to exceed eighty acres of agricultural or one hundred and sixty acres of grazing land to any one Indian" (Dawes Act). |
"The General Allotment Act was passed in 1887, and many people regarded it as the final solution of the Indian problem." (Stevens).
"Put [the Indian] on his own land, furnish him with a little habitation, with a plow, and a rake, and show him how to go to work to use them .... The only way [to civilize the Indian] is to lead him out into the sunshine, and tell him what the sunshine is for, and what the rain comes for, and when to put his seed in the ground." |
"To further the assimilation program, federal officials assigned individually-owned plots of land (allotments) to Indians and “surplus” reservation land went to non-Indians. ... Educational institutions for Indian children forcibly discouraged Native language and culture practices. Federal officials declared many Indian customs illegal. Nonetheless, Native peoples resisted abandoning their way of life. Well into the 20th century, they both accepted American agricultural technology and continued to hunt, fish, and gather. They incorporated some aspects of Christianity into Native rituals. And they used formal education as a strategy to pursue Indian rights" (Fowler).