The Reservation Era: 1848-1886
The U.S. government decided that the solution to the "Indian problem" would be to place American Indian tribes on designated plots of land: reservations.
The Indian Appropriations Act of 1851
"The Indian Appropriations Act of 1851 authorized the creation of the first Indian reservations. . . . The term "reservation" comes from the belief that tribes were independent, sovereign nations at the time the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Early treaties for land also designated parcels which the tribes, as sovereign nations, "reserved" for themselves, and those parcels came to be called reservations" ("The US Dakota War of 1862").
"[A reservation is] a country adapted to agriculture, of limited extent and well-defined boundaries; within which all, with occasional exceptions, should be compelled constantly to remain until such time as their general improvement and good conduct may supersede the necessity of such restrictions"
-Commissioner of Indian Affairs Orlando Brown "Native peoples find themselves severely restricted in their ability to hunt, fish, and gather their traditional foods. For some tribes, the U.S. institutes food rations, introducing wheat flour, grease, and sugar into American Indian diets" ("Native Voices").
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The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871
"In 1871, the House of Representatives added a rider to an appropriations bill ceasing to recognize individual tribes within the United States as independent nations “with whom the United States may contract by treaty.” This act ended the nearly 100-year-old practice of treaty-making between the Federal Government and Native American tribes" (Record of Rights, National Archive).
"That hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty: Provided, further, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to invalidate or impair the obligation of any treaty heretofore lawfully made and ratified with any such Indian nation or tribe" (Indian Appropriations Act of 1871). |