Wounded Knee II Essay

SAMPLE EXCERPT . . .

All remaining land would be opened up for sale to white settlers, timber companies, mines and railroads. By 1934 when the allotment process ended, over two-thirds of the reservation land held by Native Americans in 1887 had been lost, and 90,000 had become completely landless. No matter whether it was the original intention of Dawes or not, the effect was to increase the poverty of the Indians. In addition, the Indian trust funds created by Dawes to manage royalties for oil, timber and mineral rights, which still exist today, have turned out to by monumentally corrupt and incompetent. In many cases, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) simply lost the records and was unable to account for billions of dollars in payments that were owed to Native Americans. In the history of the U.S. government, there has never been a worse-managed problem, or one that cheated some of the poorest people in the country to such an extreme degree.Download full
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TOPIC: Essay on Wounded Knee II Describe the Assignment

In addition to this truly shabby and corrupt treatment meted out by the BIA in its fraudulent mismanagement of Native assets, the Dawes Act also had the effect of undermining the culture and religion of the Indians. For Dawes, total assimilation was the goal, which meant that the Indians would leave in nuclear families and own their own private property as individuals, while tribal governments, communal landholdings and traditional religions would be abolished. Indian Agents appointed to manage the reservations even ensured that Native Americans changed their hairstyles and clothing, while many of their children were adopted by white families or sent to boarding schools where English was the language of instruction. Only in recent years has it become clear that these schools were infamous for high levels of physical and sexual abuse, and that their activities were a form of cultural genocide. All of this was Dawes' intention, since he openly said that he would save the Indians only by killing their culture. Up until the New Deal and the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, tribal governments and Native religions and customs were outlawed, although Congress granted all Indians citizenship for the… [END OF PREVIEW] . . . READ MORE