Published: May 29, 2024
Prior to 1775, various European nations made efforts to colonize North American populations and their land. Interactions between Native People and the invading colonizers were punctuated by stages of cooperation, indignation, revolt, and bloodshed. The result of these interactions decimated Native populations through warfare, disease, and genocidal policies. After the United States formed, the racial and cultural underpinnings that dictated policy toward Native People from 1775 to the early 1900s changed little compared to the Colonial Period.
As the United States expanded westward, Native populations were forced from their lands. In the late 1800s, U.S. policy shifted from physical warfare to cultural warfare. For example, Indian boarding schools spread throughout the United States designed to “kill the Indian, and save the man.” Throughout the 20th century, Native-led activism brought attention to generations of injustices caused by the United States. As a result, the United States began to recognize and address its mistreatment of Native People by enacting self-determination policies. Despite these efforts, generations of physical and cultural warfare have contributed to contemporary economic inequities.
Within an economics or financial literacy class, the following historical examples provide context to help students understand economic issues that Native populations face today:
Notable Events
May 28, 1830
Indian Removal Act
Signed by President Andrew Jackson, the Indian Removal Act was designed to remove all Native People living in states and territories east of the Mississippi River to unsettled western lands. The forced removal became known as the Trail of Tears.
May 20, 1862
Homestead Act
Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, the Homestead Act granted land—primarily occupied by Native Americans—to White settlers moving westward. “The Homestead Act increased the number of people in the western United States. Most Native Americans watched the arrival of homesteaders with unease. As more settlers arrived, they found themselves pushed farther from their homelands or crowded onto reservations.”
March 3, 1871
Indian Appropriations Act
Passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, the Indian Appropriations Act declared that no indigenous nation or group would be considered an independent power. This act barred Native People from entering treaties or contracts with any state or country and therefore forced them under the control of the U.S. Congress. No Native People were consulted in the passage of this act.
1879
First Indian Boarding School Opened in Carlisle, PA
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania was the “first federally run Indian boarding school . . . in operation. Army officer Richard Henry Pratt founded the school, which became the template for instituting a system of forced ‘Americanization,’ using strict militaristic discipline to sever Native American children from their native heritage. It was Pratt who coined the phrase ‘kill the Indian, save the man’—a philosophy that permeated Indian schools for generations.” The Carlisle School was the beginning of the United States Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative
February 8, 1887
Dawes Act
“Passed . . . under President Grover Cleveland, [the Dawes Act] allowed the federal government to break up tribal lands. The federal government aimed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream U.S. society by encouraging them towards farming and agriculture, which meant dividing tribal lands into individual plots. Only the Native Americans who accepted the division of tribal lands were allowed to become U.S. citizens.”
October 1, 1890
McKinley Tariff
“The McKinley Tariff . . . undermined Hawaii’s special status by allowing other nations and territories, like Cuba, to export sugar to the United States without paying duties. Hawaii no longer retained an edge over other sugar-producing states, which led to an immediate drop in the price of sugar and gave Hawaiian sugar interests added incentive to press for annexation.” Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898.
June 18, 1934
Wheeler-Howard Indian Reorganization Act
The act “was the first major effort from the U.S. federal government to allow tribes to govern their own affairs. The IRA provided tribal nations with resources to create a written constitution, halted the allotment process, and authorized funds for use by tribal communities to organize and educate their nation’s citizens. Most importantly, the IRA recognized the inherent sovereignty of tribal nations.”
August 3, 1956
Indian Relocation Act
The Indian Relocation Act “was a United States law intended to create ‘a program of vocational training’ for Native Americans in the United States. Critics characterize the law as an attempt to encourage Native Americans to leave Indian reservations and their traditional lands, to assimilate into the general population in urban areas, and to weaken community and tribal ties. Critics also characterize the law as part of the Indian termination policy between 1940 and 1960, which terminated the tribal status of numerous groups and cut off previous assistance to tribal citizens.”
April 11, 1968
Indian Civil Rights Act
Enacted during the 1960s Civil Rights era, this act addressed “American Indian rights violations by federal and state authorities.”
June 23, 1972
Indian Education Act
This act established “the Office of Indian Education and the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. The various parts of the Act authorized a formula program and several competitive grant programs for Indian children and adults."
October 1972
Trail of Broken Treaties
Organized by the American Indian Movement and members of the Rosebud Sioux, the Trail of Broken Treaties was an activist movement that began in California and ended in Washington, D.C. The movement’s intention was to present a 20-point manifesto to President Richard Nixon to address generations of injustices that Native People were subjected to by the U.S. government.
January 4, 1975
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act
This Act allowed for Indian tribes to have greater autonomy and to have the opportunity to assume the responsibility for programs and services administered to them on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior through contractual agreements. The Act assured that Indian tribes had paramount involvement in the direction of services provided by the Federal government in an attempt to target the delivery of such services to the needs and desires of the local communities.”
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