At the end of the eighteenth century, the government of the United States was concerned about the problem of cultural heterogeneity. American Indians were regarded as people who needed special help to integrate into the new American society. Changes encouraged by the authorities were related to various aspects of Native Americans’ life, including living in large family groups, studying, and religious mindset.
Efforts to Encourage Cultural Assimilation
Many laws were adopted to encourage cultural assimilation. For instance, the Dawes Act of 1887 made it possible to divide the land owned by different tribes into separate land parcels (Brewer, Hiller, Burke, & Teegerstrom, 2016). To acquire citizenship, Native Americans had to leave their tribes and become more independent. Despite its initial noble goal, the law did not have a positive effect on the life of Native Americans, making them get out of contact with fellow tribesmen.
Continuing on the policies aimed at making the lifestyle of Native Americans more socially acceptable, it is pivotal to mention the extinction of Indian tribal courts and the enactment of the Code of Indian Offenses, the events that took place in the 1880s (Fenelon, 2015). The Code of Indian Offenses touched upon the various aspects of Native American culture, prescribing penalties for following tribal traditions such as gift-giving, plural marriage, and participation in religious dances. Together with the establishment of new courts in all Indian agencies, the above-mentioned law became a step towards the criminalization of the Native American culture.
Certain legal decisions enabled the American authorities to impact American Indians’ tribal relations. For instance, the United States v. Kagama was the case in which the government proved that it had enough plenary power to deal with murder cases involving only Native Americans (1887). Similar decisions related to the right of the United States to govern were also made in the cases of American Ins. Co. v. Canter and the United States v. Rogers (United States v. Kagama, 1887).
Assimilation Effort and Its Justifiability
There are various opinions on whether the discussed actions related to the life of Native Americans were justified. Moreover, the necessity of these laws and policies can be analyzed from different perspectives. Speaking about the economic side of the issue, it needs to be said that these actions and policies were justified because they were aimed at encouraging the further economic development of the country at the expense of Native Americans.
Thus, the adoption of the Dawes Act of 1887 was supposed to help the American authorities to fulfil a number of important tasks. For example, it aimed at disrupting Native Americans’ clannishness, which made them stronger as a group and popularizing smaller households (Brewer et al., 2016). The latter was especially important for the development of farming.
A significant advantage that the adoption of these policies involved was related to financial benefits for the United States. Not all American Indians were ready to become independent from their tribes to occupy available land parcels. At the same time, the government was allowed to sell the remaining plots of ground to the representatives of other ethnical groups. Considering this pecuniary benefit, the policies were justified as they could boost economic growth and integrate Native Americans into the existing system.
However, in reference to the moral aspect of assimilation policies, they cannot be justified due to their negative impact on Native Americans’ cultural identity (Fenelon, 2015). On the one hand, some practices such as healing ran counter to developments in traditional medicine and could involve additional threats. On the other hand, it would be just to give Native Americans more power to decide on the appropriateness of their traditions.
Conclusion
In the end, practices used in the United States to reduce cultural differences between American Indians and other groups were different in nature. Assimilation helped the country to create economic growth, selling land and encouraging new citizens to perform meaningful activities. Nevertheless, the impact of the discussed policies on Native Americans’ unique culture speaks in favor of their inappropriateness.
References
Brewer, J. P., Hiller, J. G., Burke, S., & Teegerstrom, T. (2016). A primer: Extension, Indian land tenure, and rangeland limitations. Rangelands, 38(1), 16-22.
Fenelon, J. V. (2015). The haunting question of genocide in the Americas. Great Plains Quarterly, 35(2), 203-213.
United States v. Kagama, 118 U.S. 375 (1886). Web.