Existing comment:
Whose land is it?
Native Americans have lost 95 percent of their homeland
Early losses:
Within decades of the first European colonization of the Americas, disease began decimating native populations. Countless Native Americans died from European diseases such as smallpox, malaria and measles. In New England alone, native populations plummeted by more than 70 percent. Many settlers from Europe saw the epidemics as evidence that God approved of their claiming and colonizing the land.
The legacy of allotment:
During the late 1800s, the US government began restricting Native Americans to reservations, with the aim of turning them into farmers. But many reservations held vast farming, forestry, and mining resources. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 opened much of this land to purchase by whites. Each Indian male was "allotted" 160 acres, with the "surplus" lands sold to homesteaders and businessmen.
Between 1887 and 1934, tribal landholdings plunged from 138 million acres to 48 million acres. The effects of land allotment continue to be felt today, with many reservations "checkerboarded" among tribes, individual Indians and non-Indians, and state and federal governments. Without effective access to land, Native Americans remain among the nation's poorest citizens.
"Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."
-- General Richard Pratt, founder, Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1892
Land allotment went hand-in-hand with policies aimed at absorbing Indians into white culture. From the 1880s to the 1920s, thousands of Indian children weer sent to off-reservation boarding schools. Their contact with families and traditions -- including language, religion and dress -- was restricted and often forbidden. Many schools sent students to work as domestic servants in local white households. Many children died from disease and neglect.
Native lands, 1800:
Disease, warfare and colonial and US treaties pushed most tribes west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Native lands, 1830:
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forcibly moved thousands of eastern Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River. Many died on route.
Native lands, 1900:
The 1862 Homestead Act, which granted 160-acre parcels of public land to settlers, led thousands to occupy Indian lands in the Midwest. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 broke up tribal lands into individual allotments; "surplus" lands were sold to whites.
Native lands, today:
More than 60 percent of the land on Indian reservations has passed out of tribal ownership.
"I have a great deal of hope that Indian people will own this land again. It won't be in my lifetime, but perhaps my grandchildren will actually see a day when all of the land in reservation boundaries is owned and managed effectively by Indian people."
-- Chris Stainbrook, President, Indian Land Tenure Foundation, Minnesota, 2005 |