Native Americans Assimilate!

Many Americans believed that the best way for the Native Americans to settle in white land was to assimilate their ways. Native Americans would assimilate into American Society as landowners and citizens. For this to happen, reservations must have been divided into allotments. Here families learned to be self-supporting. For the Indians to assimilate they had to change thier names, cut off their hairs and change the way they dressed, They also had to change their religion and language. Many Native Americans refused but at the ned they learned to assimilate.

The Daws Act was passed by Congress in 1887. Reservations were divided by families ; 160 acres were given to the households for farming,  80 acres for the single adult, and 40 for the children. The remaining land was given to the American settlers which was more than the land given to the Native Americans. This plan did not work because many Indians did not know how to plant or they had little training.

For a Native American to settle in, they had to change their name to an American white name. One Indian changed his name to Charles Eastmen becuase his dad wanted him to settle in American land. Native Americans hated changing their names becaus they felt their whole history and heritage was being changed.

Americans felt that Indians should cut their hairs and dress more like Americans would. Men and children had to cut their long beautiful braids and put them short. They also had to leave behind their traditional clothing and start wearing formal pants, shirts, shoes and women had to wear dresses.

Americans felt that the most important way of assmilation was for the Indians to change their language and especially their religion. Native Americans had to chang their baisc language to English. Children would go to boarding and special schools to learn their english. Religion was a very important issue for both, the Native Americans and the white settlers.

White settlers felt that the best way for Native Americans to settle in white lands was to assimilate their ways. Indians had to change their names and culture. In 1924, Congress passed the Citizenship Act that granted citixenship to all Native Americans that had stayed in their allotments for 25 years. Ten years later, the Daws Act was ended under the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Reservations and the control of them was granted back to Native Americans. Indians passsed thorough many harsh situations but at the end they gained some of their property back.


American History Textbook pg. 398
Movie: "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee"