How did the IRA help tribes and how it harmed them? Blog for 10/25/19

What I found from my readings about the Indian Reorganization Act or “New Deal,” in 1934, is that John Collier the commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs was campaigning to have this Act passed. Collier sent out men to rally and get Indian tribes on board with the act. Collier wanted to do the opposite of the wrongdoings done to Native Americans for the Dawes Act of 1887, which caused the loss of Indian lands. He also wanted to right the wrongs from the attempt of forced assimilation by giving back Native Americans the right to practice their culture, language, religious beliefs, as well as the right to self govern. There was talk as if Natives were going to be able to be sovereign and self govern their own tribes, but Collier didn’t fully explain that the government would still have the last say. So, Native Americans still needed to be approved of what their tribes did within their own government, in all actuality the government would still be able to dictate what tribes did and continued to pull the strings on the Natives American doings.  

Collier was in awe with the Indian way of life, he seemed to view Indian life through rose-colored glasses. He seemed to be under the impression that they didn’t want much, were easily satisfied, and happy with their lives. Collier didn’t see that they had been going without many things for years and struggling for their needs to be heard. One tribe was losing people from disease and other illnesses that whites had brought with them and they did not have roads to gain access to doctors in a town twenty-five miles away. The tribe could only get to the town by using a river and the river would freeze during winter making it a rough trip, which lead to many dying before a doctor could reach them or they could reach the doctor. 

Collier tried to push for the Act to pass, he talked it up with all these promises of land and economic support from the government to build on the land so they could find their tribes to be able to govern themselves. But, some tribes were wary of these promises that were being made because of the governments past wrongdoings to their people. Tribal people wanted to see this proposed legislation so they could look it over and vote on it, but they were never showed any paperwork. Collier and his campaigners only held meetings that were all talk, trying to paint rainbows and butterflies to the tribes in order to get them to vote for the act. 

Some tribes were for Collier’s reform because they thought the act would restore and keep their lands, culture, and governance of their own. Other tribes thought it would ruin their common lives and rob them of everything that they had like; customs, land, and traditions. The IRA Act of 1934, had good things and bad things all mixed together. The IRA Act stopped the sale of Indian land, stopped the allotment system, and allowed for Native Americans to get somewhat of a say with their building of tribal government, they were allowed to receive loaned funds to build farms programs and cattle programs. Native students were allowed the opportunity to take out educational loans to further their education at higher institutions. This act did not help with setting Native Americans up to govern themselves with no idea of how to do it, they had been governed by the government for so long they didn’t know how to not rely on them anymore or how to get it rolling. Natives were left on their own to build their enterprises, with no knowledge or teaching on how to be a capitalist, in order to make it in the country. The IRA promised funding to build the tribe’s economics but were given little help. Tribes were still in poverty and it carried on down the years.

10/04/19 American Indians & Progressive Era

American Indians were involved in the progressive era by educated American Indians and advocating for Indian people. In 1911 the Society of American Indians formed, it consisted of members educated American Indians that had different views, some for tribal values and others for complete assimilation. The society was full of Indians leaders who had attended Indian schools, lived on reservations and furthered their education to obtain a degree in a profession, such as, writers, lawyers, and doctors.  
The members that believed in assimilation wanted Indians to be citizens fully engaged in the way of America’s social, economic, and political ways. Then there were others like Montezuma, who was against the government and wanted the focus to be on the bad situations Indian people faced, such as, bad health and living conditions on the reservations. He expressed his distaste with what had been done to his people through his writings. The society even had professional white citizens seeing the need for change towards American Indian rights. Dr. McKenzie believed it was time for the American Indians to control themselves. 

This society started to think about the injustices done to them and began to have a voice in these issues, and challenge the suppression of Indian people. They pushed for education, citizenship, and Indian court cases to be handled by a federal department. Also, they stood against talks of segregating Indian soldiers during World War I. Indians would volunteer to be in the military and many signed up to work for the red cross. So, why should they be treated like they are no better than white soldiers? Progressive Indian lobbying in 1924 got Congress to pass the Indian Citizenship Act. 
The Indian Citizen Act didn’t mean all Indians were citizens and able to vote. The government didn’t include untaxed reservations or Indians that were deemed “incompetent” in handling their own affairs. Also, there were Indians who didn’t want to be citizens and wanted to keep their way of life and governing of their tribe and stay “treaty Indians”.

Indian history was made by the Society of American Indians for being the first movement of modern Indian thinkers to, push for more American Indians to get educated and not be what the government told them to be, as well, as give the government a run for their money. These American Indians were just as intelligent and educated as the white man and spoke their minds about the actions of the government.

Immigration & Industrialization 9/20 Blog

The rise of industrial industry in the cities of Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, pulled rural workers. Opportunity from these industries also attracted immigrants to flood into the U.S. from all over the world. Majority of immigrants coming from the industrial core in Europe, gravitated to the U.S. in hopes to obtain work in the industrial core cities. Workers were advertised for through immigrant letters home and advertisement. The idea about the U.S. industries were not always what they seem. Immigrant workers were made to look like they were well off, when in fact they weren’t. Not all immigrants were welcomed when coming to the United States. The first wave of immigrants from Scandinavia, Germany, and Ireland meet prejudice when arriving to work, with the second wave it was the Italians and Slavs. Immigrants were the workhorses of America they worked in factories, sweatshops, workshops, mines, mills, railroads, subways, and bridges. Some of these jobs were worked by women and children. The workers had to work long 12 hour days six days out of the week, this caused burn out, which made companies wealthy. Cities were divided into two sections, the poor and the rich. I think colonialism contributed to immigration with the want and need of workers and growing communities. Industrialism needed immigrants to be the backbone of building their structures, companies, and working for them. Imperialism helped the immigrants by having the lands they took from Indians, so immigrants had transportation from railroads, jobs from railroads, mines, and land to live on.

   

American Indians Disappear Blog Question for 9/6/19

I believe American Indians disappeared from main textbook because by the 1890’s the United States government had already seized control over all of the American Indian’s land that was found to have value, be it land for settlers, natural resources found within the land, or land for railroads to access those lands and resources. The government had already placed most American Indians on reservations or land allotments, so there wasn’t much if any land left that American Indians had control over that the government wanted. All the land the government had wanted control over was obtained through misleading treaties, attempted assimilation, wars, and even massacres. So, why keep writing about American Indians in a white man’s history when the white man had nothing more to gain from them.

Discussion for 8/30/19

After the Civil War the first phase of Reconstruction was the Presidential Reconstruction, under Andrew Johnson. Johnson built new governments that consisted of an all white government. The framework of this new government mirrored that of the Confederate government the Union had fought against, allowing former confederates to become political leaders. Johnson ordered Southern lands back to their original southern owners and the south remained agricultural. With the South ownership again to the original southern owners “confederates”, this allowed for Shared Cropping to begin, of course it was in a lot of ways slavery all over again. It may not have allowed the owners to “own” the former slaves per say, but it allowed them to keep the African American’s  dependent on them. Landowners provided housing, tools, and seeds to African American farmers to work the crops and receive a share from the crops; of course the prices for crops were set by the landowner and the workers didn’t receive much. The landowners were having workers(slaves) work their own crops, and paying them little for the crop. African Americans became tied to a land they did not own, with no means to save enough to leave and build their own, so they were stuck working as sharecroppers. The slavery framework all over again.

The second phase of Reconstruction was, the Congressional or Radical Reconstruction. Republicans did not like what they saw going on under Johnson’s hold. Radical Republicans felt the war was fought by the Union for equal rights and take down the Confederacy ways they wanted the government to follow through. Radical Republicans passed the Civil Rights bill, but Johnson vetoed the law, stating it would discriminate against white people. Republicans became angered, what they did was overroad the Presidential veto and that had never been done before. Congress then amended the Constitution, with the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment defends citizenship, equal protection, and extends rights to Bill of Rights to all states. This didn’t stop southern states to welcome African Americans to be equal, because states then just revised laws to say Negro instead of slave, the Black Code. So, Congress added the 15th Amendment which prohibited states from denying men the right to vote based on race. This allowed former slaves to participate in the political process by taking part sit ins, voting and holding office. Most African Americans were republicans at this time and the republican party dominated the South.  

So the Presidential Reconstruction differed from The Radical Reconstruction, because it desired to keep the same framework the Confederate government used. Keeping whites superior than other races.  Where as, Radical Reconstruction wanted the Unions fight to not be for nothing and break the confederacy way of thinking. It brought forth the 14th and 15th Amendments.

The Presidential Reconstruction was just a big failure, because it just wanted to rebuild the government with the same framework the Confederate government had done. The same framework the Union fought against, and put the same Confederates back in office. The Radical Reconstruction was the belief that the war was fought for equal rights. This may not have been as equal at the time as it is today, but it was a step in the right direction. The 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution, citizenship, equal protection, and extends rights to the Bill of Rights to all states and that was something they never had before. I feel it was also a sort of a failure too, because states (whites) didn’t want to conform and ended up just changing the laws from saying slave to saying Negro, and not allowing the right to vote for African Americans. The southern states having to conform to be part of the union and the 15th Amendment was somewhat of a success, because it allowed free slaves to have a voice and be politically and hold political office. I don’t believe it was a total success because equal rights wasn’t for all,  women and illiterate didn’t have these same rights; even though the southern states conformed it didn’t mean all the past disdain towards African Americans was gone. I believe it was successful in some ways but a failure because it never truly gave everyone the same playing field; so everyone was never 100% equal in the eyes of everyone and at the end the South became horrible all over again for African Americans. 

In my opinion, the US should have been much harsher on the Confederates, they imprisoned and tortured slaves. I believe they should have experienced how it was to be treated like a slave, not given the opportunity to get their lands back, operate Sharecropping, and hold political offices. I feel like the southerners view was  that they did no wrong, and by getting away with what they did it allowed them to still be their racists-selves. It was evident in the racial posters they would draw, making them look well put together and Africans Americans in politics looking like crazy men.