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Difficulty: MediumWestward Expansion and American Indians

Merrill E. Gates, President of the Board of Indian Commissioners, stated the following in 1896:

"We must make the Indian more intelligent. We must make him feel the pressure of his own individual responsibility... To get him out of the collective mass, out of the tribal relation, into individual relations with his fellow-men, is the problem... The system of land-in-severalty, which is now the law of the land, is a powerful instrument for this work. It breaks up the tribal mass. It makes the Indian a citizen, with individual rights and duties."

Which of the following was a primary goal of the federal policy discussed in the excerpt?

  1. To encourage cultural assimilation by breaking up communally held tribal landsAnswer
  2. B
    To protect tribal sovereignty by legally reinforcing reservation boundaries
  3. C
    To compensate Native American tribes with land grants in exchange for their participation in industrial labor
  4. D
    To foster cooperation between tribal governments and federal authorities to manage natural resources

Answer

To encourage cultural assimilation by breaking up communally held tribal lands
The correct option is correct because the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 (the policy of 'land-in-severalty' mentioned in the excerpt) aimed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream American society. It did this by ending tribal ownership of land and allotting plots to individual Native American family heads, thereby weakening tribal cohesion and cultural traditions.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the policy referred to in the excerpt.
The text references the 'system of land-in-severalty,' which corresponds to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887.
Understanding the specific historical policy is necessary to determine its primary goals.
2
Analyze the speaker's arguments in the excerpt.
The speaker argues that individual landownership will break up the 'tribal mass' and integrate individuals into mainstream American citizenship.
This reveals the underlying pedagogical and political intentions of the policy creators.
3
Evaluate the options against the policy's historical goals.
The federal government's policy aimed to assimilate Native Americans into white American agrarian society by ending communal tribal landholdings and enforcing private ownership.
This confirms that the primary goal was cultural assimilation through land division.

Key Concept

Federal Indian Policy and Assimilation (Dawes Severalty Act of 1887)
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Topics

Westward Expansion and American Indians

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