Indian Land Rights Essay Research Paper Tribal

Indian Land Rights Essay, Research Paper

Tribal Affiliations

The injustices that happened long ago are still not fixed and need to be,

because they are visible everyday through the hardships these people face.

Introduction

Ever since Europeans discovered America Native Americans began losing their

land progressively for the next couple of hundred years following the settlement

of the first Europeans. What was once a country that was dominated by the

inhabitance of Native Americans, the United States is no longer the home it once

was. Native Americans during the past centuries have lost an enormous amount of

land and their rights to their property and not only till recently have

repercussions been taken. Native Americans are now fighting for their land that

they lost long ago in addition to water rights that many tribes need.

In this paper we.ll look at the some of the major acts that have affected

Indians and also the problems that some tribes face and how some tribes are

dealing with their land rights.

The General Allotment Act

American Indians had considerably lost much of their land during the 17th and

18th centuries but not till the 19th century were their any real big acts of

congress that made the taking of Indian land legal. Indians before the 19th

century had been living on reservations but not till the mid to later 1800.s

was the government at the height of its power to allocate Indian land to white

settlers and place more Indians on reservations. One of the most influential

acts of Congress that rid Indians of their land is The General Allotment Act

also known as the Dawes Act. The Dawes Act did not affect Pueblo Indian tribes

as it did other tribes. (Andersen 1992:112-115)

The Dawes Act was signed into law on February 8, 1887 and contained five

basic provisions. (1) Indian reservations would be divided and each tribal

member would receive a grant of land consisting of 160 acres for each family

head, a grant of 80 acres for each single person over eighteen, and 40 acres for

each juvenile; (2) Indians would receive fee simple title to their individual

holdings, but the land were to be held in trust by the government for

twenty-five years during which time they could not be alienated; (3) The Indians

would be given four years to make their selections, after which time the

government would make their selection for them; (4) United Stated citizenship

would be conferred upon any Indian who maintained his allotment and adopted the

advantages of civilized life; and (5) un-allotted tracts of land would be

declared a surplus and sold by the government. (Lyden and Legters 1992: 86)

Significance of the Dawes Act

Of the five provisions that are in the Dawes Act the first and the last

provisions are the most important. The first provision divides the land up

between the Indians, which may seem like a good idea but what occurs is that by

limiting how much land each individual can receive the Indians are left with

less land than they originally had. Since there is excess land now that Indians

lost their land the last provision calls for the selling of surplus land. The

amount of surplus land that the Indians lost was about 62,000,000 acres from the

original 136,000,000 they once had. (Lyden and Legters 1992: 88)

This surplus land was then sold to homesteaders, but the fact is that the

homesteaders were given better land than the Indians who were left with land

that was not good for living or farming. (Lyden and Legters 1992: 89)

Due to the Dawes Act the Indians lost much of their land and the land that

they did possess was not very good.

Present Day Claims of Land

During the past 30 years Indians have began claiming .their. land by the

masses. There are many tribes that have taken legal steps in order to acquire

the land that they lost long ago. For instance in congress there are many bills

being sponsored so that Indians may receive some of their land back which they

lost to numerous acts of congress and broken treaties. Some present day bills

that in congress are bills such as Senator Barbara Boxer.s California Indian

Land Transfer Act, which would transfer additional lands to Californian

reservations or

Termination Acts

During the Eisenhower administration policies were enacted to terminate

certain tribes. Terminating was a way for the federal government to assimilate

the Native Americans into the white person.s world. Not only was the purpose

of termination to assimilate Indians but also by terminating certain tribes the

government would not have to allocate money to help fund Native American

reservations. During Termination tribal authority was stripped from the control

of schools, public buildings and their authority.

Problems Faced by Tribes that were Terminated

The problems that tribes faced as a result o

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