Termination (1943-1961) I::

The early 1940s marked a period during which rapid assimilation was promoted again, reorganisation was repudiated, and termination aimed at assimilating Indians by discontinuing their special legal status was carried out. The rhetoric used by proponents advocating such policies was that Indians should be entitled to the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as other United States citizens, be subject to the same laws, and gain 'freedom' from certain federal restrictions and thus achieve 'equality'. This was also a time during which the Indian Claims Commission was born, and Public Law 280 (1953) was enacted which terminated federal responsibility over Indian affairs and transferred it to individual states.

The post-war era was characterised by post-war opportunities: growth in the areas of aerospace and electronics was fuelled by federal spending; much highway construction was carried out; there was an increase in military installations; and numerous multi-purpose dams were built, for the purposes of navigation, flood control, irrigation, and electric power generation.

However, despite such economic successes, the mood within federal Indian policy had drastically shifted away from the liberalism of the Collier administration to a call for assimilation of all minorities, and a reduced federal Indian budget. The government reduced the administrative costs of the BIA, and transferred the responsibility of some Indian tribes over to individual states. Federal government became unwilling to finance further major rehabilitation programmes. Much Indian land was once again allowed to pass into non-Indian possession. Instruction about Indian cultures was abandoned in both public schools and boarding schools specially for Indian children.

As part of the government's 'withdrawal' policies, relocation was emphasised: Indians were encouraged to seek off-reservation employment, ostensibly to 'save' Indians from reservation poverty, but most probably so that they would then no more be able to claim the special federal services that had been available to them as residents of reservations. Official relocation programmes provided job training and counselling. Parman (1994) points out, however, that official relocation was probably pointless at the end of the day as Indian migration to urban areas was already a general post-war trend, with Indians affected by the same economic pressures as non-Indians. He points out that "probably 75 percent of the Indians relocated without government assistance" (Parman 1994:142).¹

The status of some tribes was completely terminated, for example, the Klamaths of Oregon, the Menomonee Tribe of Wisconsin, and the Poncas of Nebraska, and responsibility for these newly-terminated tribes was transferred from federal to state governments.

Public Law 280 (1953) provided for the mandatory transfer of civil and criminal jurisdiction of Indian tribes to five individual states and the territory of Alaska. All other states were given the option of assuming unilateral jurisdiction over the tribes and their land within their own boundaries at any time in the future. By 1968 nine more states had taken the government up on their offer - either partially or fully.

Notes::

• 1 - Donald L. Parman. 1994. Indians and the American West in the Twentieth Century. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.