Allotment and Assimilation (1871-1928) I::

'Friends of the American Indian' - Influence of Reformers on Federal Indian Policy

The arguments for Indian rights were made by what is generally known as the 'Friends of the American Indian', whose influence in formulating and reformulating federal Indian policy in the late nineteenth century was far reaching.

Against the economic and geographical expansionism and feelings of racial superiority, the Friends of the Indians, who included church leaders, law professors, leaders of the Bar, and some Congressional members, argued that Indians must be protected by the law and by the morality of 'human decency' during this period of rapid expansionism. US law must be extended to the Indians who, reformers believed, had no law of their own. These, often Protestant, reformers also believed that there was room in the New World for the Christianised, Americanised Indian, and they argued vociferously for the acculturation of Indians.

Land could still be taken from the Indians, but it had to be done legally, the reformers argued. That is, it had to be a legal transfer of real estate. By the mid-nineteenth century reformers were pressing for the formation of reserves on which Indians could be 'protected' from the crush of whites flooding the frontier. Moreover the "good people from Christian missions could teach an appreciation for agriculture, manufacture, and the English language" (Prucha 1976:21).¹ Even though the reformers later recognised the limitations of a reservation system, realising that such reserves would still not be able to withstand the 'march of progress,' they soon began to consider a more concrete programme of assimilation.

By the late nineteenth century, therefore, the Indian Friends were pushing for US citizenship to be extended to Indians so that they might have all the political and legal rights of protection guaranteed to US citizens; and a policy of allotment of tribal land into individually owned plots. In short, total assimilation. It was only through such a programme of total, individual assimilation, argued the Friends, that the Indian could avoid physical extinction.

The scene was set for a more radical change in federal Indian policy.

Notes::

• 1 - Francis Paul Prucha. 1976. American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Reformers and the Indian, 1865-1900. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.