Indian Termination

(noun)

The policy of the United States from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s based on the presumption that American Indians would be better off if assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society. To that end, Congress proposed to end the special relationship between tribes and the federal government. In practical terms, the policy terminated the U.S. government's recognition of sovereignty of tribes, trusteeship of Indian reservations, and exclusion of Indians from state laws. 

Related Terms

Examples of Indian Termination in the following topics:

  • American Indian Relocation

    • Indian termination policy of the United States (mid-1940s to the mid-1960s) intended to assimilate American Indians (herein referred to as "Indians" for historical context) into mainstream American society.
    • The Indian Health Service provided health care for many Indian tribes, but once a tribe was terminated all tribe members lost their eligibility. 
    • Many Indians also lost health care during termination after relocating off the reservations.
    • Termination, although not the only cause of Indian poverty, had a significant effect on it.
    • Johnson and Richard Nixon encouraged Indian self-determination instead of termination.

  • American Indians and the War Effort

    • Some 44,000 American Indians served in the United States military during World War II.
    • At the time, this was one-third of all able-bodied Indian men from 18 to 50 years of age and 10% of all Indian population.
    • The overwhelming majority of American Indians welcomed the opportunity to serve.
    • Many military awards offered to American Indian soldiers were later used during the termination period by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as proof that American Indians were eager to assimilate into white mainstream American culture.
    • The war's aftermath, says historian Allison Bernstein, marked a "new era in Indian affairs" and turned "American Indians" into "Indian Americans."

  • American Indian Rights

    • The fight for American Indian rights expanded in the 1960s, resulting in the creation of the American Indian Movement.
    • With the passage of the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) in 1968, also called the Indian Bill of Rights, American Indians were guaranteed - at least on paper - many civil rights.
    • One of the primary advocacy organizations for American Indian Rights, the American Indian Movement (AIM), was also formed during the 1960s.
    • The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an activist organization in the United States founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by urban American Indians.
    • The list addressed the failed responsibilities of the U.S. government and demanded the restoration of the 110 million acres of land taken away from Native Nations by the U.S.; the restoration of terminated Native Nation rights; the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the establishment of immunity of Native Nations from state commerce regulation, taxes, and trade restrictions; the protection of American Indian religious freedom and cultural integrity; and affirmation of the health, housing, employment, economic development, and education for all American Indian people.

  • Indian Resistance and Survival

    • Indian tribes fought over 40 wars for survival, killing at least 19,000 white settlers and soldiers and at least 30,000 American Indians.
    • Indian Wars continued into the early 20th century.
    • Bureau of the Census (1894), The Indian Wars under the government of the United States have been more than 40 in number.
    • They have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women, and children--including those killed in individual combats-- and the lives of about 30,000 Indians.
    • Census Bureau estimated that about 0.8% of the U.S. population was of American Indian or Alaska Native descent.

  • American Indians and the Revolution

    • Most American Indians who joined the struggle sided with the British, based both on their trading relationships and hopes that colonial defeat would result in a halt to further colonial expansion onto American Indian land.
    • The first American Indian community to sign a treaty with the new United States Government was the Lenape.
    • The British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris (1783), through which they ceded vast American Indian territories to the United States without informing or consulting with the American Indians.
    • The Northwest Indian War was led by American Indian tribes trying to repulse American colonists.
    • The Treaty of Penn with the Indians by Benjamin West, painted in 1771

  • Changes in American Indian Life

    • The invasion of North America by European powers had widespread effects on American Indian life.
    • Smallpox proved particularly fatal to American Indian populations.
    • By 1832, the federal government established a smallpox vaccination program for American Indians, known as the Indian Vaccination Act.
    • It was the first federal program created to address a health issue among American Indians.
    • The Indian Wars of the early 18th century, combined with the increasing importation of African slaves, effectively ended the American Indian slave trade by 1750.

  • The War in the West

    • Most battles in the west involved conflict between American Indians and civilian settlers.
    • Ohio Indians—Shawnees, Mingos, Delawares, and Wyandots—were divided over how to respond to the war.
    • Approximately 13,000 Native Americans, representing several Indian Nations, fought for the British.
    • For the American Indians, the hostilities would continue under a different name: the Northwest Indian War.
    • This mural depicts a British force, mostly consisting of American Indians, attacking St.

  • American Indians and the New Nation

    • Many of the Ohio Country American Indians (including the Shawnee, Mingo, and Delaware tribes) fully rejected the treaty.
    • The cultural assimilation of American Indians was an assimilation effort by the United States to transform American Indian culture to European-American culture between the years of 1790 and 1920.
    • George Washington and Henry Knox were the first to propose cultural transformation of American Indians.
    • It established American Indian boarding schools that children were required to attend.
    • These societies encouraged the assimilation and Christianization of American Indians.

  • Pontiac's Uprising

    • British expansion into American Indian land after the French and Indian War led to resistance in the form of Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763.
    • While the French had long cultivated alliances among certain of the American Indian tribes, the British post-war approach was to subordinate the tribes, and tensions quickly rose between the American Indians and the British.
    • He believed American Indians were militarily weak and thereby subordinate to the British government.
    • One of his policies was to prohibit gift exchange between the American Indians and the British.
    • Relations between British colonists and American Indians deteriorated further during Pontiac's Rebellion, and the British government concluded that colonists and American Indians must be kept apart.

  • The Dawes Act and Indian Land Allotment

    • The Dawes Act authorized the President to survey Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians.
    • The Dawes Act, also called General Allotment Act, or Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Indians.
    • The act also provided that the government would purchase Indian land "excess" to that needed for allotment and open it up for settlement by non-Indians.
    • Roosevelt administration supported passage in 1934 of the Indian Reorganization Act.
    • The act "was the culmination of American attempts to destroy tribes and their governments and to open Indian lands to settlement by non-Indians and to development by railroads" [C.S.