The Discussion Of Federal Government's Relocation Program To American Indians

The federal government's policy to American Indians had experienced several changes in the 20^th century. This brought about not only significant but also extremely complex changes to American Indians' social life. But the federal government wanted to integrate American Indians into capitalism and the mainstream of American society, its purposes actually weren't changed.This article mainly discusses the relocation to American Indians which was carried out from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. The federal government attempted to migrate the Indians from reservations to urban areas, so as to achieve its purpose of assimilating the Indians to the main stream.The first part discusses the causes and reasons of the relocation. Before this plan, the federal government had taken a series of measures to the Indians. It announced "Dawes Act" in 1887, as to relieve the tribe system and individualized the Indians, but this act ended in failure in the first three decades of the 20^th century. Subsequently, the "Indian Reorganization Act" was passed in 1934; the federal government wanted to protect Indians' traditional culture, reconstruct the tribes' government and change its compulsory assimilation by this bill. But this bill was opposed by tribes and members of Congress. Thus, the federal government started to carry out relocation which could let the Indians migrate from reservations to urban areas. Relocation mainly included direct job placement and vocation training. Both the federal government and the Indians' roles caused this result. The federal government agreed with this plan because it wanted to get rid of the Indians' business, to alleviate the burden on the federal government, to promote the economic development in the USA and to integrate the Indian into main stream. Collier's New Deal to the Indians was against after the World War II. The situation after the World War II was also the reason why this plan was passed. The Indians accepted this plan with pleasure because of the Indians' needs, the influences of Indians' participation in the World War II and the propagandas of the returners from urban areas.The second part focuses on the implementation of relocation. There were more than 10 million Indians, who left the reservations and moved to the cities with the help of this plan during 1952 and 1968. And at the same time, this plan had been of great importance to the Congress, so the Congress's allocation increased unceasingly.The third part mainly appraises relocation from two aspects, and also appraises the federal government's policies to American Indians. Through the implementation of relocation, the economy in reservations achieved development to certain extent, the poverty in reservations was improved and the quality of Indians' life was improved in some degrees. So this plan had achieved a certain degree of success. However, the Indians still lived in poverty in compared with the white. Many Indians who had migrated to cities returned to the reservations at last. And pan—Indianism was developed among the urban Indians, they still maintained their own traditional culture. So the federal government didn't realize their purpose which was assimilating the Indians into the main stream. In this aspect, it is a failure.The federal government's policies to the Indians experienced a complicated process from the founding of the USA to the late of 1960s. Although a later policy was always the negative phase of the previous, these policies were uniformed along the assimilation. And under this keynote, the federal government changed its policies with the Indians' development in order to assimilate them into the main stream. Finally, the implementation of these policies didn't achieve the federal government's purposes.