Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States
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- Created Date
- 1929-07-08; 1929-07-10; 1929-07-11; 1929-07-12;
- Description
After 40 years of failed Indian policy, the U.S. Senate called these hearings to see what could be done to improve matters. Under the Dawes Act (or General Allotment Act) of 1887, tribal lands previously held in common by an Indian nation had been split up into small parcels for individuals. The government had said it wanted to encourage self-sufficient farming, but under the Dawes Act some parcels could be sold to whites and Indian owners could lose their land if they became too poor to pay taxes or debts. Forty years later the Secretary of the Interior ordered an investigation into the consequences of the Dawes Act, and in 1928 its160-page "Merriam Report" declared that allotment had been a disaster for Native American communities. Whites had acquired almost half of all Indian lands in the U.S., and poverty, disease, and anger had all skyrocketed on reservations. In 1928 the Senate ordered the new hearings excerpted here to figure out how to fix the situ
- Partner
- Recollection Wisconsin
- Contributing Institution
- Wisconsin Historical Society
- Collection
- US Government Publications
- Publisher
- United States Government Printing Office
- Subjects
- Native Americans
Family
Unemployment
Property
Boarding schools
Schools
Students
Deforestation
Forest conservation
Blue collar workers
Legislators
Physicians
Indians of North America Government relations
Indian reservations
Legislation
Electric power
Medicine
Crime
Poverty
Prohibition
Forests
Wetlands
Lakes
Rivers
Railroads
Forest products industry
Logging
Sawmills
Ho-Chunk
Menominee
Ojibwe
Potawatomi
Public health
Public welfare - Type
- text
- Language
- English
- Rights
- We believe that online reproduction of this material is permitted because its copyright protection has lapsed or because sharing it here for non-profit educational purposes complies with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Teachers and students are generally free to reproduce pages for nonprofit classroom use. For advice about other uses, or if you believe that you possess copyright to some of this material, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org.
- Chicago citation style
- Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States. 1929-07-08; 1929-07-10; 1929-07-11; 1929-07-12. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/26591. (Accessed April 19, 2024.)
- APA citation style
- (1929-07-08; 1929-07-10; 1929-07-11; 1929-07-12) Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/26591
- MLA citation style
- Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America <http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/26591>.