Intimate Colonialism is when the government tried to set up a policy that would encourage Indian Service staff members to intermarry with Native Americans. During the late 19th century, immigration was rising and the big thing in this era was assimilation. Assimilation is integrating people to be accustomed to the United States culture, behavior, value and norms. Though Native Americans have lived in America longer than anyone, the federal government thought that instead of ostracizing them for wanting to value their traditional culture, they created an assimilation policy for Native Americans.
“The government’s assimilation policy sought to destroy Native nations’ cultural and political identities by replacing them with Anglo – American norms of behavior (108).” This started with Native American children. They sent them to off-reservation boarding schools where they taught Anglo- American culture curriculum and emphasized on teaching them the value of marriage, family, and gender roles. To break the bond between a native child and their parents, Indian service employees acted as surrogate parents to these children.
…show more content…
Newspapers publicized their opposition of interracial marriages. They tried to illustrate how could a high civilized white woman fall in love with a savage Native American man. Articles that criticized the women who married these men and became a warning for other white women that wanted to marry Native American men to not do it or they will face the same consequences. Because of the harassment from the press, a lot of interracial relationships failed, journalist would boast about how Native American men will never be able to achieve full true gentleman. The press would mock both the interracial marriage and the assimilation policy because the thought of a white women assimilating a native American man into her culture seemed humorous to