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Was The Indian Act A Form Of Assimilation Or Subjugation?

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Was The Indian Act a form of Assimilation or Subjugation? The Indian Act is best defined as an act of assimilation on the indigenous people. At the time of implementation, the two main parties involved with the Indian Act were the Canadian government and the Indigenous people. Assimilation is the act of absorbing information, experiences, and ideas. In a society, assimilation is the process where individuals or groups of differing ethnicities are to be changed and absorbed into the dominant culture. In contrast, subjugation is the process of being in control or dominant of a subject or group. In a society, subjugation refers to a governing body being in control of a population. The Indian Act is assimilation rather than subjugation because the Canadian government implemented rules to …show more content…

This was ultimately done to seamlessly absorb the indigenous people into the colonist population. Major aspects of the Indian Act include residential schools, enfranchising, and cultural bans. Residential schools were mandatory for indigenous children to attend. At residential schools, children were forcibly taught the culture of the settlers and were punished if they showed any connection to their native culture. Enfranchising forced high work status and settler-married indigenous people to change their name to be like a colonist. Cultural bans illegalized important indigenous traditions such as the potlatch, further suppressing indigenous culture. The Indian Act wasn’t focused on becoming dominative over the indigenous population, rather, it was created to convert indigenous people into settlers to strengthen the colonist population. The Indian Act is an assimilative legislation because its goal was to absorb the indigenous community into the colonist community by suppressing indigenous

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“The settler colonial logic of elimination in its crudest form, a violent rejection of all things Indian, was transformed into a paternalistic mode of governmentality which, though still sanctioned by state violence, came to focus on assimilation rather than rejection.” –Patrick Wolfe, After the Frontier: Separation and Absorption in US Indian Policy, 13 Wolfe’s statement illustrates how the US government put more emphasis on legalized absorption of Indians into the White society rather than using forceful and violent methods to acquire the Natives’ land. After the colonization of the westward land and the end of the Frontier era, the US government’s method of assimilation of the Indians started revolving around allotment and blood quanta. With no place to further push the Natives away, the established Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government took action to eliminate the Natives culturally and spiritually instead of physically.

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In order to control even more the natives, another Indian Appropriation Act was passed in 1871. It said that Indian tribes were no longer seen as an indepedent nation but that all Indians were just individuals, like everyone. But also that they were "wards" of the federal government. This obviously made the natives less powerful, because as a tribe, they were numerous so they had more power and they could have treaties with the government. But with the act, it did not work anymore.

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The Act led to an array of legal and moral arguments for and against the need to relocate the Indians westward from the agriculturally productive lands of the Mississippi in Georgia and parts of Alabama. This paper compares and contrasts the major arguments for and against the

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National Indian brotherhood makes the tremendous contribution to the Aboriginal people’s revolution about the cultural assimilation. In the policy paper “Indian Control of Indian Education,” the National Indian Brotherhood/ Assembly of First Nations proposes the concept that Indian’s control of Indian education, and the thought about parental and local control (National Indian Brotherhood/ Assembly of First Nations, Indian Control of Indian Education, pp. 1-7). On one hand, they think Indian people understand exactly what kind of educational system they need. On the other hand, they want to abolish the residential school system to stress the importance of family and local community in the Indian native culture.

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It also took away the tribal ownership of most tribes. The act moved Indian families onto their own land, and took away Indian children away from their families and sent them to boarding

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Children were also forced away from their families and into boarding schools to try and assimilate them. While many things changed due to this Act, some things continued to stay the same. Despite the massive amounts of land that was taken from them, the goal of assimilation did not take the effect that the government hoped. Efforts to end Indian religious rituals and to spread the idea of Christianity did not affect Native Americans like it was thought it. Instead, the overall discontent that the Indians had toward forced assimilation caused its

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and the indians. But after the acts it lowered this tremendously. The first reason why the Indian Appropriation Acts lowered turmoil, is because it stopped land disputes. Speaking on the Acts, Elizabeth Pauls says, ”These treaties, which took much time and effort to finalize, ceased with the passage of the 1871 Indian Appropriation Act, declaring that “no Indian nation or tribe” would be recognized “as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty.” Because the Indians were no longer recognized as sovereign states, they were then designated to move to reservations.

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The Dawes Act of 1887 started an era of forced assimilation which stripped Indian Children of their culture and heritage. Through boarding schools, the government “sought to give the Indian the schooling of the whites, teaching him to despise his old customs and habits as barbaric” (185). Leading up to the Great Depression, government policies reduced Indian-owned lands which meant many Indian families were unable to make a living or provide for themselves. The Wheeler-Howard Act of 1935 effectively ended these policies and introduced freedoms which has been previously denied to Indians. It “gave to the tribe the right to decide whether they would accept important privileges in education, self-determination and self-government” (184).

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The Indian Act passed in 1876, and amended countless times, in its present state, is a portrayal of the complicated and problematic relationship between First Nations and Canadian Society, distinguished through power imbalances, historical injustices and problems, and current inequalities. Through its many conditions, laws, and arrangements, The Indian Act portrays paternalistic control, giving the Canadian government power and control over Indigenous peoples and communities. Further causing discrimination, and alienation, along with current and ongoing inequalities and power imbalances, further demanding reconciliation. The Indian Act passed in 1876, was an oppressive way to gain control of Indigenous people and Land and further assimilate

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This perspective was shaped by a prevailing narrative of the time, which portrayed Native Americans as a "vanishing race" that needed to be assimilated into mainstream American society. Unfortunately, the policies that were implemented with this belief led to significant harm to Native American communities. The Dawes Act, for example, was passed in 1887 with the aim of converting tribal land into individual parcels and forcing Native Americans to assimilate into American culture. This policy had disastrous consequences for Native American communities, leading to the loss of their

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The Indian Act has eroded Indigenous cultures, exerted control, and imposed restrictions upon them. The Canadian government compelled Indigenous people to sign the agreement, despite their incomplete understanding of its implications. The Indian Act has changed over the centuries. The initial modification in 1880 aimed to assimilate Indigenous people into Euro-Canadian culture, and further amendments were made to prohibit traditional ceremonies like the potlatch. This addition faced strong opposition from Indigenous communities, who continued to practice the ritual despite the ban.

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Causes, issues, and groups involved The conflict with the aboriginal people of Canada is seen to have begun with the official Indian Act of 1875. However for decades prior to the Indian Act the population of Canada had been aiming to get the indigenous population to assimilate to the new, more modern European settler lifestyle and cultural ideals. Prior to the Indian Act, there was the Gradual Citizens act which was passed in 1857. These laws and acts became the basis of the modern Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada.

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Assimilation Essay The beginning of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s were not much different time periods in terms of Native Americans. During both time periods Native Americans are still struggling with the idea of assimilation. At the beginning of the 1800s, which is main focus of The Cherokee Removal, Native Americans are struggling with was assimilation the right path for them to take or not. At the end of the 1800s, which is the main focus of Talking Back to Civilization, Native Americans are struggling with how to gain rights after assimilation; trying to progress in American society.

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Many tribes had cultural ties to the environment itself. When the Americans established the Indian Removal Act, the Native Americans were forced to leave these cultural grounds. Those who refused to leave their original homeland had to conform to the ways of colonial life instead

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Assimilation in anthropology and sociology is when a minority group that share the same culture is absorbed into a group with the dominant culture. In here the minority group loses important aspects of their culture such as, their traditions, religion or language. In other words, they lose their identity/culture so as to replace their original culture and acquire the identity/culture of the dominant group, which has the dominant culture. This is a process that can be either be quick or a gradual or either forced or spontaneous. Therefore, assimilation is the extreme form of acculturation because acculturation means that even though the minority group is absorbed by the dominant culture the group doesn’t lose their culture like it would happen

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