The Legacy of Conquest by Patricia Nelson Limerick

Author:Patricia Nelson Limerick
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 1987-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

…it is the policy of Congress, as rapidly as possible to make the Indians within the territorial limits of the United States subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other citizens of the United States, to end their status as wards of the United States, and to grant them all of the rights and prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship.

The ostensible purpose, as usual, was to “liberate” the Indians; the hope also was to get the federal government released from the trouble and expense of the Indian business. Implemented with the Menominees in Wisconsin, termination succeeded in turning a moderately prosperous reservation into the poorest county in Wisconsin. The Menominee Restoration Act of 1973 was a sign of both a new era of rising Indian activism and a formal federal retreat from the policy of termination. But there was no reason to think that the issue was finally settled; any new era of social conservatism might again bring congressional attempts to cut the ties of history in the interests of homogenizing the American population and saving money.49

One can ponder the history of federal Indian policy and still not feel wise enough to choose a course for the future. To this day, if one resolves to “help the Indians,” it is not at all clear what one has resolved to do. “Helping the Indians” still puts the beneficiaries at risk of paternalistic interference, the imposition of the helper’s standards of improvement. Cease meddling, and just let them alone? This suggests termination—the old impulse to cut the obligations and contracts of the past, reject the guilt for past injuries, and let the Indians look out for themselves. In a nation fond of simple solutions, loyal to an image of itself as innocent and benevolent, Indian history is a troubling burden. What balance of assimilation and tradition could restore morale to a demoralized people? Temporary expedients drift into permanence; in recurrent cycles, officials search for a way to end the government’s obligations.

Indian policy offers a case study in the problems of dependence: the providers felt drained and exploited, while the recipients felt cheated and exploited. Considered in these terms, Indian policy could pass for a dress rehearsal for the New Deal and the welfare state. After the conquest, Indians were a population in trouble, with massive unemployment and poor prospects for economic recovery. Having lost many of their opportunities to pursue their traditional subsistence, Indians had literally lost their jobs, and, as every recent case study shows, unemployment can devastate both individual and group morale.

The federal government acted on an obligation to provide compensation and protection for a people who had obviously been hit hard by history, who had lost their earlier ways of getting by. The New Deal and all the subsequent welfare legislation followed the pattern but widened the scope, to include the American people in general who had been devastated by the Depression.

The lessons were there, in Indian history, if anyone had wanted to see them.

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