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... of this board included encouraging the Indians to independently strive for their rights, ensuring that the Indians had access to lawyers, ascertaining that the money allocated for the benefit of Indians was used for that purpose only. Several smaller organizations were affiliated to the Board and generated funds for the board by arranging events and memberships. By 1924, Indians made up the bulk of the auxiliary organizations and these organizations had close to 11, 000 members. However, the Board had only whites as its members.
Moreover, the Indians had to pay approximately $ 6 to gain membership. These were viewed by some as examples of the imperialistic behavior of the whites. However, the Board did help the Indians in filing in what came to be known as the Test Case. The case involved territory measuring approximately a 1, 000 miles in the counties of Humboldt and Siskiyou. Although, the Indians did not win back the land, this landmark case anticipated the act passed by the California Legislature in 1927. The act permitted the Attorney General to file a suit against the U.
S. government on behalf of the Californian Indians. Thus, the Californian Indians had some measure of government support in their struggle to seek compensation for the eighteen unratified treaties. The Lea Act, also known as the California Indian Jurisdictional Act was passed in 1928. The law gave access to the Indians to the United States Supreme Court. However, the law laid down the value of the land at not more than $ 1. 25 per acre.
In 1944, the federal government was ordered to pay approximately $ 17, 000, 000 to the Indians as compensation for failing to deliver the lands as per the 18 treaties. The government, however, paid only $ 5, 000, 000 after subtracting the cost involved in paying the salaries of agents and relocating the Indians. The Indian Claims Commission formed in 1946 empowered the Indians to file claims for compensation with respect to the 18 treaties. 20 separate cases were filed by the Indians by the year 1951. The petitions dragged for 20 years before they were coalesced into a single case. The government offered a settlement of $ 29, 000, 000 for the approximately 64, 000, 000 acres of Indian land. After deducting the attorney fees, this worked out to be a mere 47 cents per acre.
In the 1870 s, the government handed the responsibility of running the reservations to the Quakers. This was done with the intention of controlling the corruption of the superintendents and spreading Christianity. The Quakers, Methodists, and the Baptists who administrated the reservations were intolerant of the Indians following their traditional beliefs and missionary activities were intensified. However, there was a change for the better as compared to the previous administrations.
In 1872, for the first time, the Indians were permitted to be a witness in a court of law. The 1880 s saw an increased awareness of the difficulties faced by the Indians was fostered by the efforts of individuals like Helen Hunt Jackson. Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor, which led to the Congress forming a committee to examine the conditions of the Indians and ways, the means to assimilate the Indian population into the mainstream, and the role of education in such a process. The Report on the Condition and Needs of the Mission Indians of California was the result of the survey carried out by Helen Jackson and Abbot Kinney.
The survey was conducted on the Indians of Southern California and was a brief of their conditions and steps required for their uplift ment with stress on education. In California, three means were adopted to spread education among the Indians. These included the reservation day school run by the Federal Government, a boarding school, and public schools. However, the schools were unable to convince the Indians of the altruism of their motives. The Indians viewed the schools as being opposed to their way of life and culture and a strong resistance developed. Even though, as conditions improved for the Indians, they were a long way from recovering from the repercussions of the treaties and a large majority of them remained homeless.
A few tribes, such as the Yokayo Pomo showed initiative, collected money from within the tribe, obtained loans and purchased farmlands. The first hospital for Indians was established at Riverside in 1901. Subsequently, the hospital was converted to a boarding school. Although, they faced discrimination at the hands of the whites and did not have access to proper housing, healthcare, or education, the Indians continued their struggle for civil rights.
The movement for better education and voting rights were spin-offs of the original struggle regarding the treaties. The number of Indians attending public schools increased slowly and by 1919, the number had increased to 2199 students from 316 in 1915. The California Indians were granted citizenship by the California Supreme Court in 1917. One of the most damaging negative fallout's of the unratified treaties has been that more than half of California's Indians are not recognized as authentic Indians by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as they are not members of federally recognized tribes. This means that whenever there are any reparations to be made, these tribes lose out, as they are not officially recognized. Therefore, these Indians do not get any housing facilities, healthcare, and scholarships from the government.
This lack of recognition has even shorn the Indians of the right to take recourse to the law to settle disputes. This has led to simmering disputes within families in these tribes, as these disputes are not resolved in an appropriate forum. In the absence of a judicial check, the tribal leaders have become all powerful and there is no safeguard for the civil rights of the tribe members. The records from that age show that approximately only 3, 000 Indians out of 70, 000 Indians received any provisions for their stay in the reservations.
The government was totally uninformed about the state of the Indians who lived beyond the Tehachapi mountains. The process of adaptation for the Indians was a long and painful one. The Ghost Dance movement that began in 1870 to counter aggressive missionary behavior became a rallying force for the disoriented Indians. Although short-lived, it quickly spread across tribes and led to a rejuvenation of Indian religious practices that were the foundations of the cultural beliefs of the Indians. Missionary work was seriously undermining the convictions of the already exhausted Indians. The systematic deprivation that the Indians faced at the hands of the prejudiced whites led to a series of violent uprisings that lasted until 1872.
Various tribes in Northwestern California such as Human, Wilkut, and Karen resisted attempts at disarming and resettling them. The federal and local governments erred badly in estimating the number of Indians that needed to be relocated. Consequently, several ill managed attempts were made to settle different tribes on the already existing reservations. Cultural differences between different tribes and harassment from white squatters on the reservations led to frequent violence and deaths among the Indians.
The tribes had strong emotional bonding with the lands that they had traditionally regarded as their own. The lack of sensitivity shown by the BIA in handling these emigrations resulted in another uprising in 1872. In Northern California, Indians who did not live on reservations were provided land where they could stay without fear of interference from hostile white neighbors. An executive order in 1873 began the process of rehabilitating the Indian tribes of Southern California with the creation of the Tule River Indian Reservation. Fourteen more reservations were created until 1898. However, the Indian communities in the coastal areas of Southern California did not benefit because the prime locations in those areas fetched high prices.
By the year 1900, the number of Indians in the state of California had dropped to lower than 16, 000. This alarming statistic led to several groups pressurizing the BIA into action, which led to the formation of more than 35 reservations and rancheria's in various counties in Northern California. Close to 6, 000 acres were added to the Indian reservations between 1933 1942; however all these activities benefited only the Indian tribes in Northern California. In 1953, the government adopted an official policy of encouraging the Indians to move away from the reservations, to the towns. This was followed by the Rancheria Act in California, in 1958.
The act led to the non-recognition of 38 tribes, loss of land for the Indians and no services provided to help the Indians financially or socially. The Present and the Future In 1973, President Lyndon Johnson stated "We must affirm the rights of the first Americans to remain Indians while exercising their rights as Americans. We must affirm their rights to freedom of choice and self-determination. " (Presidential Documents, Weekly Compilation of, 1968, Vol. IV, NO. 10, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC) President Reagan reiterated this in 1983 when he stated that the government intended to allow the tribal governments to resume the role they had played for centuries in Indian affairs. Over a period, the Congress has passed several laws to protect the sovereignty of the Indian tribes. These include the Indian Financing Act, the Indian Self-determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, the Indian Tribal Government Tax Status Act of 1982, etc.
However, the passing of these acts has still not led to an equitable distribution of funding for the California Indians. Currently, several Indian tribes in California are on the road to some measure of economic self-sufficiency and rediscovering their cultural heritage due to their own efforts, federal funding, and the spread of information. One of the few measures that have successfully worked on the reservations is the operating of gaming operations. This gives them the means to avail the elementary government services such as health care and education. Unfortunately, gaming is an option for only a small number of tribes in California. This is because a majority of the tribes is located in sparsely populated areas.
The California Indians number close to 325, 000, which is more than the number of Indians in any state. Yet, for reasons explained in this paper, they are the least educated, have higher poverty, more unemployment than Indians in other states do. This places them at the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder amongst Indians in America. The funding by the federal government is a function of the land that the Indians hold and their population. The California Indians lost their lands due to resettlement that followed the unratified treaties of 1851 - 52.
In California, the landholding per Indian works out to be a mere 8. 4 acres, whereas the average for the rest of America is 59 acres. Therefore, the California Indians receive lesser administrative support. For the year 1994, the per capita funding for California Indians was only $ 350 as compared to a nationwide average of $ 1, 310. Although, the California Indians comprise 12 % of the total Indian population, they receive only 1 % of the federal funds.
The underfunding has seriously undermined the various programs such as tribal programs and education programs, which require additional funding to be useful. Inspite of all the hardships and drawbacks, the California Indians have embraced the 21 st century with hope and determination. In order to achieve the right to self-determination and financial self-sufficiency, the Indians have diversified into natural resource development, farming, education, recycling and landfill projects, and manufacturing. The California Indians look to achieve this with the help of the local and federal governments and the support of informed citizens. They hope to achieve this without having to yield their sovereign status.
To this end, the California Indians are working toward building a base on the legislative and regulatory bodies. Bibliography 08 May 2005 < web > 08 May. 2005 < web > 09 May 2005 < web > 09 May 2005 < web > 09 May 2005 < web > 09 May 2005 < web > 10 May 2005 < web > 10 May 2005 Cramblit, Andre. 18 May 2002 California Tribes and Sovereignty 11 May 2005
kumeyaay. com / history /article detail. html? id = 53 > Magagnini, Stephen. 1 July 1997 'Lost' tribes: Why must we prove we " re Indians? 12 May 2005 < web /static / archive /news / pr objects / native /day 3 main. html> 12 May 2005 Short Overview of Californian Indian History
gov / name /calif indian. html> 13 May 2005 web 14 May 2005 A History of American Indians in California: 1849 - 1879 < web books/ 5 views/ 5 views 1 c. htm> 14 May 2005 A History of American Indians in California: 1880 - 1904 < web s/ 5 views/ 5 views 1 d. htm> 14 May 2005 A History of American Indians in California: 1905 - 1933 < web ps. gov / history /online books/ 5 views/ 5 views 1 e. htm> 14 May 2005 A History of American Indians in California: 1934 - 1964 < web 5 views/ 5 views 1 f.
htm> 14 May 2005 A History of American Indians in California: 1965 - 1980 < web online books/ 5 views/ 5 views 1 g. htm> 15 May 2005 < web > 15 May 2005 < web > 15 May 2005 < web > 16 May 2005 < web >
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Research essay sample on Helen Hunt Jackson Indian Tribes
