Indian problem: historical context and perspectives

Indian Problem

What was the Indian "problem" [latter half of the 19th C.], and how did the U.S. government go about solving it? Successful? Not successful? Explain

In the second half of the nineteenth century, American Indians were viewed as "savages" and alien to American culture. Americans therefore viewed them as a "problem" that needed to be solved. There were two main ideas on how to deal with this problem. On the one hand, there were hard-liners, especially in the military and among those who lived in the frontier, who believed that the best solution was to exterminate American Indians in totto. On the other hand, there was the second option, propagated by humanitarians and religious groups, which was to thoroughly Americanize the Indians and help them integrate into the mainstream society. After a series of battles called "Indian Wars," which eventually decimated the military power of Native American groups, the relatively humanitarian idea of solving the Indian problem prevailed.

The major policy adopted in the latter half of the nineteenth century was to send American Indians into reservation camps and educate their children in the boarding schools designed to "uplift" and "civilize" them. An Army Officer named Richard H. Pratt opened one of the first of these schools in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1879. The purpose of the school was to teach American Indian children the English language, Christianity, American way of life, and assimilate them through education. The school in the first year accepted 50 Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Pawnee Indian children. On the order of Pratt, the children had their hair trimmed, required to speak English, and avoid "any displays of tribal traditions, such as Indian clothing, dancing, or religious ceremonies. Pratt's motto was 'kill the Indian and save the man'" ("Tragedy of Plains Indians," n.d.). The motto then became an official policy in Indian boarding schools till the mid-twentieth century.

It is hard to conclude whether the solution to the "Indian problem" pursued by the U.S. government in the nineteenth century was successful or not because in this case the definition of "success" is problematic. The exterminationist camp would view killing all Indians as a "success," while for the other camp thoroughly Americanizing Indians was a sign of success. Both goals were problematic, the former calling for a physical genocide and the latter calling for a cultural genocide. The latter policy was adopted by the U.S. government but it was an assault on Native American identity, culture, and the way of life. It also involved violence, as children of American Indians were taken away and placed in the boarding schools by force. It is difficult to speak of a "success" within this context.