med to have anyone in her house go barefoot.
The peasants have very little choice in the way they have been treated and no real voice in challenging the existing order. The military rule that Menchú describes has been in place for some time and in effect ended the lawless frontier process, initiating in its place the formal, orderly process of native administration:
Such administration was designed to continue exploitation of natives through legal means. It was a simple matter to assume political control over decimated and defeated native populations that face no alternative but submission.
An illusion of acquiescence was obtained by the agreements which the government wrested from the natives, though such agreements were based on coercion and on the lack of understanding these people had of what was happening to them:
By whatever means necessary, agreements were made and treaties signed with the natives that surrendered full and final authority for their lives to the government and ma
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