Government Domination of Indian Affairs

According to Parman (1994), the Dawes Act of 1887 was the most important piece of federal legislation affecting Indians at the turn of the century (p. 1). Although the explicit aim of the legislation was the redistribution of tribal lands to individuals, the implications of the policy, referred to as severalty, permeated every aspect of Native American culture. The Dawes Act fulfilled the desire of the United States government to suppress the Indian way of life and force assimilation into white culture. In the opinion of most bureaucrats: "Education in English, conversion to Christianity, and acceptance of white standards of conduct and morality would sever the Indians' ties with their 'savage heritage' and allow them to take their place in American society" (Parman, 1994, p. 3).

The Dawes Act provided for the allotment of large tracts of tribal land to all enrolled Indians. The legislation placed each allotment under federal trust for twenty-five years to prevent the sale of the land to non-Indians. As an added incentive to Indians to farm their individual plots, the federal government

f the Klamath tribe had only a grammar school education, half had never experienced steady employment, and most had limited understanding of the concept of termination (Parman, 1994, p. 139). The experience of early termination for the Klamath Indians is illustrative of the ineffectiveness of the federal government's termination policy. Oregon Public Law 587 provided that the Klamaths be given the option to withdraw from their tribes or to remain tribal members. Indians withdrawing from their tribes were given cash settlements. Indians who opted to remain tribal members retained their rights to reservation land. By 1958, approximately three-fourths of the Klamath Indians had withdrawn from the tribe. Each tribal member who withdrew received a per capita payment of $43,700. Tribal members who remained under private trust received about $1,500 annually. About half of the tribes' available 997,000 acres was purchased by the United States Forest Service. The remainder was purchased by private concerns, with tribal members acquiring only 79,000 acres (Parman, 1994, p. 140). Termination proved costly for the federal government in the Klamath Indian case. Prior to termination, the sale of timber on Klamath Indian land met t