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path: Home /Queries on Native Americans from Third Season
- Mohican Nation - Stockbridge-Munsee Band
- According to http://www.mohican.com/history/home.htm
- "The Stockbridge Indians were originally part of the Mahikan Confederacy. The Munsee, on the other hand, were a group of native people in the Delaware Confederacy." "The Stockbridge-Munsee now call themselves the Mohican Nation, Stockbridge-Munsee Band."
The history corresponds to what was related in the episode but the line about being wiped out in two generations may not be so accurate. According to the site, "The population on the reservation is increasing."
- What was the Dawes Act?
- Michael Colvin, who has been studying in a ESPM class at Berkeley called "Introduction to Culture and Natural Resources" writes:
The Dawes Act also "known as the General Allotment Act of 1887 that stipulates that male Indians should be given 160 acres of crop land (or twice that for grazing) held in trust for them for 25 years. Eventually amended to include all men, women and children. Allotted native Americans got citizenship, farm implements, and encouragement to adopt farming, but over time about 2/3 of the land, 90 million acres nationwide: tax foreclosure, real estate fraud, need for cast. Lost last remaining asset. Remaining lands are checkerboarded, little fragments: private land (fee land), trust land of families, tribal lands. Difficult to do planning, economic development projects, etc."Generally, land was lost because the Native Americans could not afford to pay the tax on the land, generally because the land was not farmable in the first place. The kicker is that land was placed into fee-simple status without warning, and Indians had to pay tons of back taxes.
"The intent of the Dawes Act was to make Indians competent. It is generally thought as being a HUGE failure in academic and governmental circles."
He sent us the following link from the National Archives and Records Administration / The Constitution Community: "The Dawes Act" (http://www.nara.gov/education/cc/dawesact.html)
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