Prologue: the experiment -- Breaking the ties -- Policy: kill the Indians -- Menominees: ambush -- Klamaths: disaster -- Western Oregon: invisible -- Alabama-Coushattas of Texas and Catawbas of South Carolina: entangled -- Utah Paiute bands: helpless -- California: scattered -- Oklahoma tribes and Poncas of Nebraska: afterthoughts -- The way back -- Menominees: pioneers -- Siletz: fish -- Oklahoma and Utah: flood -- Cow Creeks and Grand Rondes: communities -- Klamaths: troubles -- Coos and Coquilles: cooperating -- Alabama-Coushattas and California: legalities -- Catawbas and Poncas: last -- Epilogue: the results
Summary
When the U.S. government ended its relationship with dozens of Native American tribes and bands between 1953 and 1966, it was engaging in a massive social experiment. Congress enacted the program, known as termination, in the name of "freeing" the Indians from government restrictions and improving their quality of life. However, removing the federal status of more than nine dozen tribes across the country plunged many of their nearly 13,000 members into deeper levels of poverty and eroded the tribal people's sense of Native identity. Beginning in 1973 and extending over a twenty-year period, t
