Chapter Main Points

  • American Indian and Anglo American cultures are vastly different. These differences have hampered communication and understanding, usually in ways that harmed American Indians or weakened the integrity of their tribal structures.
     
  • At the beginning of the 20th century, American Indians faced the paternalistic reservation system, pov­erty and powerlessness, rural isolation and marginalization, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. American Indians began to urbanize rapidly in the 1950s but are still less urbanized than is the population as a whole. They are the least urbanized American minority group.
     
  • The Red Power movement rose to prominence in the 1960s and had some successes but was often simply ignored. The Red Power movement was partly assimilationist even though it pursued pluralistic goals and greater autonomy for the tribes.
     
  • Current conflicts between American Indians and the dominant group center on control of natural resources, preservation of treaty rights, and treaties that have been broken in the past. The gaming indus­try offers another possible source of development (and conflict).
     
  • Anti-Indian prejudice seems to have shifted to more modern forms. Institutional discrimination and access to education and employment remain major problems confronting American Indians.
     
  • American Indians have preserved much of their traditional culture, although in altered form. The sec­ondary structural assimilation of American Indians remains relatively low, despite recent improvements in quality of life for many tribes. Primary structural assimilation is comparatively high.
     
  • Over the course of the past 100 years, American Indians have struggled from a position of powerlessness and isolation. Today, the group faces an array of problems similar to those faced by all American colo­nized minority groups of color, as Indians try to find ways to raise their quality of life and continue their commitment to their tribes and to an Indian identity.