An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

This term arises from the General Allotment Act (or Dawes Act) of 1887 passed by the United States Congress. Allotment refers to redistribution of 160-acre parcels of land created from dividing up larger, “collectively held” Indigenous reservation land and allotted to individual Indigenous people in hopes of encouraging assimilation (157). Surplus land after distribution of the allotted land was opened to settlers. Allotment resulted in a reduction of Indigenous land from approximately 156 million acres down to 50 million acres by 1934, and that land was never returned. Dunbar-Ortiz labels allotment as one of many policies by the U.S. government that furthered colonization, displacement, and encouraged assimilation rather than recognizing or respecting sovereignty of Indigenous nations and their identification with a community as a whole.

Assimilation is the process by which a certain, usually smaller, group of peoples or culture gets absorbed or integrated into a dominant society or culture. Assimilation is often encouraged as a policy or forced through direct and indirect means. In the context of this book, assimilation refers to a policy throughout U.S. history to try to assimilate Indigenous peoples into U.S. society and culture. This included policies like allotment, sending children to boarding schools to unlearn their Indigenous roots, the spread of Anglo-Americans practices and values like the use of alcohol or slavery, and Christian missionaries’ attempt to convert Indigenous populations.