Wheeler Howard Act. Voices of Freedom by Eric Foner - Term Paper Example

? WHEELER HOWARD ACT Voices of Freedom by Eric Foner United s is a huge country accommodating every culture, ethnicity, background, and cast. While, many other groups are popular in the United States because of their size or larger numbers of members the Native Americans are also one of the notable populations in the US territories. Making 0.9% of the US population the Indian Americans live in different parts of the country and are estimated to be as many as 2.9Million (as per the census of 2010). Since, the number is not ordinary and the group is a major one therefore the members required a proper set of rules and standards, which had allowed them to live freely and as per their will just like any other American citizen. In this regard, different laws have been passed in the American legislation so far. This paper aims to study the Wheeler Howard Act in reference to four of the primary sources / documents presented in Voices of Freedom by Eric Foner in detail. Background: A law is needed when anything goes wrong or is against any other law or right of any individual, estate, or any other thing. The Wheeler Howard Act generally known as the Indian Reorganization Act of 1938 was a replacement of the old Dawes Act also known as the Indian General Allotment Act of 1887. The Dawes Act worked properly initially however later it turned out to be destructive. As a consequence of Dawes Act, the Native Americans land which once calculated in 1887 was totaling to a sum of 138 million acres while by 1934 it reduced enormously to 48 million acres. The consequences were so immense and worst that poverty and major loss of tribal lands of the Native Americans was increasing day by day as the land was being sold to the white people. Two different surveys were conducted in order to know the exact reason for this. One was the Meriam report, while the other one was the Senate systematic investigation both concluded the same results that the previous law was destructing the tribal lands1. The Wheeler Howard Act: The Wheeler Howard Act or the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 terminated and replaced the Dawes Act. The law also imposed limits and restrictions on the sale of the Indian American land. The Secretary of states was also approached and was asked to purchase and reserve more lands for the Native Indian Americans. However, many of the Americans have a different perspective regarding the freedom and the allowance of migration of the Non Americans to America to seek freedom2. In the book Voices of Freedom, Eric Foner has highlighted different eras, issues, and revolutions of the American history, freedom and liberation. However, as a part of American freedom he has also talked about the Wheeler Howard Act and demand and ongoing issues of the Americans / Native Americans at that very moment. Since, Foner is one of the finest historian of the political and social history and a specialist on the American Reconstruction period his documents are highly credible and appreciated3. The book is a series of different documents, all representing the American history and freedom. In one of the documents, Foner discussed regarding the history of Native Americans, the issues surrounding them; immigration and the different controversies. Obviously, Foner is very well aware of the Wheeler Howard Act. He tried to cover the topic in a way that it showed every aspect of the America, its freedom, reconstruction and the major conflicts of Americans. In one letter presented in the book by Foner, a Native American / Indian American writes to his family for how happy he is as he has been provided with land and he can settle anywhere after the Wheeler Howard Act. He was happy that he made the decision of coming to America. He thought of it as freedom and considered America as a free country. He got what he was promised for4. According to a perception it is believed that Foner was not happy with the Wheeler Howard Act as in another article presented in the book the law was sarcastically appreciated. It said that it was because of the Wheeler Act that the immigration in the twentieth century increased by every means. The number of Native Americans living in America was increasing enormously. The demand for Americanization was increasing among these Native Americans splitting the country into different racial classes. According to Foner, the Wheeler Howard Act was the beginning of the homogenous national culture5. Another article presented in this book which stated “stressed the benefits of the new policies for Indians, but did not mention that the Navajo strongly protested against a Federal soil conservation program that required them to reduce their herds of livestock – an indication that the sovereignty was far from absolute” also exerted same pressure. If understood from a broader context, this article also was not in favor of the Americanization and that the Non Americans were given so many rights in every field and affair of the state. In the same article, Foner said that ‘It is an Indian World’ and that the names of the lands are according to the Indians. ‘Names which are strange to most Americans; its name – Nee Alneeng – falls with a strange accent’. Throughout this article he wanted to say that the American Indians were creating a capital (not the government capital but their own capital) far from Manhattan in which the Indians were allowed and the name was also not American in nature. This means that he was not happy with the Act or with what the Native Americans were taking advantage of through this Act6. After the freedom, when the laws like Wheeler Howard Act and a few others were passed in the American Legislation, the people were quite happy with the new set of laws particularly the American Indians. According to a document in the book “America and Freedom” many of the Indian Intellectuals were insensitive to the federal goals of the basic Indian Policies. America was like a new home for them where they can fulfill their needs and achieve the goals. Different policies were coming in from the Senate and more Indians were coming to the American land to search for freedom7. Regardless of what happened to the Native American / Indian American’s tribal land, the Wheeler Howard Act undoubtedly reversed the process and during the freedom movements in America, Indian Americans were also provided with full freedom from the provision of lands, farm, and participation in the Senate and to create their own societies. The concept of Americanization was its peak and more and more Indians and other Native Americans were arriving on this land to seek freedom. Bibliography Deloria, Philip, and Neal Salisbury. A Companion to American Indian History. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Foner, Eric. "99. Chief Joseph: An Indian's View of Indian Affairs." In Voices of Freedom, by Eric Foner, 30. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005. Foner, Eric. "America and Freedom." In Voices of Freedom, by Eric Foner, 102. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. , 2005. —. Voices of Freedom. New York: WW Norton & Co., 2005. United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Indian Affairs. Repeal of the Wheeler-Howard Act. Washington: U.S. Govt. print. office, 1946. Read More