agency The complex of buildings that served as a reservation’s administrative
center (and that usually included the agent’s living quarters). Indians often
gathered at agencies to receive annuities or rations due to them by treaty.
agent An employee hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to manage affairs
on an Indian reservation. In 1908, the position was renamed superintendent.
Aleut The native people of the 1,400-mile Aleutian island chain off of Alas-
ka’s southwestern coast. In this isolated setting, the Aleut developed a unique
culture based on hunting sea otters and other water animals.
Allotment Federal Indian policy, initiated by the General Allotment
Act of 1887 (also known as the Dawes Act), that called for the division of
communally owned Indian land into 160-acre plots called allotments. Al-
lotments were to be assigned to individual Indians who would hold them as
private property. Opposed by most Indians, the act was supported by a ma-
jority of non-Indian politicians and reformers as a way of ending tribalism
and encouraging Assimilation. The law also allowed any land left over after
all eligible allottees received their plots to be sold to non-Indians. Largely
through this provision, the Allotment policy allowed control over 90 mil-
lion acres of land to pass from Indians to non-Indians before the policy was
abandoned in 1934.
American Indian Movement (AIM) An Indian activist organization
founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968. AIM members organized many
of the most successful Indian protests of the 1970s, including the Trail of Bro-
ken Treaties (1972), the Wounded Knee Occupation (1973), and the Longest
Walk (1978).
annuity An annual payment due to an Indian group according to the terms
of a treaty with the U.S. government. Annuities were spent by the tribe as a
whole or divided among tribe members in per capita payments.