friends of the Indian Non-Indian reformers who, in the 19th century,
encouraged the U.S. government to adopt more benevolent policies toward
Indians. Often wealthy easterners, the friends of the Indian generally sup-
ported the Allotment policy as a means both to help individual Indians obtain
legal title to their land and to encourage assimilation into the non-Indian
mainstream.
fur trade Trade network through which Indian trappers obtained metal
tools, guns, cloth, and other manufactured products from European traders
in exchange for animal furs. Although Indians initially benefited from the in-
troduction of these new goods, the fur trade soon increased Indian warfare as
Indian competitors began to battle one another and as Indians were pressured
to help their trading partners fight their European rivals for control over North
American lands.
Indian boarding schools Boarding schools operated by the Bureau of In-
dian Affairs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries where Indian children,
separated from their parents, were indoctrinated in non-Indian customs while
learning English and other academic subjects. Founded in 1879 by Richard
Henry Pratt, the Carlisle Industrial Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, Penn-
sylvania, served as a model for these institutions.
Indian Claims Commission (ICC) The commission formed by Congress
in 1946 to review and resolve all outstanding land claims of Indian groups
within the continental United States. Before being disbanded in 1978, the
ICC heard about 300 cases and awarded Indian groups approximately $800
million in compensation for lost lands.
Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) Law passed in 1934 that dramatically
redefined the direction of federal Indian policy. The IRA formally ended
the Allotment policy, which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had
dispossessed American Indians of much of their remaining landholdings.
The act also renounced the government’s past goal of assimilating Indians
as it set forth policies intended to preserve Indian traditions and tribal life.
Passed during the Roosevelt administration, the IRA is also known as the
Indian New Deal, and as the Wheeler-Howard Act, after its congressional
sponsors.
Indian Territory An area west of the Mississippi River to which numer-
ous eastern Indian groups were forced to relocate during the 19th century.
Although its precise boundaries were often ill defined and were frequently
changed, by 1854 Indian Territory had roughly the same borders as pres-
ent-day Oklahoma. When Oklahoma was admitted into the Union in 1907,
Indian Territory was dissolved.
Glossary