LITERATURE REVIEW PATTERNS OF AGGRESSION: THE TENSION BETWEEN ASSIMILATION AND SELFDETERMINATION POLICY Existing literature on Indian housing policy typically details the specifics of a particular policy, such as the Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887, and its impacts on Indian tribes as a silo event. Scholars such as Charles F. Wilkinson and Eric R. Biggs help extend analysis of Indian housing policy beyond a silo event by observing federal Indian policy eras and extract common themes amongst policies. According to Wilkinson and Biggs, Indian housing policy leading up to 1977 is predicated on the foundation of assimilation and separatism. They define assimilations as a means to limit or extinguish altogether the special federaltribal relationship through either rapid or gradual assimilation tactics. Rapid assimilation involves the immediate termination of Indian property rights and the obligation of the federal government’s trust to provide programs or funding to Indian programs. Gradual assimilation involves the process of introducing Indians to non-Indian life, which would gradually influence Indians to actively select to assimilate in non-Indian culture. In regard to separatism, it is framed as a means for Indian Country to exist and assisted by the federal government without being dominated.43 They argue assimilation rooted policies tend to destroy Indian land and culture, while separatism or self-determination policies tend to preserve Indian rights. On a base level, Wilkinson and Biggs provides an appropriate framework to analyze the impacts of federal Indian housing policy.
SETTLER COLONIALISM: THE UNITED STATES EXPANSION AND THE INDIAN PROBLEM The expansion of the United States of America from a small English colony in Jamestown to a massive conglomeration of 50 states is intrinsically tied to the dispossession of American Indian land. While scholars Charles F. Wilkinson and Eric R. Biggs put forth the analytical framework of observing patterns of assimilation and self-determination in Indian housing policy. They fall short in connecting federal Indian housing policy to the overall agenda of the United States expansion through dispossession. Outside the field of policy, anthropologist and ethnographer Patrick Wolfe and historian Lorenzo Veracini, introduce the concept of settler colonialism. According to Patrick Wolfe, settler colonialism is a logic of elimination that seeks to destroy to replace.44 In the context of the formation of the United States and Indians; settler society represents English settlers who are seeking to eliminate or remove Indians from their original land in efforts to reclaim territory for the United States. Thus, by default, the very existence of Indians on land becomes a problem to the United States government as settlers try to expand their territorial claim. According to Wolfe and Lorenzo, a major difference between colonialism and settler colonialism, is that colonialism is predicated on the notion colonizers attempt to maintain lasting control over a population to extract value in form of labor exploitation (i.e. slavery). In 43 Wilkinson, Charles., & Biggs, Eric. (1977). The Evolution of the Termination Policy. American Indian Law Review, 5(1), 139-184. doi:10.2307/20068014 44 Ibid. Wolfe, Patrick. (2006)
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