U.S. Policy "Break Up The Tribal Mass"

The United States has cultivated an international image as a champion of human rights and self-determination while systematically pursuing a policy to dismantle Indigenous nations through dismemberment, land confiscation, and assimilation. Despite public declarations of "New Indian Policies" (e.g., Nixon’s "Self-Determination" and Reagan’s "government-to-government relations"), these serve as strategic subterfuges to obscure the enduring goal of liquidating tribal sovereignty. Historical tactics include the Termination Era (1960s), which aimed to dissolve treaties and expropriate resources, and the Incrementalist Strategy (1970s–1980s), which methodically eliminates federal support for tribal continuity. The U.S. employs economic intimidation, political denial, and legal encroachments—such as unilateral taxation of treaty-protected resources—to force assimilation, revealing a persistent "cold war" against Indigenous survival.