Termination was the official policy the U.S. and Canada adopted in the 1950s and 1960s to minimize government spending on subsidies for tribal citizens living on reservations. The passage of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 108 in 1953 made termination the official U.S. policy on Indian relations and authorized Congress to terminate federal relations with tribes. The subsequent passage of the Relocation Act in 1956 incentivized Native people to move from reservations to urban areas by covering their moving expenses and subsidizing vocational training.
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Termination Term Timeline in The Inconvenient Indian
The timeline below shows where the term Termination appears in The Inconvenient Indian. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3. Too Heavy to Lift
...absorb Live Indians into the predominant, non-Native culture. In 1953, the U.S. Congress passed the Termination Act and the Relocation Act. Termination gave the federal government the right to terminate federal relationship...
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Chapter 6. Like Cowboys and Indians
This new form of colonialism was called “termination.” The practice became official government policy in 1953 after the passage of House Concurrent Resolution...
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Chapter 8. What Indians Want
...Metcalf called on Congress to terminate existing treaties with tribes. A major voice in Canada’s neo-termination movement is Thomas Flanagan, a political science professor at the University of Calgary strongly in...
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