Title: Homogenization, Protests & Outright Rebellion: 1950s: Native Americans Move to the City—The Urban Relocation Program | Picture This
Headings: Homogenization, Protests & Outright Rebellion: 1950s:
Native Americans Move to the City—The Urban Relocation Program

Homogenization, Protests & Outright Rebellion: 1950s: Native Americans Move to the City—The Urban Relocation Program
Content: The government believed the time was right to initiate a new policy. Advocates for policy change pointed out the fact that between 1917 and 1945, nearly 100,000 Native Americans had left reservations to find new ways to support their families. From the Native American perspective however, this relocation policy was yet another attempt to remove Native Americans from their reservations and small allotments in order for the government to exploit the land for development and resources extraction. Ultimately, for Native Americans, removal and assimilation were both policies designed to give the federal government the power to decide who was or was not a member of a Native American tribe. According the 1953 legislation, tribes would relinquish their sovereignty by leaving the reservations and assuming rights and responsibilities as American citizens. Of the 35,000 participants, about 30% returned to their reservations. Many who remained in the program lived in urban poverty, poor health, with substance abuse, emotional suffering, and a terrible loss of tribal connection and cultural identity. Their common heritage of small community and rural culture values, and dependence of the BIA did not prepare them for the strains of urban living. Nonetheless, over time, Indian communities in relocation centers around the nation became multi-tribal, made up of relocated families and their descendents. So many came to California because they believed that it was the land of new beginnings.