© Courtesy David BeckThe federal government used bribery to try to end its legal and political relationships with Native American tribes in the first half of the 20th century, says University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor David Beck. In his new book, “Bribed With Our Own Money,” Beck describes how the government coerced tribal nations to accept termination by threatening to withhold money owed them.
Bribed With Our Own Money: Federal Abuse of American Indian Funds in the Termination Era examines how officials coerced tribal nations to accept termination by threatening to withhold money owed them by the federal government. Beck found that such coercion was a government policy, with both Congress and the interior department advocating using the money owed to tribes to force the end of the government's relationship with them.
For example, in 1954, Congress appropriated money owed to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, which it won in a lawsuit over timber mismanagement after the federal government clear-cut tribal forests. Congress forced the tribe to accept termination of its federal trust relationship with the government as a condition of being paid the money it won in the lawsuit.
"Termination was foisted onto the tribes as a quid pro quo for the payments that were due to them," Beck wrote of such tactics.
Federal Indian policy established a trust or fiduciary relationship with tribes under which the government is to provide protection and ensure the survival of the tribal nations. Among the government's responsibilities are overseeing the governance of reservation lands and managing resources such as forests, minerals and game.
"It's a legal as well as a moral responsibility. Almost from the very beginning, the federal government has been trying to get out from under that responsibility," Beck said.
Comment: History is often hotly contested, and the events that surrounded the beginning of WWII is no exception. A difference between then and now, is that the lines of communication are much faster, but if anyone imagined more technology would make the World more more peaceful then the results are disappointing. Consider also: "the British and French side - briefed by their governments to talk, but not authorised to commit to binding deals - did not respond to the Soviet offer, ". The technology of telegrams and telephone was there, but it was not used.