Item Detail
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12002
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2
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0
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English
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Arthur V. Watkins and the Indians of Utah : A Study of Federal Termination Policy
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Arizona State University
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Ph.D. diss.
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"In the early 1950s, ideologues in the United States Congress and within the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) sought to terminate the federal trust relationship with selected bands of Indians, a policy known within the field of Indian history as 'termination.' In recent years a significant number of scholars have examined the antecedents of this policy, with the majority finding that termination resulted either from the integrationist forces produced by the Second World War, or from the failure of the Indian Reorganization Act. This study contends that while these broader causative forces created an environment conducive to termination, the actual implementation of the policy depended heavily on the internal motivations of key individuals. One of the most important of these was Arthur V. Watkins, a Republican Senator from Utah. As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, Watkins became a powerful proponent of termination. Yet his personal motivations stemmed more from religious ideology than political or pragmatic considerations. As a practicing Mormon, Watkins subscribed to the doctrine that Indians were remnants of a fallen race, and he believed that they would be best served by rapid and complete assimilation. The findings of this study reveal that Watkins pursued his terminationist agenda through a program of misrepresentation and economic coercion. Utilizing a network of fellow-Mormons that included claims attorney Ernest L. Wilkinson, BIA Associate Commissioner H. Rex Lee, and Ute tribal attorney John S. Boyden, Watkins withheld Indian claims award funds due to the Ute Tribe as a means of pressuring the tribal leadership into producing a terminal program. The full-blood members resisted by securing the assistance of BIA program officer Robert L. Bennett, who brokered an agreement to sacrifice the Mixed-blood members of the tribe to Watkins's program as a means of protecting the balance. These events led directly to the termination of the Mixed-blood Utes and the Utah Paiutes. Instead of becoming successful examples of assimilation, however, those subjected to termination suffered the loss of individual and group assets, which ultimately resulted in great hardship and deprivation." [Author's abstract]