"To most Americans the word �termination� usually means getting a pink slip with your final paycheck telling you that your employment has been terminated. To the Indian people of America it means that their lands or nations have been removed from the rolls of protected lands and are now open to sale and settlement by anyone. In other words, their nation has been �terminated.�

On August 1, 1953 the 83rd Congress of the United States passed House Concurrent Resolution 108 calling for the termination of all Indian tribes located within the States of California, Florida, New York, and Texas. They added to the list The Flathead Tribe of Montana, the Klamath Tribe of Oregon, the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, the Potowatamie Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, the Chippewa Tribe of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota.

The Resolution also called for all of the Bureau of Indian Affairs� offices serving these tribes or any other tribe �freed from Federal supervision� be abolished or closed. The passage of Resolution 108 was immediately followed by a number of termination bills drafted as a direct result of the Resolution. From 1954 to 1960, 61 tribes, groups or Indian communities were terminated."

Get the Story:
Tim Giago: Termination is an ugly word in Indian country (The Native American Times 10/9)

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