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96 The Invasion o f Indian Country in the Twentieth Century April 1958, 70 percent of the Klamath elected to withdraw. No less than 48.9 percent were defined as protected under provisions of the termination legislation, and an additional 13.6 percent who were deemed competent to manage their own affairs decided to remain under a group trust operated by the United States National Bank. Another 18.3 percent were absentee members to be subjected to federal supervision.56 Tribes that, like the Klamath, possessed a large amount of natural resources created complications. Such situations frequently overwhelmed the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Each tribe presented a unique situation, and the termination policy was not applicable to all tribes. Furthermore, the size of the population, amount of assets, types of properties, and various logistics caused more concern for the BIA.57 The unfortunate legacy of the termination policy inherited from the Eighty-third Congress-and from DillonS.Myer,Arthur Watkins, and other staunch terminationists-plagued later humanitarians who tried to assist the Indian people, such as Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn Emmons. Other government officials,among them Senator Neuberger, remained sincere in their support of the terminated groups, but the controversy surrounding the termination of various Indian tribes tarnished their reputations. In retrospect,they appeared to be a part of the bloc of Western representatives who sought Indian lands and their natural resources. During the Eisenhower years in the 1950s, thirty-five California rancherias (small reservations), the Oklahoma Choctaw, the Oregon Klamath, the Wisconsin Menominee, and the mixed-bloods of the Uintah-Ouray of Utah were scheduled for final termination in 1961. Throughout the entire termination period, whichlasted into the 1960s, 109 cases of termination were initiated, affecting a minimum of 1,362,155acres and 11,466individuals.58This congressionalmovement and the BIA1ssupport of it spelled the end of the special status that many tribes had held, based on old agreements between sovereign nations. The termination of the Klamath brought only sadness to the Native people. In the Klamath Basin, the lumber companies became the real beneficiaries of the termination. Although federal officials expressed concern about the exploitation of the Klamath, the lumber interests in southwestern Oregon forced actions to resolve termination and thereby free Klamath timber. In the region, lumber companies , banks, and numerous merchants depended on the Klamath timber cuttings for their capitalistic livelihood. Although conservationistsfought to prevent the lifting of restrictions on Klamath lands,they, too, were more concerned with the land itself than with the people 97 The Klamath and Timberlands in the Pacific Northwest who inhabited it. They argued that removal of trust restrictions would open up wilderness areas to lumber companies and that wildlife breeding and feeding grounds would be destroyed.59 On an individual basis, Klamath termination brought monetary windfalls from timber sales to tribal members—and the many repercussions that followed. All the Klamath receiving large per capita payments became fair game for local merchants, who sold them automobiles , televisions, and other goods at inflated prices. Unfamiliar with exploitative capitalism, many Klamath people were vulnerable to manipulation when dealing with unscrupulous merchants and opportunists . Numerous accounts reveal that unethical individuals and lumber companies tricked the Klamath out of their properties and their wealth. The Klamath experience was but another chapter in the old story of Indians being cheated—another tribe, another time but with the same results. Termination impacted the Klamath Tribe in two critical ways. In the first place, daily cultural contact with white society after World War II caused a sociocultural change from traditionalism to quasiassimilation into the mainstream. Ironically, with the federal government ’s policy of dismantling tribes, many Klamath individualized themselves like whites due to cultural materialism and the decrease of traditional communal norms in their lives. They then experienced the worst effects of assimilation. Widespread drinking began on the former reservation, the family unit started to disintegrate, and loss of identity followed as members of the Klamath Tribe lost their perspective on life. Klamath youths cut their hair in ducktails and donned leather jackets like the young people in the mainstream, unknowingly forcing a generation gap as well as a cultural gap with the traditional elders. Undoubtedly, cultural contact with the mainstream altered the individual Klamath’s outlook and personality.60 The Klamath as a tribe faced their greatest test in this post–World War II period. As they became a part of mainstream America, change occurred in two ways: under force, which made transformation slow or almost...

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