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| Format | Dissertation |
|---|---|
| Creator | Harwood, Glenn R. |
| Title | The Movement For Assimilation: A Critical Analysis of the Rhetoric of Carl Schurz. Dissertation |
| Dissertation Note (type -- academic institution) | University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon) |
| Date | 1979 |
| Extent of Work | 254 pp. |
| Abstract | Introduction: The Purpose and Approach. The purpose of this research has been to analyze the rhetoric of Carl Schurz, United States Secretary of the Interior from 1877 to 1881, as it applied to advocacy of a federal policy of assimilation for American Indians. Schurz chose and applied particular rhetorical strategies while functioning as the symbolic and practical leader of an intra-institutional or innovational movement for radical change in American Indian policy. This innovational movement had as its aim the passage of Congressional legislation to: (1) minimize the functions of tribal institutions; (2) continuously strengthen the position of the government representative and subordinates; and (3) improve effectiveness of programs intended to break down traditional patterns within Indian communities. Schurz and other prominent reformers urged Congress to adopt various plans to end the reservation system and to transform Indians from members of culturally distinct traditional communities to individual landowners and farmers having no allegiance to any tribal organization. The policy proposed by Schurz to Congress to achieve this transformation was known as the general allotment system or the severalty plan. It called for allotment of Indian lands in fee simple to individual Indians who would be granted patents for specified sections of land. Viewed in larger perspective, however, general allotment was but one component of an overall plan advocated by Schurz in his role as leader of the innovational movement for American Indian assimilation. The movement was an organized, institutionalized, and collective effort by advocates of severalty within the Department of Interior. Ralph R. Smith and Russel R. Windes have developed a rhetorical theory that explains how a change in status quo can be accomplished by individuals acting in concert within the institutions they wish to modify. The theory hypothesizes that spokesmen in innovational movements usually do not wish to change society's values. The aggressor spokesmen of the innovational movement were usually members of the established order, and they usually hoped to avoid radical division rather than to foster it. The innovational movement is a rhetorical movement in that its members attempt to satisfy a rhetorical exigence through persuasive discourse. The discourse is directed at a specific audience, and it usually centers on three rhetorical strategies. First, speakers for the movement must deny the existence of conflict between their proposed innovation and the values of society. Second, the movement itself must demonstrate the weakness of traditional institutions and the strength of traditional values. Third, the movement must foster a dialectic between its scene and its purpose. The movement for American Indian assimilation differed from social movements with similar goals in the makeup of the audience to which the messages for change were directed. Social movements attacked Schurz's persuasive arguments from both extremes: A viable faction in the West opposed him on the grounds that he had gone too far in his philanthropy to American Indians, while a group in the East countered that he had not gone far enough toward promoting immediate citizenship for Indians. Simultaneously both social movements attempted to change American Indian management by gaining support at the grass roots; both were challenged by the establishment, but they actually gained strength because of the opposition of the legitimate power structure. |
| Notes | UMI, printed in 1988. Book, in MadCat. |
| Call Number | MKI E664 S39 H3 1979a; shelved with MKI dissertations |
| MKI Terms | Schurz, Carl, 1829-1906/ Assimilation/ Native Americans |