Anton Troyer

If you go, we will lose our leverage to get those things, which are promised to us in this treaty.

But times were really tough, and some people left in search of a better life.

It also became clear that the Americans were not living up to their side of the bargain.

And Holna Day said, well...

If they're not going to work with me, we might have to do this a different way.

And he said, I'm going to go back to Washington, D.C.

But on his way... He was accosted by assassins.

Pulled off of his carriage, stabbed multiple times, shot and killed.

It was devastating for many of his people.

And it was devastating for generations.

You had lots of white settlement that immediately flowed after his death.

And so, you know, it was devastating for his friends and it was devastating for his enemies in the long run.

Allotment was a federal policy that divided reservation land into privately owned parcels.

These parcels were then allotted to tribal members.

Before, most land had been owned in common.

What this really means is tribes collectively owned all their land.

Allotment was all about introducing private ownership, which was already becoming a cornerstone of the American dream.

And it dovetailed with another process.

This is Brenda Child.

She's an Ojibwe historian and professor at the University of Minnesota.