What problems were these reforms designed to solve?
1. What did white reformers hope to achieve with the breakup of the reser- vations and with schools for Indian children? What problems were these reforms designed to solve? Were their goals and remedies appropriate?
2. What were the reformers’ attitudes toward the Indians and their culture? How did their views or beliefs influence their proposals?
3. What impact did the reformers’ solutions to the “Indian problem” have on the Indians and their culture? How did the Native Americans’ views or beliefs influence their response to these reforms?
4. What factors or circumstances would have changed the outcome?
As you evaluate the sources in this chapter, look not only for the stated beliefs but also the unstated assumptions of white reformers and Native Americans. Before you begin, read the sections in your textbook on the opening of the West and white–Indian relations after the Civil War as well as any discussion of the Indian reform movement. Pay particular attention to your text’s interpretation of the last development, for you may want to use the evidence in this chapter to assess it.