Final answer:
The federal government's postwar efforts to eliminate the sovereignty of Native American tribes included the Termination policy, which ended federal recognition in an attempt to force assimilation. This policy faced resistance from Native communities and was ultimately reversed due to its failures, leading to a campaign for self-governance and revitalization of reservations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The United States federal government's postwar efforts to eliminate the sovereignty of the tribes involved a series of policies and actions which significantly impacted Native American communities. One significant policy was known as Termination, which aimed at ending federal recognition of Native American tribes, intending to assimilate Indigenous people into mainstream American society. Between 1954 and 1960, this led to the federal government withdrawing recognition from fourteen tribes. The process, which came under heavy criticism, also saw the liquidation of tribal properties and left many Native Americans without federal support or recognition. The high-profile failures of the Termination policy, evident in the struggles of the Menominee of Wisconsin and the Klamath of Oregon, eventually spurred a successful campaign to end Termination in favor of policies that promoted Native American self-governance and revitalized reservation life.
In resistance to these removal and assimilation policies, Native Americans employed a variety of strategies. Some, like the Prairie Potawatomi of Kansas, continued to live communally, disregarding the imposed individual property borders. Historical efforts also saw over twenty Indian nations form a national tribal government in 1888 to collectively preserve their lands and represent their interests. However, the federal government thwarted such efforts by preventing meetings and forcing the sale of tribal lands. Moreover, Native American treaty rights were systematically undermined by congressional authority and Supreme Court rulings, which redefined tribal sovereignty and allowed unilateral treaty alterations by the government.
The attempts to assimilate Native Americans into the American society and remove their sovereignty had profound effects on their culture, lands, and traditional ways of life. The Indigenous critique of these policies has highlighted the injustice and failures, leading to a gradual shift back towards respecting and supporting Native American sovereignty and rights in later years.