Final answer:
Manifest Destiny and federal policies significantly influenced the fate of Native American tribes by promoting assimilation, land acquisition, and undermining sovereignty, although tribes resisted and worked toward self-governance.
Step-by-step explanation:
Manifest Destiny and federal policies had a profound impact on the outcome of Native American tribes. The idea of Manifest Destiny, widely embraced in the 1840s, was not just a call for territorial expansion, but also a belief in the Americanization of Indigenous peoples and other non-American residents of newly acquired territories. Coupled with federal policies such as assimilation, allotment, and termination, native tribes faced significant challenges in maintaining their lands, sovereignty, and way of life.
In the late 1880s, the U.S. government began a policy shift from a reservation system to assimilation, reflecting a broader desire to integrate Native Americans into the American mainstream. However, this often came at the expense of Native traditions, governance, and land rights. The policies of termination in the 1950s sought to erase federal recognition of tribal sovereignties and hasten assimilation, although this approach was eventually reversed in favor of strengthening Native self-governance.
Despite these pressures, Native American tribes found ways to resist and adapt. They formed confederations, asserted their rights to natural resources, and fought to preserve their cultural practices and philosophies. The evolution of these policies, from forced removal to assimilation, and eventually to self-governance, reflects a complex history of the relationship between the U.S. government and Indigenous nations—a history marked by conflict, resistance, and resilience.