Final answer:
U.S. government agents aimed to assimilate Native Americans by teaching English and vocational skills at boarding schools, repressing native cultures, and pushing them to adopt Western work ethics. Native tribes resisted through ignored plot boundaries and attempted political unity, but federal intervention mitigated these efforts.
Step-by-step explanation:
Government agents taught Native Americans on reservations a variety of new skills with the goal of assimilation into Western society. For instance, at government-run boarding schools, Indian children were forced to speak only English, and their daily lives were regimented with military discipline. Young women were taught domestic skills while the boys learned farming and industrial labor, corresponding with low-paying manual labor jobs. The assimilation policy included the suppression of native cultures and languages and promoting the adoption of Christianity and Western work ethics. This policy formed part of a broader strategy to integrate Native Americans into the dominant American culture and economy, which unfortunately coincided with the reduction and dismantling of reservation lands.
Despite this, Native American communities employed various strategies of resistance. Some tribes ignored the imposed plot boundaries and continued communal living, while others attempted to form a national tribal government. However, these efforts were often stymied by federal intervention, preventing intertribal meetings and even using force to ensure compliance with assimilation policies.