During the 1940s and 1950s the United States Government Developed

Reading Passage Question

During the 1940s and 1950s the United States government developed a new policy toward Native Americans, often known as "readjustment." Because the increased awareness of civil rights in these decades helped reinforce the belief that life on reservations prevented Native Americans from exercising the rights guaranteed to citizens under the United States Constitution, the readjustment movement advocated the end of the federal government's involvement in Native American affairs and encouraged the assimilation of Native Americans as individuals into mainstream society. However, the same years also saw the emergence of a Native American leadership and efforts to develop tribal institutions and reaffirm tribal identity. The clash of these two trends may be traced in the attempts on the part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to convince the Oneida tribe of Wisconsin to accept readjustment.

The culmination of BIA efforts to sway the Oneida occurred at a meeting that took place in the fall of 1956. The BIA suggested that it would be to the Oneida's benefit to own their own property and, like other homeowners, pay real estate taxes on it. The BIA also emphasized that, after readjustment, the government would not attempt to restrict Native Americans' ability to sell their individually owned lands. The Oneida were then offered a one-time lump-sum payment of $60,000 in lieu of the $500 annuity guaranteed in perpetuity to each member of the tribe under the Canandaigua Treaty.

The efforts of the BIA to "sell" readjustment to the tribe failed because the Oneida realized that they had heard similar offers before. The Oneida delegates reacted negatively to the BIA's first suggestion because taxation of Native American lands had been one past vehicle for dispossessing the Oneida: after the distribution of some tribal lands to individual Native Americans in the late nineteenth century, Native American lands became subject to taxation. resulting in new and impossible financial burdens, foreclosures, and subsequent tax sales of property. The Oneida delegates were equally suspicious of the BIA's emphasis on the rights of individual landowners, since in the late nineteenth century many individual Native Americans had been convinced by unscrupulous speculators to sell their lands. Finally, the offer of a lump-sum payment was unanimously opposed by the Oneida delegates, who saw that changing the terms of a treaty might jeopardize the many pending land claims based upon the treaty.

As a result of the 1956 meeting, the Oneida rejected readjustment. Instead, they determined to improve tribal life by lobbying for federal monies for postsecondary education, for the improvement of drainage on tribal lands, and for the building of a convalescent home for tribal members. Thus, by learning the lessons of history, the Oneida were able to survive as a tribe in their homeland.

“During the 1940s and 1950s the United States government developed” - is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. Which one of the following would be most consistent with the policy of readjustment described in the Passage?

(A) the establishment among Native Americans of tribal system of elected government
(B) the creation of a national project to preserve Native American language and oral history
(C) the establishment of programs to encourage Native Americans to move from reservations to urban areas
(D) the development of a large-scale effort to restore Native American lands to their original tribes
(E) the reaffirmation of federal treaty obligations to Native American tribes

2. According to the passage, after the 1956 meeting the Oneida resolved to

(A) obtain improved social services and living conditions for members of the tribe
(B) pursue litigation designed to reclaim tribal Lands
(C) secure recognition of their unique status as a self-governing Native American nation within the United States
(D) establish new kinds of tribal institutions
(E) cultivate a life-style similar to that of other United States citizens

3. Which one of the following best describes the function of the first paragraph in the context of the passage as a whole

(A) It summarizes the basis of a conflict underlying negotiations described elsewhere in the passage.
(B) It presents two positions, one of which is defended by evidence provided in succeeding paragraphs
(C) lt compares competing interpretations of a historical conflict.
(D) It analyzes the causes of a specific historical event and predicts a future development.
(E) It outlines the history of a government agency.

4. The author refers to the increased awareness of civil rights during the 1940s and 1950s most probably in order to

(A) contrast the readjustment movement with other social phenomena
(B) account for the stance of the Native American leadership
(C) help explain the impetus for the readjustment movement
(D) explain the motives of BIA bureaucrats
(E) foster support for the policy of readjustment

5. The passage suggests that advocates of readjustment would most likely agree with which one of the following statements regarding the relationship between the federal government and Native Americans

(A) The federal government should work with individual Native Americans to improve life on reservations.
(B) The federal government should be no more involved in the affairs of Native Americans than in the affairs of other citizens.
(C) The federal government should assume more responsibility for providing social services to Native Americans.
(D) The federal government should share its responsibility for maintaining Native American territories with tribal leaders
(E)The federal government should observe all provisions of treaties made in the past with Native Americans

6. The passage suggests that the Oneida delegates viewed the Canandaigua Treaty as

(A) a valuable safeguard of certain Oneida rights and privileges
(B) the source of many past problems for the Oneida tribe
(C) a model for the type of agreement they hoped to reach with the federal government
(D) an important step toward recognition of their nation
(E) an obsolete agreement without relevance for their current condition

7. Which one of the following situations most closely parallels that of the Oneida delegates in refusing to accept a lump-sum payment of $60,000 ?

(A) A university offers a student a four-year scholarship with the stipulation that the student not accept any outside employment; the student refuses the offer and attends a different school because the amount of the scholarship would not have covered living expenses
(B) A company seeking to reduce its payroll obligations offers an employee a large bonus if he will accept early retirement; the employee refuses because he does not want to compromise an outstanding worker's compensation suit
(C) Parents of a teenager offer to pay her at the end of the month for performing weekly chores rather than paying her on a weekly basis; the teenager refuses because she has number of financial obligations that she must meet early in the month
(D) A car dealer offers a customer a S500 cash payment for buying a new car: the customer refuses because she does not want to pay taxes on the amount, and requests instead that her monthly payments be reduced by a proportionate amount.
(E) A landlord offers a tenant several months rent-free in exchange for the tenant's agreeing not to demand that her apartment be painted every two years, as is required by the lease the tenant refuses because she would have to spend her own time painting the apartment.

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