ABSTRACT
American Indians were and are very diverse peoples. That is the reason why it makes only limited sense to treat them as a uniform group. American Indian policy is a somewhat different matter because policymakers largely treated Native Americans as monolithic. Still, the same policy could turn out to be a very different experience for different tribes as to a considerable extent it would have been shaped by those actually carrying it out along with those who were forced to receive it, as well as by those who originally made the laws.
