Title: Reading Check 7: Assimilation and Persistence
Course: The American West: Power, Place, and Memory > Section: Week 9 · October 19–23, 2026: Reservations, Allotment, Education, and Indigenous Persistence

Q: What was a central effect of allotment policy?
- It protected all collective landholding
- It ended federal jurisdiction completely
- It divided land and enabled outside purchase
- It restored every parcel named in treaties
A: It divided land and enabled outside purchase

Q: Why must boarding-school photographs be read critically?
- They lack any useful historical evidence
- They were staged for institutional purposes
- Every photographic image is fabricated
- Students’ clothing has no historical meaning
A: They were staged for institutional purposes

Q: Which source practice best resists an assimilation narrative’s claim of disappearance?
- Trace community continuity across records
- Ignore political activity after enrollment
- Rely exclusively on federal reporting
- Treat stated policy as its actual outcome
A: Trace community continuity across records

Q: Name one piece of evidence from this unit and explain how its creator, audience, or collection context affects how a historian may use it.

Q: Make a one-sentence claim answering this unit question: How did assimilation policy try to reorganize Indigenous land and family life, and how did Native people survive and reshape it? Then identify one limitation, uncertainty, or counterexample that keeps the claim from becoming too broad.