The civilization program was a land grab framed as cultural uplift

Evidence

Native people’s ways of life necessitated broad swaths of land for growing corn, squash, and beans; for plants collected from diverse locations; for extensive hunting; and for ceremonial travel to far-off towns with spiritual significance. But the “civilization” program assumed that Indians would recognize the superiority of Western culture and be willing to change without being coerced by force. As civilized tribes, Washington reasoned, the Native people would neither need nor claim so much land. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 480

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the reframing thesis: ‘civilization’ is the rhetorical vehicle converting territorial dispossession into benevolent policy.
• XREF: Direct evidence for the reader’s ‘deviation vs design’ distinction — assimilation is the designed path that makes dispossession look like Native choice.