中文摘要：

强制同化政策是西部边疆开发殆尽的美国为彻底解决印第安人问题而在19世纪后期开始采用的一种激进战略。它以取消部落主权、拆散保留地、瓦解部落、赋予印第安人公民权并改变其思想认同为手段，试图将印第安人改造为按白人方式生活、融入主流社会的单个美国公民。强制同化政策是否定种族、族群集体权利与不宽容异质文化的美国传统自由主义在印第安人事务中的运用与移植，虽然出台之初，白人社会普遍对之寄予厚望，但因其在道义原则上种族歧视的实质，在工具效应上不能替代民族融合所必需的长期过程，也无法使弱势民族短期内顺利适应主流社会，在实施过程中又赋予支配群体一种不受限制的绝对权力，使其获得权力滥用的途径，鼓励其机会主义行为，所以在实施半个世纪之后惨遭失败而被废止。

英文摘要：

This is a study of the objectives, measures, plights, aftermaths and indications of the American Indian policy of assimilation under duress （ 1870s - 1930s）. By such measures as cancelling the Indian tribal sovereignty, dismantling the Indian reservations and tribes, endowing the Indians with American citizenship and transforming their cultural as well as national identity, the American government adopts a radical strategy （known as assimilation under duress or coercive assimilation policy） to assimilate the Indians to individual American citizens so as to merge them into the mainstream society with their lifestyle adapted to that of the white Americans.. In the beginning, the policy was largely welcomed and greatly favored by the Whites as a natural outcome of American Traditional Liberalism which did not recognize other racial and ethnic collective rights or tolerate cultural diversity. However, it failed and was abolished after half a century of implementation, because the racial discrimination nature of the moral principles, the ineffectiveness in inter-racial amalgamation and acculturation, and the tendency of empowering the dominant group with unlimited absolute power, led to the abuses of power and opportunism. It serves as a lesson in the history, with its particularity and universality in nature.