New Deal and Native Americans Flashcards
What was the situation in 1920s?
1920s – Acres owned fell from 155 million acres to 48 million, disease was rife and the job market was depleted with most Native Americans isolated in rural communities with poverty. Many Natives relocated to Dust Bowl which was unsuitable for agriculture and competing for work with minorities.
What was situation from last 1920s-1930?
By 1932 90 of 138 million acres granted by Dawes Act were lost with Native Americans living in squalor. In 1926 Department of Interior found act a disaster.
What was John Collier’s background?
John Collier spent two years with Pueblo Indians at Taos, New Mexico, studying their history. He opposed the Bursum Bill of 1922 which would take 60,000 acres from the Pueblos, and formed the American Indian Defence Association in 1923 for increased land, resources, and religious/educational freedom. In 1933 he was made Commissioner of Indian Affairs and passed Indian Reorganisation Act following year.
What rights were regained with the Indian Reorganisation Act?
In 1934 the Indian Reorganisation (Wheeler-Howard) Act was passed. This was the first move to preserve culture and involve them in reservation administration. Gave right to practise religion, partake in ceremonial dances reversing an 1883 decision, ability to prevent sale of Native American lands to buyers, extension of vote to women. 75/245 Indians initially voted against Collier’s Act and disliked imposition of democracy.
How did the act change government for Indians? What improvements were to be made on reservations? Why did people feel Collier treated Indians as exotic minority?
The act made tribes into self governing bodies with police and legal systems and control of land sales, alongside tribal corporations to manage resource. Act was to expand schools, housing, improve irrigation, and return unallotted land to tribes, alongside teaching Native history at schools and expanding reservations. Indians felt he treated them as exotic minority. Some argued act encouraged idleness but Collier made Natives benefit from CCC and PWA. Natives remained poor.
What was impact of act?
Improved reservation conditions as agencies of the New Deal built hospitals and schools, and encouraged women to take better economic role and higher education. Ended allotments but not assimilation, reforms still promoted American way of life. Didn’t lead to tribes being independent or self-sufficient and lands not returned that were owed. Efforts reversed after 1941 when US entered war and funding transferred towards war effort.
How was the act changed?
Changes to act: Senator Burton K Wheeler, head of Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, changed act, scaling back tribal self government and dropping call for traditional tribal culture. 181-77 vote margin in end, Navajo didn’t want to lose grazing rights.
What were benefits of the act?
Benefits: More involvement in BIA, women gained training for domestic work and more rights, Gladys Tantaquidgeon was a Native American who studied anthropology at the University of Pennyslvania and worked in Indian Bureau supporting arts and cooperatives.
What were limits of the act?
Limits: Indians had limited economic power, assimilation under modifications increased, politician resistance and lack of finance to return lands, some Indians had success on homesteads and farming and wanted allotment.
