WW2 (1939-1945)

Question 1

How did the second world war change the ideological climate

Answer 1

• The Second World War profoundly changed the ideological
  climate in the United States
• The onset of the Cold War in the late 1940s made most
  Americans worried about the power and ambitions of the
  USSR
• Americans began stridently trumpeting the virtues of
  individual freedom against the collective ideology of the USSR

Question 2

Why did the policies of Collier in the 1930s break down during WW2

Answer 2

• Collier’s policies were regarded with intense suspicion; the IRA
  came to be seen as a domestic version of socialism; or even
  communism
• Conservative Congressmen believed the autonomy the IRA
  granted to Native American communities gave them special
  privileges
• Colliers policies seemed to perpetuate the status of Native
  Americans as wards of the Federal Government
• The IRA also criticised by the Native Council of Churches for the
  support it gave the Native American religions.
• In January 1945 Collier, worn down by the growing hostility to his
  policies, resigned as Commissioner

Question 3

How did the immediate post war period impact the NAI

Answer 3

• In 1948, William Brophy, Collier’s successor as Commissioner,
  began a policy of relocating Indians, initially from two tribes, to
  cities where job opportunities were better than on the reservations
• This programme was gradually expanded and by 1960 nearly 30%
  of Native Americans lived in the cities, as opposed to just 8% in
  1940.
• More than three thousand Native Americans in San Francisco and
  Los Angeles after the war; however, fewer than 500, or a sixth of
  them, were able to find steady jobs.
• The median income for urban male Native Americans was $1,198 a
  year, in contrast to $3,780 for the white male population
• However, it reported as early as 1953 that many Native Americans
  had ‘found the adjustment to new working and living conditions
  more difficult than anticipated’
• Federal funding for the relocation project was never sufficient to
  assist the Native Americans to cope with these problems, and
  many drifted back to the reservations
• Many existed in a state of impermanence between the reservation
  and the city

Question 4

What was the Indians Claims Commission (ICC)

Answer 4

• Congress, in part to reward Native Americans for their contribution to
  the war effort, set up the Indian Claims Commission to hear Indian
  claims for any lands stolen from them since the creation of the USA in
  
• This move was supported by the National Congress of American
  Indians, a pressure group formed in 1944, because they welcomed a
  federal initiative to deal with long-standing grievances
• However, it was clear that the Commission would provide only financial
  compensation and not return any land.