John Collier and the Indian New Deal
At the beginning of the 20th century, Native American culture was on the edge of extinction. Indians were at the bottom of the economic ladder. They had the lowest life expectancy rate, the highest infant mortality rate, the highest suicide rate and the highest rate of alcoholism than any other group in America. The Meriam Report of 1928, an 872-page study, laid the blame at the foot of the Federal Government. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office 1933, a series of major reforms were implemented that would later come to be known as the “Indian New Deal”. An important chapter in contemporary Native American history was about to begin. This essay will outline the major elements of the Indian New Deal and examine its achievements, failures and criticism.
A critical analysis of the Indian New Deal would not be complete without a brief history of its progenitor, John Collier. His career started in 1907 as a social worker with the People’s Institute in New York City. During his time with the institute, Collier developed a social ideology based on the preservation of cultural traditions and communal life. In 1920, he found himself among the Pueblo tribe of New Mexico. Collier became enchanted with their sense of community, believing it to be an affirmation of his views on social policy. From this point on, he was at the forefront of the Indian reform movement. In 1923, Collier and other reformers founded the American Indian Defense Association, an organization committed to ending land allotment and preserving Native American culture. At the request of Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes, President Roosevelt selected Collier to oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Immedia...
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Vine Deloria, Jr. ed., American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1985) 43.
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Emma R. Gross, Contemporary Federal Policy Towards American Indians (New York: Greenwood Press 1989) 20.
U.S. Congress, Committee on Indian Affairs, Hearings on H.R. 7781: Indian Conditions and Affairs, 74th Congress, 1st Session, 1935, p.744.
Terry L. Anderson, Sovereign Nations or Reservations? An Economic History of American Indians (San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy 1995) 144.
Vine Deloria, Jr. ed., American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1985) 93.
It had previously been the policy of the American government to remove and relocate Indians further and further west as the American population grew, but there was only so much...
Wooster R. (1998). The Military and United States Indian policy 1865-1903 (pp. 43, 47). West
Talking Back to Civilization: Indian Voices from the Progressive Era edited by Frederick E. Hoxie is a book which begins with an introduction into the life of Charles Eastman and a brief overview of the history of Native Americans and their fight for justice and equal rights, it then continues by describing the different ways and avenues of speaking for Indian rights and what the activists did. This leads logically into the primary sources which “talk back” to the society which had overrun their own. The primary sources immerse the reader into another way of thinking and cause them to realize what our societal growth and even foundation has caused to those who were the true natives. The primary sources also expand on the main themes of the book which are outlines in the introduction. They are first and most importantly talking back to the “pale faces”, Indian education, religion, American Indian policy, the image of the Indians presented in America. The other chapters in the book further expanded on these ideas. These themes will be further discussed in the following chapters along with a review of this
Hawkins, Steve L. "Land war: Indian vs. Indian" U.S. News & World Report 7 July,
In 1887 the federal government launched boarding schools designed to remove young Indians from their homes and families in reservations and Richard Pratt –the leader of Carlisle Indian School –declared, “citizenize” them. Richard Pratt’s “Kill the Indian… and save the man” was a speech to a group of reformers in 1892 describing the vices of reservations and the virtues of schooling that would bring young Native Americans into the mainstream of American society.
of Native American Culture as a Means of Reform,” American Indian Quarterly 26, no. 1
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
Talking Back to Civilization , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough testimony of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will attempt to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history.
In regard to law, Deloria defines the relationship between the US Government and the Indians as paternalistic. The US Government treated and governed the Indians as a father would by providing basic needs but without given them rights. There has been some improvement with the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. This act allowed the return to local self-government on a tribal level and restored the self management of their assets. By allowing the Indians to self govern it encouraged an economic foundation for the inhabitants of Indian reservations. Unfortunately only a few tribes have fully taken advantage of this act, while others continue to struggle for survival.
Deloria defines the relationship between the US Government and the Indians as paternalistic. The US Government treated and governed the Indians as a father would by providing basic needs but without given them rights. There has been some improvement with the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. This act allowed the return to local self-government on a tribal level and restored the self management of their assets. By allowing the Indians to self govern it encouraged an economic foundation for the inhabitants of Indian reservations. Unfortunately only a few tribes have fully taken advantage of this Act, while others struggle for survival.
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
The collective programs to reform and assimilate Native American’s under the lead of John Collier was deemed the “Indian New Deal.” John Collier was an American social philanthropist who took an interest in reforming and preserving Indian culture in America. He was eventually assigned the position of Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The overall goal of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the American government, was to assimilate the native populations and to “Americanize” the Indian way of life. Although John Collier supported the plan of assimilation, his ideas, programs, and policies leaned toward the acculturation of Native Americans instead. Of the many programs and policies created under the authority
Grinde, Donald, and Bruce Johansen. Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers, 1995. Print.
Stark, H. K., & Wilkins, D. E. (2011). American Indian Politics and the American Political System. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Sandefur, G. (n.d.). American Indian reservations: The first underclass areas? Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc121f.pdf