August 19, 1938
The Daily Journal Capital
Microfilm Roll: MN00299
On this day, August 19, 1938, in Osage country, The Daily Journal-Capital published an article on the American Indian Federation’s proposal to abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The American Indian Federation (AIF) was a political organization established in the summer of 1934. Although the majority of the organization’s members were from Oklahoma, the AIF was a national organization that had three main goals:
- Remove Indian Commissioner John Collier
- Eliminate the Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Revoke the Indian Reorganization Act
The American Indian Federation fought for Indian sovereignty. Part of what made the AIF unique was its member’s wide range of political beliefs. Although the group was influenced by its right-winged leader Joseph Bruner, the AIF consisted of members who supported both assimilationist and sovereign ideologies. In his article, “The American Indian Federation and the Indian New Deal: A Reinterpretation,” Laurence M. Hauptman describes the AIF as, “a loose umbrella-like federation that was composed of many strands of Indian thinking” (380). However, its unique diversity is what ultimately lead the organization to its failure.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was just another symbol of bureaucracy for many American Indians. The AIF showed much discontent towards the agency, especially within the followers of Dr. Carlos Montezuma, an ex-BIA physician. Montezuma believed that the BIA further symbolized the notion of the “colonial nature of the relationship of Indian and white,” and that “reform only meant the strengthening, not diminishing of bureaucratic control in the lives of American Indians” (386). His beliefs became the foundations of the fight to abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the late 1920s the Institute for Government Research conducted a survey, titled the Merriam Report, which denounced many of the failed efforts of the BIA, such as, the low quality healthcare, the BIA’s faulty education system, and their lack of empathy towards American Indians, among other factors. In response to the faultiness of the Bureau, John Collier publically vocalized his opposition toward the BIA. However, Collier, who was appointed commissioner in 1933, was less than committed to put an end to the Bureau, and ultimately, as commissioner, called for reorganization much like the one forewarned by Montezuma.
One of Collier’s major reforms was the Indian Reorganization Act, or IRA. The purpose of the IRA was to assist tribes in the transition to self-governance and responsibility, calling for tribes to hold elections, create constitutions, to terminate certain existing policies, etc. Many members of the AIF argued against the act, once regarded to as the “Magna Carta for Indians,” because it promoted a very Americanized system of government (401). It was the vast response to the passing of the IRA that led to the creation of the American Indian Federation.
Throughout the 1930s and into the early 1940s, the AIF waged war against both John Collier and the BIA through a series of congressional hearings. Accusations against Collier and the BIA included the misuse of public funds, interference in Indian politics, and even an assertion about Collier and the Bureau being “anti-Christian,” because of their resistance to work with missionaries (395-6). Unfortunately, as stated earlier, the American Indian Federation was unsuccessful in achieving any of its goals. The Settlement Bill, introduced by Congress in 1939, would serve as another turning point for the AIF further pushing the organization toward its demise in the 1940s.
Morgan M. Guzman
“Indian Federation Hears Politicians,” The Daily Journal-Capital. August 19, 1938, p. 1. Microfilm roll number MN00299. Sequoyah National Research Center, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Further Reading
Gracey, Marci Barnes. “American Indian Federation.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=AM006http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=AM006. Accessed February 21, 2018.
Hauptman, Laurence M., “The American Indian Federation and the Indian New Deal: A Reinterpretation,” Pacific Historical Review, vol 2:4. Nov. 1983.
