1. Communities, Tribes, Nations
Politics in an Era of Transition: 1920s-1930s

2. Indigenous Politics: 1920s & 1930s
The (inter)national landscape
Legal contradictions
National organizations
Citizenship and status
Legal Precedents
The Pueblos
ICA, Merriam Report
The Indian Reorganization Act
The Indian New Deal
Tohono O’odham & the Hualapai

3. The (Inter)national Landscape
End of the Early Reservation Era
Dawes Allotment Act
Boarding Schools
Health Problems
Wage labor
Post-“Indian War” generations
New political entities
Law & Status
Mexican Revolution
Land Reform & Ejidos
“Indigenismo”
Legacies of wars against the Yaqui, Diaspora
1924 Johnson-Reid Act
Border Patrol

4. Contending Legal Interpretations
Lonewolf v. Hitchcock, 1903
Winters v. US, 1908
1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge
Protected Land in OK
¾ vote
Jerome Agreement to allot reservation
Lonewolf sued
Supreme Court: “Plenary Power”
Ft. Belknap, WY (Gros Ventre & Assiniboine) Off- res farmers diverted water & hurt res farming.
Supreme Court ruled tribes had right to sufficient water for farming & that those rights were senior to up-river users.
Inherent rights to water
“Winters Doctrine”

5. Organizational Developments
The Society of American Indians (1911)
Education
Self-determination
Citizenship
Racial uplift
World War One
Bureau of Indian Affairs

6. The SAI Robert Yellowtail Dr. Carlos Montezuma Zitkala Sa
Arthur C. Parker 
Henry Roe Cloud
Pressure congress, write letters, organize communities, demand rights & treaties

7. Carlos Montezuma b.1860s Yavapai Kidnapped, sold Univ. Chicago
Physician
Activist
Abolish the BIA

8. Zitkala Sa (Gertrude Bonin)
Yankton Sioux
Whites’ Manual Inst.
Boston Conservatory (violin)
American Indian Stories
Playwright, teacher
Anti-Christian
Died, 1938

9. Native American Church
Southwest, Mexico
Multi-tribal
Syncretism
Peyote & “Road men”
Incorporated & investigated
Alcohol, work, good
morals, community trust, balance

10. Mission Indian Federation
Regional pan-Indian political organization
Labor, voting rights
Indian rights and land claims, treaties
Adam Castillo
Influence into Arizona, Hualapai, Fred Mahone

11. The Mission Indian Federation
Photo taken around 1924

12. Citizenship & Status Nation-nation “National separatism”
End of Treaty-making, 1871
14th Amendment
Citizenship
Naturalization
Standing Bear v. Crook,1879
Indians as “legal persons”
Ex Parte Crow Dog, 1883
USSC ruled “Indian-Indian” murder was tribal matter
Congress had not explicitly abrogated
Elk v. Wilkins, 1884
Indians were not citizens
Major Crimes Act, 1885
14 Crimes under federal jurisdiction
US v. Kagama, 1886
Upheld MCA
Trust Relationship
Ward-Guardian

13. Citizenship & Status, continued…
Rulings up to Kagama reduced sovereignty
Allotment attacked land base
On reservation, lacked voting and civil rights
Lacked protections of 14th Amendment
AZ & CA prohibited Indians from voting: non-citizens
Yaquis were categorized as non-white, thus ineligible for naturalization per 1790 Naturalization Act
1902 Lonewolf decision and plenary power
“Ward and Guardian” metaphor
Trapped in a legal limbo

14. Allotment and Status 1887 Dawes Act 1891 Amendment 1902 Hiership Act
Allotment for individualized farming, would prepare for civilization
25 year “training” period
Fee simple, taxable, citizenship
Tribal Roll & Blood Quantum
1891 Amendment
acres. Agent could lease Indian lands
1902 Hiership Act
Agent could sell inherited land
1906 Burke Act
Fee simple title to allotments for “competent” Indians. Could sell or lease lands. Shorten or lengthen trust period.
Leasing left Indians land-less and without citizenship

15. Allotment
Native people lost approx. 90 million acres of land because of the Dawes Allotment Act
Rise of the “checkerboard” on reservations, led to “fractionization” of good land for farming and ranching
Burke Act was a disaster

16. Pueblo Indians: Race, Status, Identity
All Indian Pueblo Council
“Traditional” and Modern coalition
Governor, vice, etc
Discussion and debate
Majority rule, but tempered by the desire for consensus
Deal with outsiders and issues impacting all Pueblos, especially state of New Mexico

17. Pueblo Indians: Race, Status, Identity
Were Pueblos non-citizen Indians or “Mexican” citizens who were racially Indian, that were now U.S. citizens?
Were they Mexican citizens & Indians, and “American Indians,” and thus non-citizens?
Would the U.S. make treaties with them (like other tribes) or treat them like Mexican…Americans?
In comparing them to Apaches, Comanches, etc, Americans used racist definitions of “Indian” to determine the legal and racial status of the Pueblos
Indian = savage=treaties
Pueblos=semi-civilized=citizen=no treaties
What was the status of their land grants?

18. Pueblo Indians: Race, Status, Identity
NM Organic Act, 1850
First Territorial Government of NM
Compromise of 1850, paid Texas $10 million
Initially considered citizens with voting rights
1853 Congress rescinded voting rights, NM legislature gave them voting rights at local level
But had to prove their mexican-ness
NM Courts opposed creation of reservations
Status of Pueblo lands delayed surveys of territorial land possessions
1860s: NM Surveyor General, US Congress confirmed 17 Land Grants, weakening the claim to status as “Indian” and the argument that land was held in trust by feds as a reservation

19. Legal Contradictions U.S. v. Lucero, 1869 U.S. vs. Joseph, 1876
Cochiti (i.e. all Pueblos) were Hispanicized, thus part of conquered Mexican population, thus citizens
NM Territory had jurisdiction, pueblos were not Indian Territory
Thousands of non-Indians began claiming Pueblo lands
U.S. vs. Joseph, 1876
Overturned Lucero
Court ruled that Pueblo Indians as non-citizens lacked property rights requiring protection
U.S. vs., Sandoval, 1913
Pueblos were savages, non-citizen Indians, non-Mexican
Feds had jurisdiction, land was protected
3,000 claims to Pueblo lands, led to discussion about the Bursum Bill, Pueblo Lands Board

20. Pueblo Indian Lands Board
Bursom Bill, 1922: prove property title, nullify land and water rights
All Indian Pueblo Council, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and John Collier

21. Indian Citizenship Act, 1924
National Context
World War I, Red Scare, Culture Wars, Johnson-Reid Act (National Origins Act), Border Patrol
Indian Affairs and Status
Confusion from Allotment, competency commissions, military service, “detribalized” Indians, residency, taxation, property
Society of American Indians
US v. Nice, 1916 opened the door for citizenship
1919 Congress allowed Indian veterans to become citizens
Significance
Unilateral and universal status as citizens. Legal means to achieve the cultural goal of “citizen” = assimilated
Material realities of wage labor, land loss, allotment of reservations
Ideological concerns about multi-cultural national identity

22. Limits of Citizenship Literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses
1928 Arizona Supreme Court argued that the ICA did not apply to Indians on reservations because they were “wards” under tutelage by their “guardians,” the federal government.
The Arizona Constitution prohibited wards from voting
1948 Harrison v. Laveen
Frank Harrison was a Yavapai Apache (and vet) who tried to register to vote in Maricopa County.
County recorder rejected him
Sued and case went up to AZ Supreme Court, which gave a broad ruling that all Indians had the right to vote because of the 1924 ICA

23. Citizens, but on the Margins…
Problems and “Failures”
Merriam Report, 1928
High rates of illnesses such as TB, trachoma, influenza
Land loss, poverty, wage labor, fraud & corruption in the BIA
Abuse in schools
Fall & Bursom, Pueblo Lands, Osage Oil, land leases
“Failures” of allotment and general assimilation
Brookings Institute
Lewis Merriam, Henry Roe-Cloud, others
Survey of reservations and conditions
Reform needed in education and land policy
Reservations and entire policy failed to assimilate

24. The Indian New Deal Pres. Roosevelt CIA, John Collier
Sweeping legislation
Economics
Politics
Education
Culture/Language
Religion
Land Reform

25. Education Policies Boarding Schools Reservation Day Schools
Johnson O’Malley Act
Public School funding
Indian history and culture
Indian employees

26. Isleta Day School, 1941
Closed numerous boarding schools and replaced them with local day schools closer to reservations

27. Indian Reorganization Act, 1934
Government/Politics
Boilerplates
Constitutions
Executive Br.
Tribal Council
Ended Allotment
Economics
Business Council
Loans
Administer funds
Ec. Dev. Plans

28. The IRA in Indian Country
Top-down
IRA regional meetings
IRA votes on Rez.
“yes” & “no” votes
Politicized culture
Language
YES=Gov’t recognition
NO=exclusion

29. Tohono O’Odham General Dynamics Politics of the IRA
Government based in villages
Regional economic, cultural, language, political differences
Ranching, farming, wages, urban influence
I-CCC, labor, range, canals, “improvements”
Pan-village organizations
Good Government League, 1911
Ranching, eastern
Presbyterian
AKA: Papago Council
League of Papago Chiefs, 1928
Western, farming, wage labor, land reform, mining

30. Debate over the IRA Structure of new government 1936 Constitution?
Peter Blaine
Petition to Congress
Pro-mining
Land Reform
Work Relief
1934 referendum on reorganizing tribal government
Regionally skewed
Low turn-out
Structure of new government
1936 Constitution?
Authority, power, legitimacy of tribal government
Jose’ Anton
District structure
Councils for 11 districts on 3 reservations
District Representatives to large tribal council

31. Tohono O’Odham “Federation” Government Structure
Tribal
Council
11 District Councils
Five Members per District Council
Head Men from villages typically elected to District Councils

33. Significance of IRA
Altered many political traditions of decentralization with a centralized political body representing multiple bands, clans and villages
Voting Process was individualized and majority vote strained traditions of consensus and conflict resolution
Secularism undercut religious leadership
Linked to recognition
Powerful Executive, Economic Development
Increased homogenization within communities, differentiated widely dispersed groups, separated Mexicans-Indians- Anglos, racialization
Entrenched blood quantum as marker for tribal identity