The Indian Reorganisation

The Indian reorganisation act, which was part of the New Deal, or the Wheeler-Howard Act of 1934, I do not believe that this can be seen as a turning point at all, as the improvement was not sustained due to the change of administration in 1945, and the only long term significance is that it laid the foundation for reform in the 1970s. And there are also far more important and genuine turning points that affected the development of Native American rights in the period of 1865-1992. These being the acquisition of US citizenship in 1924, the emergence of pressure groups that helped the Natives such as AIDA and figures such as Lewis Meriam and John Collier, and finally official government policy, this being the beneficial Indian Self Determination Act and Education Assistance Act of 1975.

Firstly, I dispute that the Indian Reorganisation Act can be seen as a turning point, but as a momentary blip to the suffering that was endured by the Natives in this time period. The act itself aimed to preserve the traditional culture of the Native tribes and allowed the Natives to have more influence and involvement in the administration of the reservations. And the act may be significant as it overthrew a previous law prohibiting the performance of a Native dance, and so proved that previous change could be reverted to allow the expansion of Native rights. John Collier was an influential figure in the introduction of the Indian Reorganisation Act, and it was his actions as a whole that was more of a turning point, rather than one act. Collier led the AIDA group, which was a group of predominantly white writers and anthologists that aimed to protect the rights of Indians and their lands, culture and tradition. I believe that this was a turning point because until this time there had been no influential figures speaking out for the Natives, Collier along with the Meriam report publically condemned Dawes act and was the successful at doing so. However this is not the most significant turning point as they condemned the method used during assimilation rather than assimilation itself.

One of the most important turning points, I believe, is the emergence of Red Power this came in response to the emerging, militant ‘black power’, saw young, militants wanting Indians to be known as ‘Native Americans’ and engaged in various high profile events to attract media coverage and raise awareness. This came in the form of songs such as ‘As long as the Grass shall grow’ in 1969 by Peter La Farge. More significant parts of Red Power include the militant organisation AIM, or the American Indian Movement, established in 1968, to take up the issue of discrimination and promoting improvement for the Indians. AIM pursued the idea of native sovereignty, to return their tribal lands; Indian activists campaigned for the reinstatement of their fishing rights. Many of the activities that AIM partook in include daring sieges of Alcatraz and the