NEW DEAL NATIVE AMERICANS

Question 1

Give context statement

Answer 1

• New deal suggests that individual presidents were more important than economic conditions
• Native Americans benefitted from some legislation - some suggest that it was because of john collier that there was a new deal for native Americans
• Govt still aimed to pursue policy of assimilation so a lot of legislation didn’t make substantial difference

Question 2

Ways federal govt positively impacted rights

Answer 2

• 1934 wheeler Howard act - established corporations to manage resources on reservations, gave Native Americans more control -> allowed to practice religion (peyote - hallucinatory drug), attend local schools, stop sale of Native American land, training in farming/better medical services, abandoned allotment policy, tribes on reservations could be led by tribal leader
• 1934 wheeler Howard act - extension of political rights to women and allowed ceremonial dances -> undid 1883 act that banned ceremonial dances
• Native Americans more involved in bureau of Indian affairs - still under control of federal govt
• 1934 Johnson-o’malley act - gave federal funds to public schools to accept native americans -> too expensive to run separate Native American schools
• 1935 congress created Indian arts and crafts boards - encourage them to produce traditional art (galleries established in Washington and South Dakota)
• 1933 collier got $100 million from govt - created ccc-id, employed 15000 men (taught them skills, provided income and improved land)
• 1928 Meriam report - showed native Americans living in poverty
• Indian emergency conservation program was civilian conservation corps type project for reservations - employed 80000 native Americans

Question 3

Ways collier positively impacted rights

Answer 3

• John collier appointed commissioner of Indian affairs - pushed for wheeler Howard act
• Collier believed Native American lifestyle had much to teach American materialism - wanted to preserve this and made reservations permanent sovereign homelands -> many didn’t want to data on reservations ad preferred to assimilate, opposing paternalism of collier

Question 4

Ways native Americans themselves positively impacted rights

Answer 4

• Women had opportunity to train for domestic work - more educational opportunities for women, Gladys tantaquidgeon studied anthropology at university of Pennsylvania

Question 5

Other ways rights were positively impacted

Answer 5

• More hospitals/schools on reservations - collier directed increased govt spending here
• 1938 better healthcare - population increased faster than national

Question 6

Ways federal govt negatively impacted rights

Answer 6

• Govt still aimed to pursue policy of assimilation - legislation didn’t make substantial difference, idea of separate Native American federal court was abandoned
• Indian reorganisation act - govt still wanted assimilation, land not given back to native Americans, tribes not self sufficient, fudning meant to improve conditions on reservations were allocated to ww2 effort
• Govt still had paternalistic attitude towards them - didn’t want them to be self sufficient communities
• Still dependent on federal aid

Question 7

Ways collier negatively impacted rights

Answer 7

• Colliers plans were changed to be less ambitious - native Americans not given full autonomy
• Collier hadnt consulted native Americans so their response was sometimes hostile - allotments were in place for 40years so some has assimilated, many were successful farmers and were worried about losing land, many didn’t understand legal parts of deal

Question 8

Ways native Americans themselves negatively impacted rights

Answer 8

• 75/245 tribes rejected measures in wheeler Howard act
• Tribes isn’t like use of secret ballots to see if they accepted act - democracy part of white mans culture

Question 9

Other ways rights were negatively impacted

Answer 9

• Poverty remained high - didn’t have enough money to buy back reservations
• Improvements were short term - disappeared after ww2
• New deal gave native Americans citizenship - they didn’t view this as an achievement, many already had it through Dawes act, forcing them to assimilate, still didn’t get sovereignty as many aspects of culture stopped (dance order banned)
• No new jobs for native americans - welfare reforms were limited because of individual states
• Implementation of Native American new deal was slow - lot of land leased to white people