Oklahoma's Indian New Deal
Title | Oklahoma's Indian New Deal PDF eBook |
Author | Jon S. Blackman |
Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press |
Pages | 238 |
Release | 2013-06-14 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN | 0806189223 |
Among the New Deal programs that transformed American life in the 1930s was legislation known as the Indian New Deal, whose centerpiece was the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934. Oddly, much of that law did not apply to Native residents of Oklahoma, even though a large percentage of the country’s Native American population resided there in the 1930s and no other state was home to so many different tribes. The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (OIWA), passed by Congress in 1936, brought Oklahoma Indians under all of the IRA’s provisions, but included other measures that applied only to Oklahoma’s tribal population. This first book-length history of the OIWA explains the law’s origins, enactment, implementation, and impact, and shows how the act played a unique role in the Indian New Deal. In the early decades of the twentieth century, white farmers, entrepreneurs, and lawyers used allotment policies and other legal means to gain control of thousands of acres of Indian land in Oklahoma. To counter the accumulated effects of this history, the OIWA specified how tribes could strengthen government by adopting new constitutions, and it enabled both tribes and individual Indians to obtain financial credit and land. Virulent opposition to the bill came from oil, timber, mining, farming, and ranching interests. Jon S. Blackman’s narrative of the legislative battle reveals the roles of bureaucrats, politicians, and tribal members in drafting and enacting the law. Although the OIWA encouraged tribes to organize for political and economic purposes, it yielded mixed results. It did not produce a significant increase in Indian land ownership in Oklahoma, and only a small percentage of Indian households applied for OIWA loans. Yet the act increased member participation in tribal affairs, enhanced Indian relations with non-Indian businesses and government, promoted greater Indian influence in government programs—and, as Blackman shows, became a springboard to the self-determination movements of the 1950s and 1960s.
The Indian Reorganization Act
Title | The Indian Reorganization Act PDF eBook |
Author | Vine Deloria |
Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press |
Pages | 462 |
Release | 2002 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780806133980 |
In 1934, Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier began a series of "congresses" with American Indians to discuss his proposed federal bill for granting self-government to tribal reservations. In "The Indian Reorganization Act," Vine Deloria, Jr., compiled the actual historical records of those congresses and made available important documents of the premier years of reform in federal Indian policy as well as the bill itself.
American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century
Title | American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century PDF eBook |
Author | Vine Deloria |
Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press |
Pages | 278 |
Release | 1985 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780806124247 |
Offers eleven essays on federal Indian policy.
American Indians and World War II
Title | American Indians and World War II PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press |
Pages | 268 |
Release | 1999-09-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780806131849 |
Details the impact of World War II on American Indian life, arguing that the war had a more profound and lasting effect on the course of Indian affairs in the twentieth century than any other single event or period, and assessing its consequences for American Indians and whites.
Termination and Relocation
Title | Termination and Relocation PDF eBook |
Author | Donald Lee Fixico |
Publisher | |
Pages | 268 |
Release | 1990-03-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780826311917 |
A major study of the effects on American Indians of the termination and relocation policies instituted during the Truman and Eisenhower era.
On the Drafting of Tribal Constitutions
Title | On the Drafting of Tribal Constitutions PDF eBook |
Author | Felix S. Cohen |
Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press |
Pages | 248 |
Release | 2006 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780806138060 |
Felix Cohen (1907–1953) was a leading architect of the Indian New Deal and steadfast champion of American Indian rights. Appointed to the Department of the Interior in 1933, he helped draft the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) and chaired a committee charged with assisting tribes in organizing their governments. His “Basic Memorandum on Drafting of Tribal Constitutions,” submitted in November 1934, provided practical guidelines for that effort.
Ten Years of Tribal Government Under I. R. A.
Title | Ten Years of Tribal Government Under I. R. A. PDF eBook |
Author | Theodore H. Haas |
Publisher | |
Pages | 56 |
Release | 1947 |
Genre | Indians of North America |
ISBN |