Ex Parte Green affirms the United States’s right to draft Indians.
Onondaga Warren Green brings a suit against the United States, claiming that the Selective Service Act cannot be applied to Indians because they are citizens of sovereign Indian nations. After the U. S.
Court of Appeals finds against Green, the negative publicity surrounding the suit will move several prominent Iroquois to make an exaggerated show of patriotism (see entry for JUNE 11, 1942). (See also entry for DECEMBER 17, 1940.)
Five Hopi men from the village of Hotevilla are prosecuted in federal court for refusing to register for the draft. In their defense, they explain, “We have a stone tablet [that] . . . says there will come a time when there will be great trouble involving many nations. The Hopi are to show their bows and arrows to no one at that time.” They are sentenced to a year and a day in jail.
An Indian art exhibit opens at the Museum of Modern Art.
New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, in cooperation with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (see entry for AUGUST 27, 1935), organizes an exhibition entitled “Indian Art in the United States.” The influential exhibit presents Indian-made objects not only as sources of anthropological data but also as works of art. Enthusiastically received by the public, the show also attempts to counter the myth that indigenous art was uniformly corrupted after Indians came in contact with non-Indians. In the exhibit catalog, the curators maintain that “invention or adoption of new forms does not necessarily mean repudiation of tradition but is often a source of its enrichment.”
The Inter-American Institute is created.
To promote the study and preservation of indigenous cultures, representatives from countries throughout North and South America gather in Patzcuaro, Mexico, for the first Inter-American Conference on Indian Life. Sponsored by the Pan American Union, the conference leads to the formation of the Inter-American Institute in Mexico
City. The institute’s goal is to negotiate formal agreements with the nations of the Pan American Union, in which each nation promises to establish a National Indian Institute to aid its native population.
Represented by Commissioner of Indian Affairs John C. Collier, the United States is initially enthusiastic about establishing the U. S. Indian Institute, as a means of improving relations with Latin America. After the end of World War II, however, Congress will sharply cut funding to the organization.
The Sun Dance is revived among the Crow.
Seeking a way to preserve Indian traditions in the modern era, a Crow man named William Big Day travels to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming to participate in the Shoshone’s annual Sun Dance. After receiving instruction from a Shoshone religious leader in how to stage the ceremony, Big Day performs a Shoshone version of the Sun Dance on the Crow’s Montana reservation, an event that will lead to the revival of the dance among his own people.
World History
