The largest tribe in the United States, the Navajo (Dineh) vote against adopting a constitution and creating a tribal government under the guidelines set out in the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) (see entry for JUNE 18, 1934). Although the act is seen by many Indians as a tool toward greater tribal independence, the IRA is rejected by the Navajo largely because it was masterminded by Commissioner of Indian Affairs John C. Collier. The tribe blames Collier for formulating the much-resented livestock-reduction policy, through which Bureau of Indian Affairs employees have confiscated or killed many of the Navajo’s sheep and horses (see entry for 1933).
The Santa Clara Pueblo adopt a written constitution.
Traditionally, the Santa Clara Pueblo were led by the headmen of the summer kiva group in spring and summer and by those of the winter kiva group in fall and winter. By the 1930s, relations between the two groups have deteriorated as the Summers became more conservative and the Winters become more progressive. To re-create their ailing government, the Santa Clara embrace the guidelines for forming tribal councils as set out in the Indian Reorganization Act (see entry for JUNE 18, 1934). They are the first tribe to draft a constitution as called for in the new legislation.
Cherokee humorist Will Rogers dies in a plane crash.
The American public is stunned and saddened by the news that Will Rogers has been killed in a plane crash in Alaska. A star of vaudeville, theater, and film, Rogers at the time is the most famous Native American in the United States as well as one of the country’s most beloved performers. His funeral in Los Angeles will be attended by an astounding 50,000 mourners. A smaller service will be held in Claremont, Oklahoma, the small town in the former Cherokee Nation where Rogers was born and raised.
“They sent the Indians to Oklahoma. They had a treaty that said, ‘You shall have this land as long as grass grows and water flows.' It was not only a good rhyme but looked like a good treaty, and it was till they struck oil. Then the government took it away from us again. They said the treaty only refers to ‘water and grass; it don't say anything about oil.'”
—Cherokee humorist Will Rogers in a 1928 syndicated column
Congress establishes the Indian Arts and Crafts Board.
“To promote the development of Indian arts and crafts,” Congress creates the Indian Arts and Crafts Board as a new agency under the Department of the Interior. Another goal of the board is to prevent non-Indian artisans from marketing their works as Indian-made.
The board’s first general manager, Rene d’Harnoncourt, begins surveying Indian country to determine which Indian arts are still being produced. Working for the board over the next 26 years, he will encourage Indian artists to produce items of the highest possible quality and will organize several exhibitions that encourage non-Indians to see the Indians’ work as art rather than just objects of ethnographic interest (see entry for MARCH 1941).
World History
