After the Japanese evacuate the Aleutian Islands, the Aleut of the Pribilof Islands are sent home by the federal government. Nearly two years earlier, they were removed from the region by the U. S. Navy and relocated and held against their will in an unsanitary camp (see entry for JUNE 1942). Upon reaching the Pribilofs, the Aleut find that in their absence many of their houses have been looted and destroyed by U. S. military personnel. The damage is so great that several ancient villages are abandoned forever.
The National Congress of American Indians is founded.
Eighty Indians representing 50 tribes convene in Denver, Colorado, for the first meeting of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). The idea for the congress had originated at a 1942 meeting of Indian employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who realized the need for a national organization through which Indians from all tribes could voice their concerns. Particularly instrumental in its formation was D’Arcy McNickle (see entry for 1936), a Flathead anthropologist who was then serving as special assistant to Commissioner of Indian Affairs John C. Collier.
Like the Society of American Indians (SAI)— an earlier pan-Indian organization (see entry for OCTOBER 12, 1911)—the members of the NCAI are largely well-educated professionals. Unlike the SAI, however, the new group is concerned with tribal as well as civil rights. In addition to working “to secure and to preserve Indian rights under Indian treaties,” the Denver conference delegates name the preservation of “Indian cultural values” as one of their primary goals. The representatives also call for the creation of a U. S. government commission to settle Indian land claims. (See also entries for JUNE 13 TO 20, 1961, and for OCTOBER 2004.)
World History
