Sociologist and executive secretary of the American Indian Defense Association (see entry for MAY
“If we can relieve the Indian of the unrealistic and fatal allotment system, if we can provide him with land and the means to work the land; if, through group organization and tribal incorporation, we can give him a real share in the management of his own affairs, he can develop normally in his own natural environment.”
—Commissioner of Indian Affairs John C. Collier in his annual report for 1933
The U. S. government inaugurates a livestock reduction program on the Navajo (Dineh) reservation.
The United States becomes concerned about the erosion of the Navajo Indian Reservation when the amount of silt from the eroded lands in the Colorado River threatens the completion of Boulder Dam. The erosion is due to overgrazing by the Navajo’s (Dineh) vast herds of sheep, horses, and
Commissioner of Indian Affairs John C. Collier with two Hopi men in the village of Oraibi (National Archives, Neg. no. RG75-PU-WA-56)
Cattle. The U. S. government maintains the solution to the problem is for the Navajo to reduce their herds, particularly their number of sheep. The Navajo, however, maintain that the United States should give them more grazing land.
Although hesitantly, the Navajo Tribal Council agrees to cooperate with the government’s livestock-reduction program. It asks each Navajo family to cut its herds by 10 percent. Commissioner of Indian Affairs John C. Collier allocates funds from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to pay the Navajo a small sum for each animal they agreed to relinquish.
Despite the Navajo’s cooperation, government officials often treat them harshly during the decade the program is in operation. Some agents take animals by force or shoot them when their owners refuse to surrender them voluntarily. For years to come, the program will leave the Navajo angry and bitter toward the U. S. government, with Collier as the principal target of their wrath.
The National League for Justice to American Indians is formed.
The Los Angeles—based National League for Justice to American Indians is created to campaign for the disbanding of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Founder Marion Campbell maintains that BIA policies have kept Indians from assimilating into the general population and holds that Indians would be better served if states took over the administration of Indian affairs.
Franklin Roosevelt authorizes the Indian Emergency Conservation Work program.
Established as a part of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Indian Emergency Conservation Work federal relief program hires Indian laborers to work on conservation projects on Indian lands. Projects of the IECW include protecting timber resources, improving rangelands, and controlling erosion on farmlands. (See also entry for 1937.)
World History
