American Indian Defense Association

The American Indian Defense Association (AIDA) was an organization founded in 1923 by social worker John Collier, that fought to protect religious freedom and tribal property for Native Americans in the United States. - [http://si.unm.edu/bern_2003/lisam/lis_tl/tl.htm Article about The Merriam Report] URL last accessed 2006-11-18]

History of the AIDA

In the 1920s Antonio Luhan a member of the Taos Pueblo showed John Collier the poor living conditions in American Indian communities. In response to what he saw, Collier founded the American Indian Defense Association. For the next decade Collier headed Indian reform efforts, and in 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Collier as the new commissioner of Indian Affairs. - [http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5058/ Historymatters.gmu.edu - John Collier Promises to Reform Indian Policy] URL last accessed 2006-11-18] Almost immediately Collier tried to change the government's direction by revitalizing American Indian life and culture.

American Indian culture

American Indians culture had been stripped away by measures like the Dawes Act, which had ended tribal government and authorized the sale of tribal land to individuals. - [http://www.law.du.edu/russell/lh/alh/docs/dawesact.html The Dawes Act] URL last accessed 2006-11-18] Between the years 1887 (the year the Dawes Act came into effect) and 1934 (known as the "Allotment era") the government took over 90 million acres (360,000 km²) of tribal lands that were previously guaranteed to tribes by treaties and federal law. ] Henry Dawes who authored the Dawes Act, was quoted as saying that to be civilized, one must "wear civilized clothes...cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey and own property." - [http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/dawes.htm pbs org - The Dawes Act] URL last accessed 2006-11-18]

Antonio Luhan described how government policies and the Bureau of Indian Affairs commissioners who enforced them overwhelmed American Indian culture,

Indian Reorganization Act

To put these reform ideas into law, the United States Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which reversed the Dawes Act policy, ] and as described in section 3 of that act it was to "restore to tribal ownership the remaining surplus lands of any Indian reservation heretofore opened, or authorized to be opened, to sale, or any other form of disposal by Presidential proclamation, or by any of the public land laws of the United States". - [http://www.infca.org/tribes/IRA.htm infca.org - The Indian Reorganization Act, June 18, 1934] URL last accessed 2006-11-18] The Act provided funds to start tribal business ventures and to pay for the college education of young American Indians. The allotment process was halted and further losses of Indian land were halted. Tribes were encouraged to create strong tribal governments. Tribes were given the right to form constitutions, have self-government, and to form tribal corporations. A program to provide federal loan money for college and/or vocational school expenses was begun. ]

Criticism

Critics of the American Indian Defense Association complained that Collier had not obtained enough input from the tribes themselves in formulating policies, and that the programs decreased the power of women in some tribes. Still, two-thirds of the nation's American Indians tribes voted to participate in the new programs.

References and notes