1938: Indians, American

Reorganization Projects.

The Indian Reorganization Act passed by Congress on June 18, 1934, the supplemental Oklahoma Welfare Act of June 26, 1936, and the Alaska Act of May 1, 1936, which together extend to all parts of the Indian country new opportunities for self-government and economic rehabilitation, mark a fundamental change in the relationship between the Federal Government and its Indian wards.

To avoid the coercive aspect of many previous Indian policies, the application of these several acts is made optional with each tribe. The groups affected by the original act were required to accept or reject its application by a secret-ballot vote held before June 18, 1936. The Oklahoma and Alaska Acts carry no time limit, but may be applied only on vote of the affected groups. Of the 300 Indian groups, exclusive of Alaska, eligible to organize under the Act, 222 have accepted and 77 rejected its provisions. The specific changes in Indian relationships made possible by these Acts are, (1) renewed opportunities for self-government through the adoption of tribal constitutions which give the tribe a corporate status similar to that of an incorporated village or county, (2) the privilege of law and order enforcement in terms of regulations adapted to tribal customs as well as white regulations, (3) the right to adopt charters under which money may be borrowed from the Government and used by the tribe for business activities or reloaned to individual Indians, (4) opportunity for competent Indian high school graduates to obtain loans from the Government for advanced vocational or collegiate education.

Indian Lands.

These new laws reversed the fifty-year-old allotment policy by which tribal holdings on the Indian reservation were broken up and placed in individual ownership. This earlier policy resulted in the loss of more than 80,000,000 acres of the best Indian lands through allowing whites to homestead surplus tribal land and permitting Indians who had been adjudged 'competent' to dispose of their holdings. No Indian land may now be sold except with the express permission of the Secretary of the Interior in cases of emergency, largely limited to the untangling of land held in heirship status. Since 1934, 212,200 acres of new land have been bought which will be held in trust for the Indians by the Federal Government and assigned to individuals on a use basis.

Education.

Important changes have been made in the program of Indian education. There has been a great increase in the number of Indian children attending public schools in the states wherein they reside. There has been also a great increase in the number of Indian children in Federal day schools operated near their homes, which are also concerned with a program of community development for adults as well as children. This has been paralleled by a reduction in the number of boarding schools and the number of children enrolled in boarding schools.

The academic emphasis of the Indian school of the last two decades has given way to greater emphasis upon vocational needs leading to economic rehabilitation, and every effort is being made to assist Indian children to become economically self-sufficient through the full use of their resources.

The Federal Indian Service operates a total of 247 schools ranging from one-room day schools to boarding schools enrolling approximately 700 children in the continental United States. In addition, it operates 103 schools in Alaska, two of which are secondary vocational boarding schools with an enrollment of 175 each.

Agriculture.

The Indian Service in cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture is devoting attention to the restoration of Indian grass lands, the correction of overgrazing, the installation of better practices of range management and of erosion control. The Indian CCC has done much work in water development, erosion control, and trail building for the protection and development of Indian land throughout the drought and dust bowl areas of the Dakotas and the Southwest.