American Indians and World War II: toward a new era in Indian affairs

502 Pages·1991·1.62 MB·English

by  Alison R. Bernstein

American Indians and World War II :
title:
Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs
author: Bernstein, Alison R.
publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
isbn10 | asin: 0806123303
print isbn13: 9780806123301
ebook isbn13: 9780585170091
language: English
World War, 1939-1945--Participation,
subject Indian, United States--Armed Forces--
Indian troops.
publication date: 1991
lcc: D810.I5B47 1991eb
ddc: 940.54/03
World War, 1939-1945--Participation,
subject: Indian, United States--Armed Forces--
Indian troops.
Page iii
American Indians and World War II
Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs
Alison R. Bernstein
University of Oklahoma Press: Norman and London
Page iv
By Alison R. Bernstein
The Impersonal Campus, with Virginia B. Smith (San Francisco,
1979) American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in
Indian Affairs (Norman, 1991)
This book has been published with the aid of a grant from the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bernstein, Alison R., 1947-
American Indians and World War II : toward a new era in Indian
affairs / by Alison R. Bernstein. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8061-2330-3
1. World War, 19391945Participation, Indian. 2. United States
Armed ForcesIndian troops. I. Title.
D810.15B47 1991
940.54´03dc20 90-50682
CIP
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc.
Copyright © 1991 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,
Publishing Division of the University. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the U.S.A. First edition.
Page v
To my mother and to the memory of my father, Robert Bernstein
Page vii
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
1. Indian Affairs on the Eve of the War 3
2. Indians and the Draft 22
3. The "Chiefs" Go to War 40
4. The Indian Home Front: A Study in Changes 64
5. The BIA Under Attack: An Agency in Search of a 89
Function
6. Indians Enter the Political Mainstream 112
7. Postwar Uncertainties: The Warriors and War Workers 131
Return
8. The War's Aftermath: Turning American Indians into 159
Indian Americans
Notes 177
Bibliography 225
Index
Page ix
Illustrations
Banning the Swastika, 1940 20
Papago Indians sign up for the draft 25
Members of the Iroquois Confederacy resist draft 29
Menominee chief, 1943 45
Indian women Marine Corps reservists 47
Private, First Class, Ira Hayes, at Paratroop School 51
Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, flag raisers 52
North Carolina Cherokee mother buying war bonds, 1944 69
Commissioner John Collier interviewed on the Indian war 97
effort
Navajo family with their sailor son 135
A "Mercy Caravan" reaches needy Indians at Gallup, New 172
Mexico, 1947
Page xi
Preface
Beginning in 1969 with the publication of Vine Deloria's Custer Died
for Your Sins, there has been a continuing stream of scholarly
monographs and popular accounts detailing the history of American
Indians. Much of the work on twentieth-century Indian history has
focused on two extraordinary pieces of federal Indian policythe Indian
Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934, the centerpiece of Franklin
Roosevelt's Indian New Deal, and House Concurrent Resolution 108,
passed in 1953, which signaled the beginning of the policy of
termination. These two legislative efforts stand as bookends,
demarcating a twenty-year period of extraordinary ferment and
change. This period, known as the Indian New Deal, has
understandably received sustained attention. Indeed, several
monographs have appeared in the last decade which, taken together,
provide the first serious examination of the Indian New Deal apart
from the self-congratulatory memoirs of Commissioner of Indian
Affairs John Collier and his associates. Donald Fixico's important
1986 study of termination and relocation policy has focused on the
immediate postwar period and particularly on efforts to relocate
Indians off the reservation which began during the Truman
administration.
Ironically, in this emerging field of twentieth-century Indian history,
little attention has been devoted to understanding how the Second
World War affected the lives of Indians. In most accounts of the
Indian New Deal, the war experiences of Indians and the policy
changes brought about by the war are relegated to a few pages or a
chapter at best. Yet it can be argued that World War II had a more
profound and lasting effect on the course of Indian affairs in this
century than any other single event or period, including the first
Roosevelt administration or the Eisenhower era. This study details the
impact of the war in American Indian life and tries to assess its
consequences for whites and Indians alike.
Page xii
Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, "To travel hopefully is a better
thing than to arrive." On the long yet frequently exhilarating
intellectual journey that began in 1969 with my undergraduate thesis
on the Indian New Deal and ended with this study over twenty years
later, I was assisted by many peoplefaculty advisors, professional
colleagues, librarians and archivists, friends and family. It is a
particular pleasure, now that this journey has been successfully
completed, to look back and recall those persons and institutions that
played a special role in developing my interest in this field,
sharpening my skills as an historian and supporting my commitment
to finish what I had begun.
I think first of Carl Degler, my undergraduate advisor at Vassar
College, who gave me early encouragement and taught me that
twentiethcentury Indian history was an intellectually exciting subject,
worthy of serious attention. I wish also to thank Jerry William Frost
and the late Charles Griffin, who gave me useful advice regarding my
interest in Indians and suggested the possibility of expanding my
thesis into a full-scale doctoral study. At Columbia University, Eric
McKitrick, Kenneth Jackson, the late Hazel Hertzberg, and Alden
Vaughan provided generous assistance. I am especially grateful to
Professor William E. Leuchtenburg, whose scholarly criticisms and
willingness to spend countless hours reading and correcting revisions,
helped me immeasurably. He guided me through a long and difficult
journey with good will, good humor, and considerable patience.
Like an increasing number of graduate students, I researched and
wrote this dissertation while working full time. Therefore, there are
several people who have played an important role over many years in
shaping this work, although they were not official advisors. In
particular, I want to thank William Birenbaum and Jessie Gilmer, who
worked with me at Staten Island Community College, now the
College of Staten Island, and helped me probe the concept of cultural