They Are Ancestral Homelands

28 Pages·2015·4.26 MB·English

"They Are Ancestral Homelands": Race, Place, and Politics in Cold War Native America, 1945-
1961
Author(s): Paul C. Rosier
Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 92, No. 4 (Mar., 2006), pp. 1300-1326
Published by: Organization of American Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4485893
Accessed: 25-06-2015 16:39 UTC
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"They Are Ancestral Homelands":
Race, Place, and Politics in Cold War
Native America, 1945-1961
Paul C. Rosier
A nation is a soul, a spiritualp rinciple.T wo things, which in truth are but one, con-
stitute this soul or spiritualp rinciple. One lies in the past, one in the present. One
is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories;t he other is present-day
consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuatet he value of the heritage
that one has received in an undivided form .... A nation is thereforea large-scale
solidarity,c onstituted by the feeling of the sacrificest hat one has made in the past
and of those that one is preparedt o make in the future.
-Ernest Renan, "What is a Nation," 1882
Our land is everything to us. It is the only place in the world where Cheyennes
talk the Cheyenne language to each other. It is the only place in the world where
Cheyennes remembert he same things together. I will tell you one of the things we
remembero n our land. We remembero ur grandfathersp aid for it-with their life.
-John Woodenlegs, "Speecht o the Association on American Indian Affairs,"1 960
The authorso f "TheI nternationalR eason"s ection of the October 1947 reporto f the
President'sC ommittee on Civil Rights noted that in the United States government's
battle for hearts and minds worldwide," ourd omestic civil rights shortcomingsa re a
seriouso bstacle.. ... Those with competing philosophiesh ave stresseda nd are shame-
lesslyd istortingo ur shortcomingsT. heyh aven ot only triedt o createh ostility towardu s
among specificn ations,r acesa nd religiousg roups.T hey have tried to proveo ur democ-
racy an empty fraud,a nd our nation a consistento ppressoro f underprivilegedp eople."
As the historianT homasB orstelmannh as argued," Therew as no greaterw eaknessf or
the United Statesi n waging the Cold War than inequalitya nd discrimination."In deed,
the SovietU nion and its satelliteso ffereda streamo f criticismo f Americanr acer elations
into the 1960s and beyond. For example,a Moscow radio broadcasto f February1 958
declaredt hat AmericanI ndians," them ost underprivilegedp eoplei n the United States,"
were forcedt o live on reservationtsh at the Soviet commentatorc alled "hugec oncentra-
Paul C. Rosier is assistantp rofessoro f history at Villanova University.
I want to thankJ ournalo fAmericanH istoryr eviewers,i ncluding Thomas Borstelmann, Peter Iverson, and three
anonymous readers,a nd JAH editor David Nord for their invaluable comments on earlierd rafts of this essay. In
addition, I am grateful for the advice and assistanceo f the Journal ofAmericanH istorye ditorial staff, especially Su-
san Armeny, Nancy J. Croker, Bonnie Laughlin Schultz, and Donna Drucker. I also want to thank my Villanova
University History Department colleagues Marc Gallicchio, Judy Giesberg, Seth Koven, Charlene Mires, and Paul
Steege, who offeredc arefulr eadingso f the manuscripta nd fine suggestionsf or improving it. And I want to acknowl-
edge the generous financial support provided by the Villanova UniversityD epartment of History and the National
Endowment for the Humanities, which made the researchp ossible.
Readersm ay contact Rosier at <[email protected]>.
1300 The Journalo f AmericanH istory March2 006
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Race,P lace,a ndP oliticsin ColdW arN ativeA merica 1301
tion camps.. .. Today,g raduale xtinctioni s the fateo f the peoplei n these reservations."
Ironically,S oviet propagandistsh ad much in common with U.S. officials,a s they too
called Indian reservations" concentrationca mps."B ut the Sovietsm isreadU .S. officials'
effortst o contain ethnic differencew hen they chargedt hat the U.S. governmenti mpris-
oned NativeA mericanso n reservationas gainstt heirw ill.1
During the terminatione ra (broadly,1 944-1970), federalo fficialsa ttemptedt o dis-
mantlet he reservations ystema nd relocateN ativeA mericansi n "mainstreamA"m erican
society.W hile officials'm otivesr angedf rom the criminalt o the well-meaning-to strip
Indianso f valuablet ribalp ropertyi n the AmericanW est, to eliminatee xpensivef ederal
programs,t o end guardianshipr estrictionso n liquor and firearmsp urchases,t o further
long-standinga ssimilationp olicies,a nd to adjudicateh undredso f landc laims-the termi-
nation agendas ervesa s an exampleo f the Cold War imperativeo f ethnic "integration."
The discourseo f terminationw as that of the Cold War-the avowedg oal was to "liber-
ate"t he enslavedp eoples of the world, who, accordingt o Americanc old warriors,i n-
cluded Indians "confined"in "concentrationc amps"o r "socialistice nvironments."T he
influentialt erminationisSt en.A rthurW atkins,a Republicanf rom Utah, championedh is
"Indianf reedomp rogram"w ith an emphaticc all for liberatingN ative Americansf rom
their reservationp risons:" Followingi n the footstepso f the EmancipationP roclamation
of ninety-foury earsa go, I see the followingw ordse mbellishedi n letterso f firea bovet he
headso f the Indians-THESE PEOPLES HALLB E FREE."I n 1953 House Concurrent
Resolution1 08 codifiedC ongress'isn tent to terminate" Federaslu pervisiona nd control"
of Indian affairsb y makingA mericanI ndians" subjectt o the same laws and entitled to
the same privilegesa nd responsibilitiesa"s otherA mericanc itizens.F ederalo fficialss ub-
sequentlya ttemptedt o terminatet reaty-basedfe deralI ndianp oliciest hroughl egislation
that unilaterallyst rippedi ndividualt ribeso f theirs overeigntyw, ithout NativeA mericans'
consent.2
Recent scholarshipo n the intersectiono f race and the Cold Warh as studied the ef-
forts of federalo fficialst o amelioratet he troublesomei mage of Americanr acer elations
that emergedi nternationallyin the late 1940s and beyond.T he scholarshiph as ignored
Native Americanse' xperiencese, xperiencest hat can broadeno ur understandingo f how
domestica nd internationalC old Warp olitics evolved.W hile U.S. officialsp aid less at-
tention to NativeA mericani ssuest han to AfricanA mericano nes, the "Indianp roblem"
remained,a s the SovietU nion remindedt he world, a site of Cold Warc oncerna nd com-
petition. Mary L. Dudziak has arguedt hat in the government'as pproacht o mediating
racer elations," theC old Warw as simultaneouslya n agent of repressiona nd an agent of
change."I n the United States,a nticommunismp roveda weapon of domestic" contain-
ment":A fricanA mericanc ivil rightsa ctivists,l aboro rganizersf,e minists,a nd othersw ere
' New YorkT imes,O ct. 30, 1947, p. 14; Thomas Borstelmann, TheC old Wara nd the ColorL ine:A mericanR ace
Relationsi n the GlobalArena( Cambridge,M ass., 2001), 268; New YorkT imes,F eb. 16, 1958, p. 22.
2 On "integration,"s ee Christina Klein, Cold WarO rientalismA: sia in the MiddlebrowI magination,1 945-1961
(Berkeley,2 003), 24-29, 240-43; Arthur Watkins, "Terminationo f FederalS upervision:T he Removal of Restric-
tions over Indian Property and Person,"A nnals of the AmericanA cademyo f Political and Social Science,3 11 (May
1957), 55. On ArthurW atkins'sr ole in the termination movement, see R. WarrenM etcalf, TerminationL'se gacy:T he
DiscardedI ndians of Utah (Lincoln, 2002), 21-48, 234-43. On HCR 108, see "House Concurrent Resolution 108,"
Aug. 1, 1953, in Documentso f United StatesI ndian Policy,e d. FrancisP aul Prucha (Lincoln, 2000), 234; Donald L.
Fixico, Terminationa nd Relocation:F ederalI ndian Policy, 1945-1960 (Albuquerque, 1986), 91-102; Kenneth R.
Philp, TerminationR evisited( Lincoln, 2000), 168-75; and LarryW . Burt, Tribalismi n Crisis:F ederalI ndian Policy,
1953-1961 (Albuquerque, 1982), 19-47.
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1302 The Journalo f AmericanH istory March2 006
attacked in the name of Cold War conformity. We need to add Native Americans to that
list. But we also need to add them to the list of groups that used the Cold War as a vehicle
for change. Reacting against a Cold War consensus that made difference un-American,
college students, both black and white, women, and civil rights activists sharpened their
identities. So did Native Americans.3
The termination movement in Congress slowed and eventually ended because it politi-
cized Native Americans, who mobilized across tribal lines to protest termination legisla-
tion through the press and in the Congress and thus to contest what the French literary
theorist Michel Foucault called "procedureso f exclusion in discourse." Native American
activists succeeded in blunting a well-organized campaign to divest them of sovereignty
and land in part by using their own Cold War claim to an indigenous patriotism that
married loyalty to the United States to Third World ethnic nationalism, challenging both
American and Soviet propaganda by affirming the sacrednesso f the reservation.T his essay
examines Native Americans' engagement with the discourse and the moral and material
dimensions of the Cold War, from the end of World War II to the June 1961 American
Indian Chicago Conference (AIcc), which helped inspire the "red power" activism that
followed in the 1960s. Exploring the conflicting views of the reservation as either con-
centration camp or sacred space essential to Indian identity and self-determination, I
contend that termination and the Cold War context fostered an international perspective
among Native American activists, who drew on postwar decolonization movements and
Cold War nation building and connected them to domestic concerns over treaty rights
and, as Penny M. Von Eschen framed it, to "definitions of democracy, freedom, and the
very meaning of American citizenship and what it entailed."4
Native American internationalism surfaced before World War II when activists appro-
priated Wilsonian language to demand their rights in a post-World War I world. The La-
kota writer Gertrude Bonin (Zitkala Sa) proclaimed that "the eyes of the world are upon"
the Parisp eace conference, and as a result "little peoples are to be granted the right of self-
determination!" Addressing the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in 1919, the Crow
politician Robert Yellowtail asserted his people's sovereignty because Woodrow Wilson
had "assured. .. the people of the whole world, that the right of self-determination shall
not be denied to any people." Post-World War II Native American internationalist per-
spectives differed from the post-World War I perspectives in their context, largely because
the United States engaged the world differently after World War II than it had after World
War I, offering both rhetorical leadership and aid programs to further its influence.5
3 Mary L. Dudziak, Cold WarC ivil Rights:R ace and the Image ofAmerican Democracy( Princeton, 2000), 250.
See also Mary L. Dudziak, "Browna s a Cold War Case,"J ournal ofAmerican History,9 0 (June 2004), 32-42. On
the notion of "socialc ontainment," see A. Yvette Huginnie, "Containment and Emancipation: Race, Class, and
Gender in the Cold War West," in The Cold WarA merican West,1 945-1989, ed. Kevin Fernlund (Albuquerque,
1998), 51-70. On the intersection of postwar domestic race policy and international affairs,s ee Nikhil Pal Singh,
BlackI s a Country:R acea nd the UnfinishedS truggleforD emocracy( Cambridge,M ass., 2004); Penny M. Von Eschen,
SatchmoB lows Up the WorldJ: azz AmbassadorPs lay the Cold War( Cambridge, Mass., 2004); Brenda Gayle Plum-
mer, ed., Windowo n Freedom:R ace, Civil Rights,a nd ForeignA ffairs, 1945-1988 (Chapel Hill, 2003); and Penny
M. Von Eschen, Racea gainstE mpire:B lackA mericansa ndAnticolonialism,1 937-1957 (Ithaca, 1997). On the in-
tersection of Native American history and Cold War popular culture, see Philip J. DeLoria, Playing Indian (New
Haven, 1998), 128-53; and Richard Slotkin, GunfighterN ation: TheM yth of the Frontieri n Twentieth-Century
America( Norman, 1998), 347-78.
4 Michel Foucault, "The Order of Discourse," in TheR hetoricalT radition:R eadingsfr om ClassicalT imest o the
Present,e d. PatriciaB izzell and Bruce Herzberg (Boston, 1990), 1155; Von Eschen, Racea gainstE mpire,4 .
5 Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala Sa), "EditorialC omment," in TalkingB ack to Civilization:I ndian Voicefso m the
ProgressivEe ra, ed. FrederickE . Hoxie (Boston, 2001), 129; "Addressb y Robert Yellowtaili n Defense of the Rights
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Race,P lace,a ndP oliticsi n ColdW arN ativeA merica 1303
This is a storyw hose contexti s internationahl istory.A n examinationo f NativeA meri-
cans' conflation of domestic and internationalc ontexts, of local and global concerns,
showsa dynamici nteractionb etweent he Cold Wara nd decolonizationt hat extendedb e-
yond the realmo f discourse.I n consideringw heret he Cold Wart ook place, how Native
Americansm ade it relevantt o theirl ives,w hat institutionst hey used to mediatei ts pres-
sures,a nd how it shapedt heir nationala nd ethnic identitiesa nd thus their conceptions
of patriotisma nd nationalism,t he essays eekst o raisen ew questionsa bouth ow struggles
overm aterialr esourcess uch as land helpeds hapea nd definet he politicso f the Cold War
and of decolonization.
The morala nd materiald imensionso f the Cold Wars hapedb oth Native Americans'
rhetoricals trategieso f resistancet o terminationl egislationa nd their understandingo f
MarshallP lan aid for Europea nd Point Four aid for "underdevelopecdo untries,"t he
programmaticc ornerstoneso f Americann ation building in a bipolarw orld, as models
for reformingf ederalI ndian policies at home. Perhapsi nspiredb y his effortst o secure
fundingf or the rehabilitationo f Navajoa nd Hopi lands,P residentH arryS . Trumano ut-
lined an American" programfo r peace and freedom"d uringh is January1 949 inaugural
address;t he fourth "point"c alledf or "makingt he benefitso f our scientifica dvancesa nd
industrialp rogressa vailablef or the improvementa nd growtho f underdevelopeda reas."
A MarshallP lan-type aid packagef or non-Europeanc ountries,t he Point Fourp rogram
sought to securea llies in LatinA merica,t he Middle East,A sia, and Africa.F or Native
Americans,t he MarshallP lan and the Point Four programb ecamek ey phrasesi n their
articulationo f an internationalispt erspectiveA. nd as decolonizatione mergeda s a power-
ful movement, questionso f race and racismb ecame more viscerala nd visible. Native
Americana ctivistsb ecamec onvinced,a s MarcG allicchiow rote aboutA fricanA merican
internationalists", thatc olor (or race) determinedw orld politics."T he Cold War expe-
rienceso f AfricanA mericansa nd Native Americansm irrorede ach other in additional
ways, includinga ctivists'r esponsest o domestica nticommunistp ressuresa nd U.S. offi-
cials'e ffortst o addressi nternationacl riticismo f Americanr acism.B ut NativeA mericans
viewedt he Cold Warw ithin a differente nvironmentall,e gal,a nd socialc ontextt hanA f-
ricanA mericansd id, a context shapedb y the intersectiono f Cold War-drivent ermina-
tion policiesa nd the legal legacyo f America'cs olonialp ast, the nationalb ody of treaties
that the Crow politicianR obertY ellowtaicl alledt he "sacredc ovenants"o f Americanh is-
tory.6
For Native Americanst he Cold War startedo n the reservationi,n their own under-
developedc ountries.D 'ArcyM cNickle, an officialo f Cree heritagei n the Bureauo f In-
dian Affiars( BIA)o f the InteriorD epartmenta nd a founding membero f the National
Congresso f AmericanI ndians( NCAI)t,h e nation'sm ost prominentp an-tribalo rganiza-
tion, maintainedt hroughoutt he 1950s that the solutiont o the "Indianp roblem"w as not
of the Crow Indians, and Indians Generally, before the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs, September 9,
1919," ibid., 136, 137.
6 "InauguraAl ddresso f Harry S. Truman,"J an. 20, 1949, in TheA valonP rojecta t YaleL aw School< http://www.
yale.edullawweblavalon/presiden/inaug/truman.htm>( Jan. 20, 2006). I borrow here from Raymond Williams's
idea of "keywords."S ee Raymond Williams, KeywordsA: Vocabularoyf Culturea nd Society( New York, 1985). Marc
S. Gallicchio, TheA fricanA mericanE ncounterw ith Japan and China: Black Internationalismi n Asia, 1895-1945
(Chapel Hill, 2000), 2; "Addressb y Robert Yellowtaili n Defense of the Rights of the Crow Indians,"1 35. See also
U.S. Department of State, Point Four: CooperativeP rogramfso rA id in the Developmento f EconomicallyU nderdevel-
opedAreas( Washington, 1949).
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1304 The Journalo f AmericanH istory March2 006
...... . . . .
";:~"All
In Joe Rosenthal'ps hotoo f the IwoJ imaf lagr aisingo n February2 3, 1945,I raH ayes( a Pima)
is not quite reachingt he flag, his pose an unintendeds ymbolo f his inabilityt o secureb asic
rightsa fterr eturningh ome to New Mexico.T he presenceo f Hayesi n this stagede venta lso
camet o symbolizee thnici ntegrationC. ourtesNy ationaAl rchive(s8 0-G-413988).
termination,b ut reservationd evelopmenta long the lines of the Point Fourp rogram.H e
arguedt hat Point Four funding would invest Native Americansw ith the responsibility
to administerd evelopmenta id, rathert han relegatet hem to being the objectso f BIAp ro-
gramsd esigneda nd implementedb y non-Indians.I n 1957 the Senated ebatedt he merits
of SenateC oncurrentR esolution3 (scR3), "AnA mericanI ndian Point Four Program,"
draftedb y the Associationo n AmericanI ndianA ffairs,a group of predominantlyn on-
Indian reformersb asedi n New YorkC ity. The BIAa nd the Departmento f the Interior,
the federala genciest hat would have been most affected,r efusedt o supportt he program,
contendingt hat it was redundanta nd unworkableS. CR3d ied a quick death, largelyb e-
causef ederalo fficialsd id not want to view NativeA mericanc ommunitiesa s nations.B ut
the publicityg eneratedb y debateso vers cR3 and McNickle'sa rgumentsf or the program
trickledd own to the reservationle vel and furtheredI ndian nationalism,h elping inspire
leaderso f the Apache,C olville,N orthernC heyenne,a nd otherI ndiann ationst o reimag-
ine their homelandsa s among the world's" underdevelopeadr eas"a nd to ask the federal
governmentt o recognizet hem as such by extending to their people MarshallP lan or
Point Fourf unding.B y the end of the 1950s, a broads pectrumo f NativeA mericana ctiv-
ists embraceda Cold Warc onceptiono f civil rightst hat was basedo n treatiesa s instru-
ments of sovereigntya nd thus nationhood.A s the nationso f "coloredp eoples"e xpanded
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Race,P lace,a ndP oliticsin ColdW arN ativeA merica 1305
in the 1960s, that conceptionm ade the maintenanceo f the nationals paceo f the reserva-
tion a symbolo f a strugglef or internationahl uman rights.7
The Ideological Roots of Termination
Although the first formal use of the term "reservationa"p pearsi n the 1825 Treatyo f
Prairied u Chien, negotiatedw ith Indian nations of the upper MississippiV alley, the
commissionero f Indian affairs,L uke Lea, articulatedt he idea of a "reservationsy stem"
in 1850, shortlya fter the gold rush generatede nthusiasma mong Americansa nd Euro-
peans for traversingN ativeA mericans'm othere arth on theirw ay to finding the mother
lode. Discussingw hat he called "ourn orthernc olony of Indians"( those of the northern
Plains), Lea arguedt hat "effortss hould thereforeb e made to concentratet hem within
properl imits."T he followingy earL ea announcedt hat concentrations houldl ead to Na-
tive Americans'" ultimatei ncorporationin to the greatb ody of our citizen population."
Even though subsequentt reaties" reserved"to Native Americansa fixed territoryw, hite
Americansv iewed reservationsi deologically,a s a training camp for Indians' integra-
tion into the Americanb ody politic. Thus the reservationa, physicals pace demarcat-
ing indigenousA mericans'n ewlyc ircumscribedh omelands,i nstantlyb ecame,f or white
Americansf,o reignc ulturals pacet o be conqueredt hrougha ssimilativep rograms.8
The imageo f the reservationa s a civilizingt ool degeneratedw ith the emergenceo f sci-
entificr acism,a ttackso n the "socialistica"n d "communisticn"a tureo f tribalisma, nd Na-
tiveA mericanr esistanceA. mericanp olicy makersh ad alwaysd eniedl egitimacyt o Indian
land tenureb ecausei t involvedc ommunalo wnership,a nd they had used forcet o convert
Indiansi nto Americansl iving in accordw ith the white political-economicim perativeo f
laissez-fairec apitalism.B ut the employmento f anticommunisti deology to justifyc oer-
cive programsb ecamem ore common in the 1870s and beyond.T he ParisC ommunei n
particularfu eledw hite Americansc' onflationo f Red Indiansa nd CommunistR eds.L ess
than a month aftert he commune met its violent end on May 28, 1871, the New York
Worldte rmedI ndianr esistancein Texas" theR ed Spectre."C ontestingt he labelo f "com-
munism"t o preservet heir politicals overeigntya nd culturals pace, Cherokeep oliticians
complainedt o Congressi n 1880 that "thes tatementsm ade to you that we, or any of the
Indians,a re communists. . . are entirelye rroneous.N o people are more jealouso f the
personalr ight to propertyt han Indians."T he commissionero f Indian affairs,J . D. C.
Atkins,c oncedingt hat Indianr esistancew as "patriotica nd noble,"a skeda fundamental
questiont hat is at the hearto f modernI ndian-whiter elations:" Isi t not askingt oo much
of the Americanp eople to permita politicalp aradoxt o existw ithin theirm idst ... sim-
ply to gratifyt his sentimentalitya bouta separaten ationality?I"n the 1880s an expanding
7 See Harold Edward Fey and D'Arcy McNickle, Indians and OtherA mericans:T wo Wayso f Life Meet (New
York, 1959), 197-200. The Association on American Indian Affairs began promoting a "Point IV program for
American Indians"i n late 1955. See box 151, series 2, Subject Files, subseries 1, General, Archives of the Associa-
tion on American Indian Affairs (Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library,P rinceton University,P rinceton, N.J.). On
Point Four funding for Native Americans, see Dorothy R. Parker,S inging an Indian Song:A Biographyo f DArcy
McNickle (Lincoln, 1992), 175-76; Thomas W. Cowger, TheN ational Congresso fAmerican Indians: TheF ounding
Years( Lincoln, 1999), 108-9, 117-18; and Daniel Cobb, BeforeR edP ower:T heP oliticso f TribalS elf-determination,
1960-1968 (Lawrence,f orthcoming).
8 On the 1825 use of the term "reservation,"se e "Treatyo f Prairied u Chien, August 19, 1825," in Documents
of United StatesI ndian Policy,e d. Prucha,4 2-43. "AnnualR eport of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,"N ov. 27,
1850, ibid., 81-82; "AnnualR eport of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Nov. 27, 1851," ibid., 86.
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1306 TheJ ournaol f AmericanH istory March2 006
Americaw as not readyt o embracet he politicalp aradoxo f "domesticd ependentn ations,"
the term SupremeC ourt JusticeJ ohn Marshallh ad employedi n trying, unsuccessfully,
to defendC herokeen ationalismd uringt he removalc risiso f the 1830s. ThomasM organ,
Atkins'ss uccessorf, ound nothing noble or patriotici n Indiann ationalism,a rguingi n his
1889 annualr eportt hat "tribarl elationss hould be brokenu p, socialismd estroyed,a nd
the familya nd the autonomyo f the individuals ubstituted."T he discourseo f "American-
ization"r eflectedM organ'sn otion thatA mericani ndividualismw ould havet o replaceI n-
dian "socialism,e"v en if the transformationre quireda ntidemocraticst atei nterventioni n
the form of the federala llotmentp olicy,w hich legislatedt he divisiono f tribale statesi nto
smallh omesteadp lots of 160 acres,w hetherI ndianf amiliesw antedt hem or not.9
NativeA mericanss' ervicei n WorldW arI and the firstR ed Scarer einforceds uch vis-
ceralo ppositiont o the reservationS. hortlya ftert he war,w hich had acceleratedth e spread
of Americanizationc ampaignst hroughoutt he country,R ep. MelvilleC . Kelly of Penn-
sylvaniaa ttackedt he reservationa s "ap risonp en whereh umanb eingsa red oomed to live
amids ad memorieso f theira ncestorsa nd amongt he ghostso f the dead."I gnoringN ative
Americanr eligioust raditionst hat derivedf rom a relationshipw ith land and ancestors,
Kelly'sa rgumentb oth capturedp oliticians'a nimus againstt he reservations ystem and
reactedt o new conceptionso f Native Americanp atriotisme ngenderedb y armys ervice.
Kellya nd otherp olicym akersi nterpreteds uch nationals ervicea s evidencet hat all Native
Americansc onsideredt he reservationa nachronisticsp ace.'0
Attackso n the "communistic"n atureo f tribalismr esurfacedin 1933, afterC ommis-
sionero f IndianA ffairsJ ohn Collier beganp romotingt he Indian New Deal, a serieso f
initiativesr elatedt o the nationalN ew Deal and designedt o ameliorateN ativeA merican
povertya nd strengthent ribals elf-governmentT. he Indian ReorganizationA ct (IRAo) f
1934, the cornerstoneo f the IndianN ew Deal, not only rejectedt he policy and philoso-
phy of allotmentb y providingf ederalf unds to tribalg overnmentsf or use in addingl and
to reservationbs ut also encouragedt hose governmentst o expands overeignp owerso ver
reservationb oundariesa nd resourcesth roughr egulationsc odifiedi n tribalc onstitutions.
FloraW arrenS eymour,a lawyera nd author,c alledt he IRA" them ost extremeg esturey et
made by the administrationin this country towarda Communistice xperiment."S ome
Indian leaderse choed those anticommunists entiments,f orming the AmericanI ndian
Federation( AIF)in 1934 to protestC ollier'sr etribalizatioang enda.A IFc ofounderJ oseph
Bruner,a n OklahomaC reek,a rguedt hat at its corew as a "RussianC ommunistic"c on-
ception of life. Collier countereds uch argumentsb y maintainingt hat "whitep eople all
9T he New YorkW orldq uoted in Philip M. Katz, FromA ppomattoxt o MontmartreA: mericansa nd the Paris Com-
mune (Cambridge, Mass., 1998), 132; Cherokee politicians quoted in AlexandraH armon, "AmericanI ndians and
Land Monopolies in the Gilded Age,"J ournal of AmericanH istory,9 0 (June 2003), 123; "AnnualR eport of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs,"S ept. 28, 1886, in Documentso f United States Indian Policy,e d. Prucha, 169;
"AnnualR eport of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,"O ct. 1, 1889, ibid., 176. On this period, see FrederickE .
Hoxie, A Final Promise:T he Campaignt o Assimilatet he Indians, 1880-1920 (Lincoln, 1986), 115-45. On white
Americans'o pposition to tribal organization,s ee RobertA . Williams, TheA mericanI ndian in WesternL egal Thought:
TheD iscourseso f Conquest( New York, 1990), 271-80; Stephen Cornell, TheR eturno f the Native: AmericanI ndian
Political Resurgence(N ew York, 1988), 53-59, 112. For discussions of Red Indians as Communist Reds, see Katz,
FromA ppomattoxt o Montmartre,1 31-36, 188; RichardS lotkin, TheF atal Environment:T heM yth of the Frontieri n
theA ge oflndustrialization,1 800-1890 (New York, 1985), 462-63, 480-85; and Alan Trachtenberg,T heI ncorpora-
tion ofAmerica:C ulturea nd Societyi n the GildedAge (New York, 1982), 33-34.
10L awrenceC . Kelly, TheA ssaulto n AssimilationJ: ohn Colliera nd the Originso flndian PolicyR eform( Albuquer-
que, 1983), 187. Estimateso f the number of Native Americansw ho fought in the war rangef rom 10,000 to 15,000.
On this debate, see Thomas A. Britten,A mericanI ndians in WorldW arI : At Home and at War( Albuquerque,1 997),
59-60. Congress passed the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act in part because of this service. See ibid., 178-81.
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Race, Place, and Politics in Cold War Native America 1307
over the United States own land in partnerships and companies and corporations. It is
not communism to allow Indians to do the same if they want to." But it was his 1939 at-
tack on the AIF for its links to such pro-Nazi groups as the German-American Bund and
Silver Shirts that prevented Congress from significantly altering or repealing the IRA;A IF
member Alice Lee Jemison's later admission that the Bund paid her to incite resistance to
the draft among Plains Indians further undermined the AIF ' legitimacy."
The Nazi regime engendered an image of the reservation more consonant with Com-
missioner Lea'sp olicy of concentration. It is difficult to pinpoint the first use of the term
"concentration camp" to describe a reservation, but it predated 1942, when American of-
ficials, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, called the JapaneseA merican detention
centers concentration camps. And it was used before knowledge about the Nazi camps
gave "concentration camp" its horrific connotation. In March 1940 an American politi-
cian had compared a reservationt o a concentration camp. During a congressional hearing
on a bill recommending "reliefo f needy Indians," Rep. John Schaefer of Wisconsin asked
the Blackfeet nation politician Levi Burd whether the U.S. record on Indian affairs" more
than parallels the atrocities and so-called concentration camps abroad." The historical
record, Schaefer said, was that "the white man took the Indians' land, debauched their
women, killed many of them, and herded the survivors in concentration camps which
we now call Indian Reservations."B urd rejected the analogy since it painted Blackfeet as
passive victims contained against their will, instead sounding a theme that would emerge
in the postwar period: "If there are any people that are neglected, it is the Indians." To
cite another example: in 1944 a congressional committee investigating Indian affairs ex-
plained that its goal was to "tryt o rehabilitate the Indians so they may be assimilated into
the American way of life and not be in the reservation like a concentration camp; for,
after all, a reservation is only a step or two from a concentration camp." The 1944 state-
ment represented the reemergence of congressional critiques of the IRA,w hich became
the foundation of the termination movement. After World War II, during an era of Cold
War conformity, critics of federal Indian policy used the term concentration camp more
openly to describe reservations as an oppressive space. Thus began a new stage in a long-
running battle to deconstruct reservations as sites of ethnic difference.12
The Politics of Indian Space
Native Americans' participation in World War II campaigns at home and abroad fu-
eled terminationists' calls for reform of Indian affairs. Native Americans volunteered
for army service and purchased war bonds at rates equal to those of any other American
" Flora WarrenS eymour, "TryingI t on the Indian," 1934, in Native Americans:O pposingV iewpoints,e d. Wil-
liam Dudley (San Diego, 1998), 207. For Joseph Bruner'sc omments, see Kenneth R. Philp, John Collier'sC rusade
for Indian Reform,1 920-1954 (Tucson, 1977), 172. For John Collier'ss tatement, see "Minutes of the Plains Con-
gress, Rapid City Indian School, Rapid City, South Dakota, March 2-5, 1934," p. 18, file 4894-1934-066, pt.
2-AA, box 3, RecordsC oncerning the Wheeler-HowardA ct, 1933-1937, Recordso f the Bureauo f Indian Affairs,
RG7 5 (National Archives,W ashington, D.C.). On the American Indian Federationa nd the activities of Brunera nd
Alice Lee Jemison, see Kenneth William Townsend, WorldW arI I and the AmericanI ndian (Albuquerque,2 000),
45-60; and Jere' Bishop Franco, Crossingt he Pond: TheN ative AmericanE ffort in WorldW arI I (Denton, 1999),
1-33.
12 Greg Robinson, By Ordero f the President:F DR and the Internmento f apaneseA mericans( Cambridge, Mass.,
2000), 2; U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Indian Affairs,R eliefofNeedyI ndians, 76 Cong., 3 sess. (Washing-
ton, 1940), 13; U.S. Congress, House, Subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs,I nvestigateI ndianA ffairs,
pt. 3, 78 Cong., 2 sess. (Washington, 1944), 400.
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1308 The Journalo f AmericanH istory March2 006
opt
if 17
lo\
The cousins Pfc. Preston Toledo (on the left) and Pfc. FrankT oledo (both Navajo) use the
Navajo language to relay orders over a field radio during a World War II Marine Corps
artillery operation in the South Pacific. The Japanese military was never able to decipher
Navajo codes. The work of the code talkers remained classified until 1968. Their military
service, however, demonstrated Navajo patriotism during the war and helped underwrite
Navajo nationalism afterward. CourtesyN ational Archives( 127-GR-137-57875).
ethnic group; roughly twenty-five thousand Native Americans, including eight hundred
women, served in the armed forces. Sen. D. Worth Clark, an Idaho Democrat, remarked
that Native Americans' wartime activities were "an inspiration to patriotic Americans
everywhere."I n addition to lives and labor, Native Americans contributed land for gun-
nery ranges, airfields, and camps to house Japanese Americans. The most iconic sacrifices
came from Ira Hayes, one of the six Marines who hoisted the American flag on Iwo Jima
in 1945, and the Navajo code talkers, who developed and used Navajo language-based
signal codes that the Japanese military never cracked. Even as Native Americans acted
patriotically and heroically to defend the United States and their conception of Ameri-
canness, white commentators began calling for an end to federal Indian programs. As
during World War I, non-Indians viewed Native Americans' efforts in the war as testi-
mony to their interest in leaving the reservation and joining the American mainstream.
Oswald Villard championed this position in the Christian Century,w riting in 1944 that
Native Americans "no more wish to stay at home and be confined within the reserva-
tions than did the children of the early communist settlement." Villard saw one future:
eventually "the Indians themselves will tire of being considered circus exhibits, human
museum pieces seeking to keep alive vestiges of a life that was picturesque." The fol-
lowing year, the Reader'sD igest published O. K. Armstrong's article, "Set the American
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