In the first decades of the 20th century, Indians
found themselves drawn deeper and deeper into
the mire of poverty. Even before the United States
plunged into the Great Depression, only 4 percent
of the Indian population earned annual incomes of
more than $200. In an effort to address the needs
of poor Indians, President Franklin Delano Roos-
evelt appointed John C. Collier as the head of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1933. Collier
struck many as a radical choice: a founding member
of the American Indian Defense Association, a
Washington-based lobbying group, Collier had
long been one of the bureau’s most virulent critics.
Collier’s appointment indeed proved to be
a watershed in contemporary Indian history. His
work at the BIA helped to bring attention at last to
the problems of Indian groups, which policy makers
had long been happy to ignore. He also forced
Washington to forge a new relationship with Indian
peoples, in which they were given a greater say than
ever before in policies that affected their lives.
Collier’s new approach to federal Indian policy
was presented in a 48-page bill that became the
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Also known as
the Indian New Deal, the IRA abolished Allotment,
the policy that since the 1880s had robbed Indians
of much of their remaining landholdings. It also
offered loans for Indian students, established funds
for tribal economic development, and provided for
the purchase of new lands for the exclusive use of
Indians. To help implement these and other social
and economic programs, the IRA created guidelines
by which groups could establish new tribal govern-
ments with elected leaders and written constitutions.
Although many Indian groups resisted Collier’s
efforts to reorganize their governments following
a non-Indian model, 92 tribes eventually adopted
constitutions according to the IRA’s provisions.
Throughout the rest of the century, these new tribal
governments would often be on the forefront of the
continuing battle for Indian sovereignty.
As significant as the passage of the IRA was,
the American involvement in World War II perhaps
had an even greater impact on individual Indians.
Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December
1941, Indian men and women signed up for military
service in unprecedented numbers, while thousands
more from Indian communities joined the war effort
on the home front. The experiences of these Indians,
particularly those of servicemen sent overseas,