P
they increase the amount of smoke by adding dung
to the fire, the surface turns black. After polishing,
the unpainted area takes on a shiny finish, while the
painted designs remain matte. This black-on-black
design scheme will become the trademark of the
Martinezes’ work and help to make Maria the most
famous Indian potter in the world.
September to November
Choctaw Code Talkers participate in
Meuse-Argonne campaign.
Fourteen Choctaw soldiers in the U.S. Army’s 36th
Division are chosen to send messages during the
Meuse-Argonne campaign in France. Similar to the
better-known Navajo Code Talkers of World War
II (see entry for APRIL 1942), these men translate
military communications into their native lan-
guage so that they cannot be read if intercepted
by the Germans. For their help in winning several
key battles, the French government will later make
the Choctaw Code Talkers Chevaliers de l’Ordre
National du Mérite (see entry for NOVEMBER 3,
1989).
October 10
The Native American Church is
incorporated.
Early in 1918, the U.S. House of Representa-
tives defeats a bill that would outlaw all uses of
peyote. Temporarily relieved but fearing the pas-
sage of such legislation in the future, adherents
of peyotism try to legitimize their religious prac-
tices in the eye of non-Indians by incorporating
themselves as the Native American Church of
Oklahoma. (It will be renamed the Native Ameri-
can Church of North America in 1955.) The new
religion, which developed in the late 19th century,
is a blend of Indian beliefs and Christianity and
focuses on the sacramental use of peyote. When
ingested in a ceremonial setting, the button of the
peyote cactus produces hallucinations that allow
the church’s followers to receive revelations from
the Creator.
“[T]his corporation is
formed... to foster and pro-
mote the religious belief of
the several tribes of Indians in
the State of Oklahoma, in the
Christian religion with moral-
ity, sobriety, industry, kindly
charity, and right living and to
cultivate a spirit of self-respect
and brotherly union among
the members of the Native
Race of Indians.”
—from the corporate charter of
Native American Church
of OklahomaDecemberThe League of Indians is founded.
The first conference of the League of Indians, the
first pan-Indian political organization formed in
Canada, is held on the Six Nations Reserve in On-
tario. Modeling the organization on the Iroquois
Confederacy (see entry for CA. 1400), Mohawk
Indian Fred Loft forms the league to persuade the
Canadian government to improve the educational
opportunities available to Indians, but it soon
expands its scope to address a wide variety of con-
cerns and complaints of both bands and individual
Indians. Highly respected among the Mohawk,
Loft is a World War I veteran whose support for
Britain during the war inspired many Indians to
enlist.
Loft’s efforts to organize Canadian Indians im-
mediately brands him as a subversive in the eyes of
the Department of Indian Affairs. The department’s
minister will attempt to silence Loft by trying to
revoke his Indian status and bringing him up on
criminal charges for raising money to fund the rec-
ognition of Indian land claims.