become instrumental in the creation of the National
Congress of American Indians (see entry for NO-
VEMBER 1944), a national multitribal organization
dedicated to defending Indian rights.
Summer
The first Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian
Ceremonial is held.
In a large vacant lot on the edge of Gallup, New Mex-
ico, Indians gather for the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian
Ceremonial. The event features ceremonial dances, a
rodeo, and an open-air Indian arts and crafts market.
The ceremonial will become one of the biggest an-
nual Native American fairs in the United States.
October
The Eastern Association on Indian Affairs is
founded.
A group of activists alarmed by growing threats to the
Pueblo Indians’ land base (see entry for NOVEMBER 5,
1922) founds the Eastern Association on Indian Af-
fairs. Based in New York City, the organization joins
other Indian rights group to help the Pueblo and
to squelch Commissioner of Indian Affairs Charles
Burke’s efforts to prohibit southwestern and Plains
Indians from performing traditional religious ceremo-
nies. (See also entry for 1934.)
November 5
The All-Pueblo Council launches a campaign
to defeat the Bursum Bill.
Organized by sociologist John C. Collier (see en-
tries for MAY 1923 and for 1933), a meeting of 121
Pueblo Indians is held at Santa Domingo Pueblo.
The issue at hand is the Bursum Bill, which aims to
solve a land dispute between the Pueblo and non-
Indians in the region. In 1848, a tract of Pueblo
land was bought by Hispanic and white settlers, but
in a later Supreme Court ruling (see entry for 1913)
the Pueblo are still found to be wards of the federal
government, which puts into question whether they
can legally sell their own land. Despite the court’s
decision, the non-Indians occupying the Pueblo’s
land refused to leave. The Bursum Bill, now before
Congress, calls for the non-Indians to receive legal
title to the land and for the Pueblo’s water rights to
be placed under the control of the state.
Alarmed by the proposed legislation, Collier or-
ganizes a movement to defeat it. He rallies support
from such non-Indian groups as the General Federa-
tion of Women’s Clubs, and he brings delegates from
all pueblos to discuss the bill at the All-Pueblo Coun-
cil. The delegates draft “An Appeal by the Pueblo
Indians of New Mexico to the People of the United
States,” outlining how the Bursum Bill, if passed,
would undermine traditional Pueblo life and tradi-
tions. Accompanied by Collier, representatives from
the council travel to Washington, D.C., to testify
before the Senate. Because of their impassioned pleas
and public support for the Pueblo, the Bursum Bill
will be defeated (see entry for JUNE 7, 1924).1923The Committee of One Hundred meets to
discuss Indian affairs.
Organized by Secretary of the Interior Herbert
Hoover, the Committee of One Hundred is created
to propose reforms in Indian policy. The diverse
group is composed of 100 Indian and non-Indian
experts, scholars, and reformers. Among the Indi-
ans present are Cherokee activist and educator Ruth
Muskrat Bronson (see entry for SPRING 1922); Da-
kota Sioux physician and author Charles A. Eastman
(see entries for 1902 and for OCTOBER 12, 1911);
and Seneca anthropologist Arthur C. Parker.
The committee calls for a wide variety of reforms,
including improving Indian education, removing bans
on Indian religious ceremonies, and protecting Indian
ownership of mineral rights to their lands. Aside from
their recommendation that the U.S. government re-
solve Pueblo land claims (see entry for NOVEMBER 5,
1922), the committee will have little effect on federal
Indian policy. The meeting, however, will help set the
stage for the progressive Indian policies of the New
Deal era of the 1930s.