A miner greets the president. Franklin’s “first-class temperament” compensated for his “second-class intellect,” Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
famously observed.
702 Chapter 26 The New Deal: 1933–1941
Collier tried to revive the spirits of these people.
He was particularly eager to encourage the revival of
tribal governments that could represent the Indians in
dealings with the United States government and
function as community service centers.
In part because of Collier’s urging, Congress
passed the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. This
law did away with the Dawes Act allotment system
and enabled Indians to establish tribal governments
with powers like those of cities, and it encouraged
Indians to return individually owned lands to tribal
control. About 4 million of the 90 million acres of
Indian land lost under the allotment system were
returned to the tribes.
In truth the problem was more complicated than
Collier had imagined. Indians who owned profitable
allotments, such as those in Oklahoma who held valu-
able oil and mineral rights, did not relish turning over
their land to tribal control. In New Mexico the
Navajos, whose lands had relatively little commercial
value, nonetheless voted decisively against going back
to the communal system. All told, 77 of 269 tribes
voted against communal holdings.
Collier resigned in 1945, and in the 1950s
Congress “terminated” most government efforts
aimed at preserving Indian cultures. Nevertheless,
like so many of its programs, the New Deal’s Indian
policy was a bold effort to deal constructively with a
long-standing national problem.The Role of Roosevelt
How much of the credit for New Deal policies
belongs personally to Franklin D. Roosevelt is debat-
able. He had little to do with many of the details and
some of the broad principles behind the New Deal.
His knowledge of economics was skimpy, his under-
standing of many social problems superficial, and his
political philosophy distressingly vague. The British
leader Anthony Eden described him as “a conjurer,
skillfully juggling with balls of dynamite, whose
nature he failed to understand.”
Nevertheless, every aspect of the New Deal bears
the brand of Roosevelt’s remarkable personality.
Rexford Tugwell left one of the best-balanced judg-
ments of the president. “Roosevelt was not really very