Sovereign nations, shared identity, and civil rights: The National Congress of American Indians, 1944-1964
Abstract
The historiography on Native Americans in the twentieth century remains uneven and sketchy. Few historians have investigated the post World War II pan-Indian movements. The focus of the dissertation is on the activities of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) during the critical "termination period," 1944 to the mid-1960s. The general outline of the termination period is well known. Historical scholarship on the termination period, however, has tended to focus on federal policy and tended to treat Indians as ancillary members of American society, as people acted upon by legislators and bureaucrats rather than actors in their own right. In 1944 to the NCAI first arose as a national reform pan-Indian organization which campaigned fervently and on the whole successfully against the termination policy. The NCAI founders included important tribal leaders who recognized the threat posed by termination and fought to maintain Indians' legal rights and cultural identity. More importantly, the NCAI became prime movers, increasingly, in determining their own fate. The dissertation is based on multi-archival research and oral interviews with participants. As the first systematic study of the NCAI during its early years, it identifies the goals, tactics, and ideology of the organization. The study analyzes the NCAI's organizational base, internal structure, conflicts, resources, and leadership, and how these changed over time. In the bulk of the study I explore the ways in which federal-Indian relations and political events shaped collective action. Demonstrating that the NCAI did not respond passively to termination and other political events, I show that the organization was an important vehicle of resistance to changes in federal Indian policy and served as an important instrument for the preservation of cultural continuity and identity. To provide context I place Indian affairs in the setting of the postwar period. In these ways this study of the NCAI stands at the intersection of Native American history, the history of American reform, and the history of the United States since 1940.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Berthrong, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American history|Minority & ethnic groups|Sociology
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