Native+Americans

The Native Americans of the 1930s got slightly better treatment than in the past. In the 1800s, Congress stopped treating tribes as their own independent nations. This was an attempt to "weaken authority of tribal leaders." The government also tried to end older types of tribal justice. In 1882, Congress created the Court of Indian Offenses. This group prosecuted Indians who broke government laws. Also, another act of Congress was to take away Native American children from their families and tribes and try to rid them of their heritage. The children were forced to cut their hair, speak English, and under no circumstances were they allowed to practice Indian religion ("Digital History").

In 1887, the Dawes Act was passed to set apart reservation lands and give them to individual Native Americans. The purpose of this was to encourage Natives to become farmers. However, the plots of land given to the Indians were too small to support a family or to raise livestock. The government reduced Indian-owned lands from 155 million acres to 48 million acres in 1934 ("Digital History").

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt named John Collier as head of Indian Affairs in 1933. He ordered the creation of the Indian Emergency Conservation Program (IECP). The IECP employed more than 85,000 Native Americans. Collier also made sure the Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and National Youth Administration (NYA) hired Native Americans. In 1934, he provided federal grants to schools, hospitals, and social welfare agencies to assist Native Americans ("Digital History").

John Collier was completely against the distribution of tribal lands. Therefore, he got the Indian Reorganization Act passed in 1934. The Indian Reorganization Act helped with many things. For example, it ended the allotment program of the Dawes Act, gave funds to tribes to purchase new land, made sure the government recognized tribal constitutions, and "repealed prohibitions on Native American languages and customs" ("Digital History").