US History

The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)

Native Americans

Law and Government

This collection uses primary sources to explore American Indian life between 1900 and 1940 and the Indian Reorganization Act.

A letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (the “long hair” letter) about the way in which Indian people should dress and act, 1902.

This letter communicated the policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs toward the appearance and religious practices of Indian people in 1902. The letter records many common presumptions that white people had about Indian people at the time.

A response to the “long hair” letter from the Hoopa Valley Indian Agency, 1902.

In this response to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Superintendent of the Hoopa Valley Indian Agency assesses the extent to which Indians in his region are following the “long hair” policy. 

A photograph of a Crow Indian family eating together in their kitchen, 1910.

By 1910, many Indian people lived blended lives in which they adopted some practices or living arrangements from white US society while retaining important aspects of their traditional culture. This photograph shows evidence of that blended lifestyle.

A photograph of a Crow Indian camp, taken between 1901 and 1911.

Blended lifestyles took many forms as Indian people adapted to the pressure to live more Euro-American lives. This photograph shows evidence of one family’s adaptation and resistance to white culture.

An excerpt from a daily schedule of programming for the Fort Bidwell boarding school in 1923.

Life at a boarding school was very regimented, as this list of daily activities from a school in northern California shows. The Fort Bidwell school operated until 1930.

A photograph of girls setting the lunch table at St. Francis Mission School in South Dakota, ca. 1915.

Even if children were able to attend a school close to home, like this mission school on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation, they often had to undertake chores to make the school run. Those chores typically replicated white gender roles. The St. Francis Mission School was founded by Jesuits in 1881.

A photograph of boys planting while girls watch at St. Bernard’s Mission, Standing Rock Reservation, 1934.

The effort to teach Indian children how to be more like white children included teaching them Euro-American gender roles. Here, young boys are being taught the principles of agriculture, with young girls looking on but not participating in the activity. The St. Bernard’s Mission school was opened by the Catholic Church at Fort Yates in North Dakota in 1877.

An excerpt from *The Problem of Indian Administration*, a study of conditions on reservations conducted by the Brookings Institution, 1928.

In 1924, Congress ordered that a team of investigators visit Indian reservations across the United States and report back on what they found. The result was *The Problem of Indian Administration*, published in 1928, often known as the Meriam Report, after its chief author. This excerpt from the report sums up the findings of the investigative team.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs poster about the dangers of the eye disease trachoma, 1937.

One of the findings of the 1928 Meriam Report was that Indian people suffered many more instances of trachoma than found in the general population of the United States. This was attributed to poor hygiene practices on reservations, but it was also rooted in the boarding schools, where children lived in cramped quarters and received inadequate healthcare.

A map showing the location of Indian reservations in 1900 and 1930.

Since the inception of the United States, both the government and individual white people wanted Indian land. These maps indicate the amount of land lost by Indian communities between 1900 and 1930.

An excerpt from *The New Day for the Indians*, an analysis of the successes of the Indian Reorganization Act, published in 1938.

This publication described the problems the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) was designed to solve and the degree of success the Bureau of Indian Affairs had in implementing solutions. This excerpt describes the IRA in some detail and was written by three individuals with strong ties to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Each of these authors was a reformer. 

An excerpt from *Rebuilding Indian Country*, a film created by the US Department of the Interior, 1933.

This excerpt from a longer film about the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administration’s attempts to enact reform in Indian country shows some of the ways Indian people responded to the Great Depression.

A photograph of Superintendent A. G. Hutton explaining the Indian Reorganization Act to Navajo men, 1934.

After the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in Congress, employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to persuade the Indians at their agencies that the IRA was good news. Many saw it as such. The Navajo did not.

A photograph of a Navajo boy and a goat, ca. 1940.

Goats were important in Navajo culture, as they provided milk and meat to their owners, particularly during hard winters. In 1934, the federal government made the Navajo slaughter thousands of goats and sheep to prevent soil erosion on the reservation. The government believed this was responsible for the silt building up behind the Hoover Dam.

An excerpt from a Department of the Interior report that explains Indian citizenship, 1952.

American Indian people were made citizens of the United States in 1924 by an act of the federal government. Here, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Aberdeen/Billings region of Montana explains, from its perspective, why American Indian people gained citizenship.

Questions

1. Explore the [“long hair” letter](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1748) and the [response to the “long hair” letter](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1749). In what ways were white people biased against Indian people in the early twentieth century? Do you notice any difference in the way the Superintendent and the Commissioner think about Indian people? 
2. Analyze the [excerpt from *The Problem of Indian Administration*](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1755), the [poster about trachoma](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1756), and the [map of reservations](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1757). What were the consequences of the reservation system and white racial bias for Indian communities?
3. How did Indian people manage the pressure to assimilate alongside a commitment to their traditional ways of life? Pay particular attention to the [excerpt from *Rebuilding Indian Country*](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1759), the [photograph of Superintendent Hutton and Navajo men](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1760), and the [photograph of a Navajo boy](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1761), looking closely at body language.
4. Analyze the [excerpt from a daily schedule at Fort Bidwell Boarding School](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1752), the [photograph of girls at St. Francis Mission School](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1753), and the [photograph of boys and girls at St. Bernard’s Mission](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1754). What would it have been like to go to schools like these? How would you change the programming at the schools if you were in charge?
5. The [photograph of a Crow Indian family in their kitchen](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1750) and the [photograph of a Crow Indian camp](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1751) show two different Crow families at home. What are the similarities and differences between how they lived? How might you interpret their lifestyle choices given the other sources in this set?
6. [*Rebuilding Indian Country*](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1759) was produced by the federal Department of the Interior. How does that shape the images you see? Can you find evidence in the film of American Indian resistance to white ideas about how they should live?

Activity

Have students read the summary of the problems in Indian country offered by the [Meriam Report](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1755), and ask them to come up with solutions to those problems in small group discussions and presentations or an individual writing assignment. Ask what would they change in the government’s policies toward American Indian people. Have them compare their solutions to those in the [excerpt from *The New Day for the Indians*](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sources/1758), assess whether they match, and explain why or why not.


Teaching Guide: Exploring American Indian Life between 1900 and 1940

Resources

1. “[The CCC Indian Division](https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/ccc-id.html),” *Prologue Magazine*, Summer 2016. 
2. [Student Files](http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/student-files), Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. 
3. “[Good or Bad? Indian Reorganization Act Turns 75](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/good-or-bad-indian-reorga_b_284940.html),” *Huffington Post*, September 14, 2009.  

Overview

In 1900, the federal census recorded just over 200,000 American Indian people living in the United States. Most lived on reservations—parcels of land that Indian people had retained in treaty negotiations—over which the federal government claimed jurisdiction. By 1900, the policy of the federal government was that American Indian people needed to assimilate into white society, giving up their traditional ways to become like Euro-Americans in their living arrangements, dress, pastimes, religious expression, and work.
 
The government tried to achieve assimilation in many ways. One was to divide certain reservations into individual parcels of land for male-headed families to own and farm. A federal policy since 1887, this process drastically reduced the size of the affected reservations and saw the transfer of land from Indian hands to those of whites. A second government policy required Indian children to attend [boarding schools](https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/sets/american-indian-boarding-schools/) a great distance from their homes, where school staff tried to make them look, speak, and pray like white children.
 
These policies largely came to an end in 1934 with the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), which replaced assimilation programs with initiatives that attempted to strengthen the tribes. Part of the “Indian New Deal,” this legislation was spurred by a 1928 Brookings Institution report that found terrible poverty on reservations across the United States. Each American Indian nation had to vote on whether to accept the IRA. When voting was finished, 172 tribes had accepted the act, and 73 had rejected it. The Navajo nation—the largest Indian nation in the country—rejected the plan. They distrusted the Bureau of Indian Affairs because it had ordered them to kill many of their sheep and goats in 1934 in a misguided attempt to stop soil erosion on the reservation. The Navajo were left without the livestock on which they depended, especially during the harsh winter of 1934. 

English

Reservations, Resistance, and the Indian Reorganization Act, 1900-1940

reservations-resistance_13_1c2802b1814464dc8a599ccc950f5a86.jpg

Courtesy of Marquette University Archives, Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions Records, ID #11024 via Recollection Wisconsin.

Stauble, Reverend Winfrid, “Superintendent explaining Reorganization Act to Navajos, 1934,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/1c2802b1814464dc8a599ccc950f5a86. 

A photograph of Superintendent A. G. Hutton explaining the Indian Reorganization Act to Navajo men, 1934.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 13 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Reservations, Resistance, and the Indian Reorganization Act, 1900-1940