The American Indian Federation (AIF) was a political organization that served as "the major voice of
Native American criticism of federal Indian policies during the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
", specifically from 1934 through the mid-1940s. The AIF was an early Native American effort to influence national policies, and attracted harsh criticism for its affiliation with several extremist groups.
Historian
Laurence Hauptman described the AIF as a complex group with three shared principles: "that Commissioner of Indian Affairs
John Collier be removed from office; that the
Indian Reorganization Act
The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...
be overturned, and most importantly, that the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
(BIA) be abolished". On other questions, AIF members had diverse opinions, most notably on the issue of assimilation. AIF President Joseph Bruner, for example, argued for the complete integration of Indians into white society, while one of its strongest writers believed in Indian cultural separation and sovereignty.
Founding
The group was officially founded in
Gallup, New Mexico, on August 28, 1934, where organizers drafted a preamble, elected Joseph Bruner president, and passed a resolution calling for Collier's removal. The group also had conventions in
Lewiston (Idaho),
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
,
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
, and
Tulsa
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...
. The AIF testified before
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
ional committees about alleged violations of law by the BIA.
The AIF was composed of members from several other Indian organizations, including the Indian National Confederacy of Oklahoma, the Mission Indian Federation of California, the Intertribal Committee for the Fundamental Advancement of the American Indian, and the Black Hills Treaty Council. Members came from several tribes, including
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
,
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
,
Sioux
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
,
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, and
Lumbee
The Lumbee are a Native American people primarily centered in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland counties in North Carolina. They also live in surrounding states and Baltimore, Maryland.
The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-rec ...
. Prominent members included
Alice Lee Jemison
Alice Mae Lee Jemison (1901–1964) was a Seneca political activist and journalist. She was a major critic of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the New Deal policies of its commissioner John Collier. She lobbied in support of California, ...
, a
Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
journalist and activist;
Rupert Costo, a
Cahuilla
The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a Federally recognized tribe, federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the U ...]
,
Elwood Towner, a
Hupa
Hupa (Yurok language term: Huep'oola' / Huep'oolaa = "Hupa people") are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "Peopl ...
attorney, and J. C. Morgan, a missionary for the
Christian Reformed Church.
Efforts
In its early years, several members of
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
critical of the BIA encouraged the AIF, including Representatives
Alfred Beiter,
Virginia Jenckes,
Usher L. Burdick, and
John S. McGroarty, and Senator
Burton K. Wheeler
Burton Kendall Wheeler (February 27, 1882January 6, 1975) was an attorney and an American politician of the Democratic Party in Montana, which he represented as a United States senator from 1923 until 1947.
Born in Massachusetts, Wheeler began ...
.
The AIF received national attention quickly because of its
red-baiting
Red-baiting, also known as ''reductio ad Stalinum'' () and red-tagging (in the Philippines), is an intention to discredit the validity of a political opponent and the opponent's logical argument by accusing, denouncing, attacking, or persecuting ...
accusations against the BIA and the
Department of the Interior, accusing commissioner John Collier and his supporters of being atheist, communist, and supported by the
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
. Some AIF members also made public
anti-black and
anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
comments, and other groups such as the
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence.
A non-profit group, they promote ...
and the
Silver Shirts of America used the AIF to advance their own causes. In 1938, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
put AIF leaders under surveillance, but concluded the AIF was not a subversive organization.
Decline
The AIF ultimately failed to achieve any of the three objectives that unified its members. In April 1939, organization members who valued Indian sovereignty, including Alice Lee Jemison, were infuriated by AIF support for a proposed "Settlement Bill" that would have provided $3,000 to each Native American to settle all Indian claims against the U.S. Some 4,664 AIF members from 34 Indian nations had agreed to this financial arrangement.
After Jemison left the AIF in 1939, the group "was never able to generate the same media attention and quickly lost influence". The AIF continued to exist on paper through 1945, but had lost much of its national support: by 1945, only five of its nineteen leaders lived outside of Oklahoma.
References
Sources
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{{Authority control
Native American rights organizations
Organizations established in 1934
Organizations disestablished in 1945