Opinion

Charles Trimble: Tribal advocacy in the history of the United States

Monday, February 7, 2011

It is amazing to me how far Indian Country has come in its relationship with the federal government and in its presence in the nation’s capital. Annual meetings with the US President himself, direct access to the highest offices in the Administration, and having the President of the National Congress of American Indians presenting a State of the Indian Nations Address, answered in turn by a member of Congress are all very impressive. To better appreciate this fact, it is good to reflect on the evolution of tribal advocacy over the decades.

Prior to the NCAI, there was never an organization that could be considered truly a national Indian organization – that is, one that represents intertribal consensus on national issues. Throughout history there were friends who had organized and advocated the cause of human rights and welfare of the Native Americans. These groups were formed ostensibly for reasons of humanity and justice, but much of it was done for proselytizing among the Indians for the ultimate purpose of “civilizing” them.

Even in the earliest days of brutal Spanish conquest and subjugation, there were some like Dominican Friars Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolomeo de las Casas preaching against the inhumane treatment of aboriginal peoples. At the University of Salamanca in Spain, theology professor Francisco Vitorio delivered dissertations on the doctrine of Indigenous peoples' rights by reason of their humanity, including the right to ownership of their lands.

I’m not aware of any organized effort advocating Indian rights in the Colonial period of American history, as Indians were being forced out of their lands and were dying off in great numbers from alien diseases. In the early 1800s organizations were formed to voice concern for the Native peoples in the Southeast, whose lands were being overrun by people pushing for their extermination or removal.

On the other hand, there were organizations whose purposes were only to support government actions against tribes. In 1828 the Board for the Emigration, Preservation and Improvement of the Aborigines (BEPIA) was formed to support the Indian removal policies of President Andrew Jackson, and to counter the groups that rose in opposition to his Indian policies. The BEPIA carried forth Jackson's claim that his removal policy was based on humanitarian grounds, i.e., "to preserve the Indians from complete degradation and to enable them to improve and civilize themselves outside the contact with the whites."

The growth of Indian-advocacy organizations has generally corresponded with historical periods of threats or actions against the tribes. For example, following the Civil War up to 1890, the era of westward expansion and Indian Wars, some twenty such organizations were in operation. Calling themselves Reformers, most of the organizations were church affiliated, and many included leaders who were involved in anti-slavery movements prior to and during the Civil War. Although their intentions were for the most part honorable, these groups had little, if any, consultation with tribes, and their positions on what was good for the Indians were based largely on religious and political considerations. On the religious side, they felt that Christianity held the key to civilizing and assimilating the Indians as a means of saving them. On the political/economic side, they held that the key to prosperity was individual rather than tribal ownership of land, a concept that was a basic part of their Euro-American heritage.

An excellent summation of the work of these friends was given by historian George Hyde: “These good men and women, indeed, mistook their lively interest in the Indian for deep understanding and imagined that they were holding out hands in help when usually they were only meddling in matters beyond their range of comprehension. ‘The Indian tribe,’ they said, ‘dwarfs and blights the family; the tribal system paralyzes labor; it prevents accumulation of property for the children; it cuts the nerve of individual effort.’ And Congress, impressed by this high-sounding nonsense, passed a bill outlawing chiefs and tribes.”

Many of these organizations thus supported such legislation as the General Allotment Act of 1887, a bill which over the years accelerated the process of breaking up tribal holdings and alienating much of their homelands.

Although there were many Indian-interest organizations over the years, those actually formed and controlled by Native American people began in the early 1900s with the Society of American Indians. The leaders of the SAI were educated professional Indian men and women, including doctors, lawyers, ministers, anthropologists, and bureaucrats; many of them products of the Carlyle Indian school.

Fortunately, the SAI was not an effective political organization, for it never bothered consulting with tribes either. From records of their meetings and communications, it appears they were more of a debating society of intellectual Indians. Within the Society there developed factionalism between the leaders, whose ideas differed widely over a variety of issues, including the role of the BIA, peyotism, and the importance of the tribe. “Gradually the organization lost its sense of purpose and its members fell to bickering,” wrote Vince Deloria, Jr. “and by the mid-1920s, well past its brief heyday, it had disappeared."

Following the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, regional intertribal meetings were convened by the Indian Bureau to brief tribes on the implications of the legislation, and to build support for the referenda that the tribes would conduct on whether or not to adopt the IRA form of government. These meetings helped set the stage for the coming of regional intertribal organizations, which later formed the various caucuses that make up the NCAI Executive Committee.

Finally, the National Congress of American Indians was formed in 1944, the first organization that truly represented the tribes. As constituted by its founders, the body consists of tribal delegates, each carrying credentials issued by the governing body of the tribe he or she represents. The organization also has provisions for individual membership status for those who wish to support the organization, and participate in its functions.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s many national Indian organizations were formed when the federal government provided travel funds through the War on Poverty programs, most notably the Office of Economic Opportunity. Organizations were formed around federal programs in housing, education and economic development; around professions, including educators, journalists, lawyers, physicians, nurses and dentists; around natural resources including minerals, timber, agriculture, fisheries and water; and finally around gaming.

It was joked in the early 1970s, at the height of the proliferation of Indian organizations, “Put three Indians in a hotel room with a six pack of beer or a bottle of whiskey, and they’ll come out an hour later with a new national Indian organization.” Not quite true, but by 1975 few Indians were left unrepresented by some national organization.

Charles "Chuck" Trimble, was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. He was principal founder of the American Indian Press Association in 1970, and served as Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians from 1972-1978. He is retired and lives in Omaha, NE. He can be contacted at cchuktrim@aol.com and his website is www.iktomisweb.com.