Custer Died For Your Sins

by Vine Deloria

  The NCAI recognized the Tiguas as a surviving tribe of Indians and began to take steps to see if they could be formally recognized. Tom Diamond, an attorney in El Paso who had given his time and money for years in an effort to help the Tiguas, led the struggle to get their status clarified.

  Finally in early April, 1968, President Johnson signed into law a bill that officially recognized the Tiguas as an Indian tribe and ceded responsibility for them to the state of Texas. Under the programs of Texas the Tiguas are now enjoying a revival of tribal life with a chance to build a sound economic base for the future.

  Ever since Indians began to be shunted to reservations it has been assumed by both Indians and whites that the eventual destiny of the Indian people was to silently merge into the mainstream of American society and disappear. The thought of a tribe being able to maintain traditions, socio-political structure, and basic identity within an expanding modern American city would have been so preposterous an idea had it been advanced prior to the discovery of the Tiguas, that the person expounding the thesis would have been laughed out of the room.

  Yet the Tiguas had fought for their tribal existence and been successful. The famed melting pot, that great sociological theory devised to explain the dispersion of the European immigrant into American society, had cracks in it through which, apparently, Indian tribes were slipping with ease.

  Discovery of the Tiguas rocked Indian people in several respects. Indians had been brainwashed into accepting the demise of their tribe as God’s natural plan for Indians. Yet the Tiguas plainly demonstrated that Indian tribal society had the strength and internal unity to maintain itself indefinitely within an alien culture.

  If, many Indian people thought, the Tiguas had survived for three centuries in the middle of El Paso, might not their own tribe also survive somehow? Once accepting the idea that tribes were really entities that had no beginning or end, Indians began to view their problems in a new light. The basic operating assumption of tribes changed from that of preserving the tribal estate for an eventual distribution to the idea that tribes would always manage to survive, that present difficulties were not insurmountable, and that perhaps the Indian community was nationally much larger than people had imagined.

  Since 1966 there has been an increasing awareness of tribalism sweeping the Indian power structure. No longer does Indian country begin at the Mississippi. Now it extends from coast to coast. Talk has even begun about contact with the surviving natives of Hawaii.

  The NCAI set its sights to contact as many groups as possible in the eastern portion of the United States, hoping to find other groups such as the Tiguas. In due time the Tunicas of Louisiana, the Appalachicolas of Florida, the Haliwas of North Carolina, the Pamunkeys of Virginia, the Wampanogs of Massachusetts, the Coushattas of eastern Texas, the Cherokees of southern Ohio, and the Payson Band of Yavapai Apaches in Arizona were all located.

  In many cases knowledgeable non-Indians had learned of the search for missing tribes and come forward with information. In other cases the Bureau of Indian Affairs began to push for recognition of bands which had always been eligible for federal services but which had been caught between reservations during frontier days and preferred to remain among white friends in small towns.

  A symptom of the national Indian awakening was the appointment of Judge Lacy Maynor of North Carolina, the distinguished leader of the Lumbee community, as a co-chairman of the First Citizens for Humphrey-Muskie, a coalition of Indian people supporting the Democratic ticket in 1968. Judge Maynor had gained national recognition in 1958 when his Lumbees surprised the Ku Klux Klan at a meeting in North Carolina and sent them packing. But Maynor’s appointment as a co-chairman was tacit recognition by western Indians of eastern non-federal tribes as an important segment of the emerging nationwide Indian community.

  The awakening of the tribes is just beginning. Traditionalists see the movement as fulfillment of ancient Hopi and Iroquois religious predictions of the end of white domination of the continent. Others feel that American society has now reached the point of maturity where the platitudes of the Constitution can finally begin to take on real meaning.

  Anthropologists love to talk knowingly about this movement and call it pan-Indianism. When the first Indian came to Plymouth Colony and chanced to meet another Indian on the way in, a committee of anthropologists was probably trailing him, eagerly observing pan-Indianism at work.

  But pan-Indianism exists primarily in the mind of the beholder, as do all anthropological theories. Pan-Indianism implies that a man forgets his tribal background and fervently merges with other Indians to form “Indianism.” Rubbish.

  Younger Indians are beginning to understand the extent to which the Indian community is being expanded and to many of them it is an affirmation of tribalism over individualism. Traditions, which kept the Tiguas together and which are holding the Tunicas and other tribes in the ways of their ancestors, are now beginning to become of primary importance.

  The mechanized concepts of image, relevancy, feasibility, and efficiency are now being seen as gimmicks by which white America fools itself into believing it has created a culture. In reality, it has used these plastic devices to avoid the necessity of having a real culture. Tribal existence is fast becoming the most important value in life. Consideration of other ideas takes second place to tribalism.

  The federal tribes of the southeastern United States, always separated by distance and ideology, recently moved in the direction of a southeastern coalition of tribes. The Choctaws of Mississippi and the Seminoles and the Miccosukees of Florida recently banded together with the Eastern Band of Cherokees of North Carolina to form an inter-tribal council to work specifically on their problems.

  As federal policies change and become clarified, there is little doubt that the southeastern United States will experience a great Indian revival, bringing the focus in Indian Affairs to philosophy rather than program considerations.

  * * *

  While tribal societies are beginning to awaken, assert themselves, and contact others in the rural areas, urban Indians have been developing a new nationalism for themselves. In January of 1968 representatives of twenty-six urban Indian groups met in Seattle, Washington, for the first of a series of consultations on problems of off-reservation Indians.

  The Seattle conference was attended by a number of reservation Indians who were suspicious of the gathering. In the late 1950’s the off-reservation Colvilles were organized by a white man for the specific purpose of selling the large Colville reservation. The land is valued at one hundred million dollars and the critical issue has been division of the money among the non-reservation people. Mistrust ran rampant throughout the meeting, especially among the attending reservation people who feared it would result in a massive movement against the reservations. Consequently the meeting ended with both groups preparing for the next confrontation.

  At the annual NCAI convention in the fall of 1968 the subject of urban Indians was cussed and discussed at length. Several resolutions attempting to define policy with respect to off-reservation Indians were offered. Finally a compromise resolution very general in nature was passed.

  The fears of reservation Indians were perhaps justified when one considers what the organization of unsuspecting off-reservation members of a tribe could do to reservation programs. But reservation people need not fear the urban movement among off-reservation people. Urban centers are inter-tribal and the chances of one center having a majority of one tribe are practically nil.

  Furthermore, urban Indians have become the cutting edge of the new Indian nationalism. For centuries they have been going into town and remaining there. Now they are asserting themselves as a power to be reckoned with. Urban Indians frequently return to their reservations, if only for a vacation or weekend, and until recently they were content to think of themselves as temporary residents of the city in which they lived.

  Over the past decades the empty stores, church basements, and rented h
alls they had been meeting in for social activities have become newly purchased Indian centers, complete with staff and programs. From a once-a-month dance to an ongoing program of social services, the spectrum of Indian centers appears endless and continually in transition. The eventual list of cities in which Indians have organized may one day pass the one hundred mark.

  The large midwestern cities of Chicago and Minneapolis represent the most comprehensive development of urban Indianism. With a long history of capable leadership from both white and Indian communities, people in these two cities have set up the procedure for total Indian renaissance. Fund-raising drives have provided financial support for their programs. In Chicago the two Indian centers own buildings and have achieved relative financial stapility. In Minneapolis, settlement houses have served as rallying points and been used by the urban Indians to spread into neighborhoods in all parts of the city.

  Both cities are characterized by the organization of many smaller groups of Indians who participate in city-wide programs. Indians in these cities have found that tribal differences do not merge into a general blur of Indianism. Tribal backgrounds are too strong for even an Indian melting pot. So the people have built their organizations on tribal differences.

  Clubs have been organized by tribe. Thus Minneapolis has the Twin Cities Sioux Council, the Twin Cities Chippewa Council, and others. The tribal clubs support the overall program of the urban center and in turn have their own programs in which ideas unique to the particular tribe are emphasized. Overall membership in the entire program is much broader and more active than when tribes were indiscriminately merged into one amalgam.

  From the consultation at Seattle, Indians of other cities came to an understanding of what was possible for urban people. Many left Seattle determined to reproduce in Tulsa, Denver, Rapid City, and Omaha what had been done in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Oakland. And many of the conference participants were surprised to discover that they all felt a real desire to get into the fight for better legislation to help the reservation people protect the reservation homeland from further encroachment.

  Even the eastern cities—traditional homes of tribes thought long since vanished—have begun the task of organizing themselves. The second urban meeting in Tempe, Arizona, saw the attendance of a group from New York City. Eventually Cleveland, Cincinnati, Boston, and Washington, D.C., are also expected to have urban Indian centers.

  When one realizes that the majority of Indian people live in urban areas, the extent of the new movement becomes clear. The cities are beginning to furnish the catalytic agents for total national organization. A decade ago organization was primarily according to tribe; off-reservation people had not yet begun to seek each other out. Few even suspected that very many other Indian people resided in the city in which they lived.

  Now it is becoming painfully apparent to government agencies that reservation people are the least of their problems. Demonstrations against Bureau of Indian Affairs offices have taken place in three cities. More are being planned by young urban Indians sent to the cities to receive job training. Soon bureaucrats will be asking for transfer to isolated reservations instead of cities where the young militants are sure to make their lives miserable.

  The Vice President’s Council on Indian Opportunity, set up in April, 1968, by order of the President, is now in contact with the urban Indians who have formally organized as American Indians United. Problems are being outlined and possible solutions discussed by the two groups.

  Chicago has seen the rise of Indian nationalism by younger people. In addition to the established centers and clubs, young people have started to move the urban Indian structure toward a more militant stance in regard to urban programs available through the mayor’s office. Denver has recently seen the organization of another Indian club that is avowedly more militant with regard to programs being administered by the city. Omaha has a group of younger Indians which threatens to begin to move city Indians toward community involvement.

  * * *

  Because there is such a mushrooming movement among urban Indians, old ideas and traditional policies have become woefully outmoded. In the past, tribal councils have largely determined national Indian policy. Many times the Bureau of Indian Affairs has been able to apply pressure on certain tribes to hold back militant stands by Indian people. It learned to effectively play one tribe against another until the tribes were confused and disheartened. Then it would appear to compromise and tribes would eagerly agree to whatever was placed before them. When one recalls that every tribe had to have approval of the BIA to lease its lands, to travel, to get legal counsel, it is a wonder that tribes have been able to get anything done.

  While the BIA still has to approve basic tribal operations, it no longer has the resources to keep track of everything happening in Indian Affairs today. Other agencies are continually calling conferences which take tribes from one end of the country to another. Pressuring individual tribes has become too risky because of the great competition between government agencies to appear more active than competing agencies.

  Urban Indians have a great advantage over reservation people. They have no restrictions on the way they raise or spend money. The bureau has no means by which it can influence decisions made by urban Indian centers. Thus, if it is to influence urban Indians at all, it must be by offering them something. Urban Indians have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so initial success breeds deeper thought and more comprehensive planning for the next go-round.

  Nor do the emerging non-federal eastern Indians have anything to lose. In many cases, in many states, they are busy compiling the documentation to prove their claims. The tribes of Maine are moving incredibly fast in pressing their claims against Massachusetts. And Massachusetts may have its hands full with other tribes such as the Wampanoag and Narragansett before it is finished with Indian people.

  The great weapon which the eastern tribes have is invisibility. No one believes they exist, yet back in the statutes and treaties lies the key to their eventual success. The Montauks are a good example. At the turn of the century the tribe was thrown out of court because the Montauks lacked standing to file suit. They were wards of the state of New York. Well, people argue, if they were wards of the state of New York, what has the state been doing for them?

  At present there is tremendous potential awakening in the cities and among the non-federal tribes of the East. At least three-quarters of the national Indian population lives in the cities and eastern United States. A new coalition of eastern Indians and urban groups could force a radical change in existing federal policy toward Indian people. These people generally vote more than reservation people. When they organize for political purposes, they will be able to exert more influence than they have at present.

  Many non-reservation Indians are scattered in states and Congressional districts that have yet to produce a Senator or Congressman who has taken an interest in Indians. When these groups organize for effective action they will begin to make Indian Affairs a concern of interested non-Indians who would like to assist Indian people. Thus there is every indication that eastern and urban people will be able to bring up issues which reservation people have not been able or willing to raise.

  Tragically, Indian Affairs within the Bureau of Indian Affairs is today exclusively oriented toward individual reservations. Little concern is shown for program development on a regional, state, or inter-area office basis. Thus the BIA is extremely vulnerable to unexpected pressures from regional groups which combine urban concentrations or urban centers and reservations.

  * * *

  The great danger in the gathering Indian movement is that urban Indians will allow themselves to be betrayed by two factors: reservation entanglements and the black power movement. Because of the pressure on reservation communities by terminationists in the Senate, reservation people have been on the defensive for a decade and a half. Their first inclination is to view a proposal in terms of its possibly detrimental effect
on their communities.

  Urban Indians may very well endorse proposals of reservation people without a thought for the larger issues which are emerging in the cities. Employment is inevitably bound to housing, which in turn is bound to credit availability. Concentration of simple issues designed for upgrading reservations may not take into account the complexities of the urban situation.

  The nomadic tendency of Indians could conceivably limit the possibilities of upgrading programs and policies for all Indian people. It is almost impossible to keep an accurate census of Indians in a city. Some surveys taken in Denver indicated that only one-quarter of the people listed at a certain address in the fall were there that same winter. They had vanished, moved, gone back to their reservations, or moved on to another city.

  Similar attempts to count reservation people have produced almost identical results. Programs designed to provide employment on certain reservations may be woefully out of touch with the nomadic tendencies of the people of that reservation to move back and forth.

  Some attempt should be made to coordinate movements of Indians to coincide with ongoing programs in both reservation communities and urban centers. One such attempt is being made in the Midwest. Whether it proves successful or not will depend primarily upon the ability of the urban Indians to articulate the problem to their reservation cousins and the ability of these urban people to understand national trends.

  Sioux City Indian Center was funded this spring to do work in organizing the Indian people in the surrounding four states of South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. These states have small concentrations of Indian people in their larger towns. Many of these people go back and forth to the neighboring reservations of Yankton Sioux, Santee Sioux, Flandreaux Sioux, Winnebago, Omaha, Sac and Fox, and Lower Brule. Sioux City will be the focal point of a regional effort to coordinate employment, housing, education, and organization of the Indian people in this area.