by Vine Deloria
With careful planning a large number of Indian clusters can be built up in neighboring towns and smaller cities such as Sioux Falls, Worthington, Minnesota, and Des Moines, Iowa. In a very short time an integrated balanced Indian community, which will encompass an area of some fifty thousand square miles, can be built. From the focal point will come directions for economic development by which a self-sufficient Indian community can be stabilized.
Concentration simply on reservation problems in this area would produce little if any tangible results. Employment is primarily available in the cities and towns. Development of the reservations as centers of employment is absurd because of a multitude of problems. But development of those same reservations as enclaves of residential and social stability makes a great deal of sense.
Combining urban and reservation goals must, therefore, be led by urban people who are much more aware of opportunities for specific developments. If urban Indians can take the time and trouble to plan for the future, they will gain a strong influence over Indian Affairs locally and eventually nationally.
There is an added danger to urban Indians from their involvement with the militants of other minority groups, particularly the black power, movements. Spectacular success in achieving national publicity has attracted a great many urban Indians to the black power people. In Omaha and Chicago, Oakland and Los Angeles, young Indians are talking like black militants and beginning to ape their ideas and techniques. Participation in the Poor People’s March gave additional impetus toward development of red power movements.
Indians are often told by bureaucrats that “Indians don’t act like that.” This idea is entirely false and only serves to illuminate stereotypes and make the militants more active. Militancy in certain areas is the only means by which the Indian people can accomplish their goals. But it makes a great deal of difference what philosophy lies at the basis of militancy.
By and large, blacks have rioted and marched for undefined objectives. Cries of “Freedom now!” have provided very little understanding of problems or solutions. Indians who copy blacks simply because they are attracted by the chance to make their names household words are embarking on a disastrous course of action.
During the Poor People’s March Abernathy made continuous veiled threats that certain things would happen if his demands were not met. Nothing happened. It was obvious to everyone that Abernathy was conducting a demonstration in a symbolic representation of the poor, not in a real sense. Abernathy could no more have produced on his threats than he could have reached the far side of the moon.
So before urban Indians consider the path of the black militant they would be wise to insure that they have power firmly in their grasp within the urban Indian community. Otherwise, like the more radical blacks, they will be forced to turn increasingly to violence as a means of backing up their demands.
Blacks have not been denied because of their so-called extremism, but because they failed to consolidate the power that does exist in their hands. No one is going to hand over decision-making authority to people who have no base within the community other than their ability to articulate demands. Blacks have failed to operate for power positions in their own communities, and Indians must not make that mistake.
And although important, consolidation of power is secondary to the comprehensive examination of goals and techniques. Indians must first understand the position they occupy in urban and national affairs. Then they must become aware of the weak points where leverage and power can be combined to provide a means of pivoting the power structure that confronts them. Only then can they apply their power to the situation and contemplate significant results.
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When one examines the history of American society one notices the great weakness inherent in it. The country was founded in violence. It worships violence and it will continue to live violently. Anyone who tries to meet violence with love is crushed, but violence used to meet violence also ends abruptly with meaningless destruction.
Consider the history of America closely. Never has America lost a war. When engaged in warfare the United States has always applied the principle of overkill and mercilessly stamped its opposition into the dust. Both Grant and Eisenhower made unconditional surrender their policy. No quarter, even if requested. Consider Vietnam, where the United States has already dropped more bombs than it did during the last world war—a classic of overkill.
Consider also the fascination of America’s military leaders with the body count. It is not enough to kill people, bodies must be counted and statistics compiled to show how the harvest is going. Several years ago every effort was made to keep the ratio of enemy killed to American fatalities at a certain proportion. Yes, violence is America’s sweetheart.
But name, if you can, the last peace the United States won. Victory yes, but this country has never made a successful peace because peace requires exchanging ideas, concepts, thoughts, and recognizing the fact that two distinct systems of life can exist together without conflict. Consider how quickly America seems to be facing its allies of one war as new enemies.
The United States operates on incredibly stupid premises. It always fails to understand the nature of the world and so does not develop policies that can hold the allegiance of people. It then alienates everyone who does not automatically love it. It worries about its reputation and prestige but daily becomes more vulnerable to ideologies more realistic than its own. This country could be easily influenced by any group with a more comprehensive philosophy of man if that group worked in a non-violent, non-controversial manner.
Ideological leverage is always superior to violence. People are always open to ideas even though they may appear to reject thought itself. Few people will allow themselves to become victims of irrational behavior, however, and violence and militancy are animalistic shortcuts to non-existent ends. Having once made a convert, the struggle ends and the convert is committed to realization of the ideology. But having once beaten a man to the draw, the winner is always subject to others who want to test his skill.
For Indians to walk the steps of the black militants would be a disaster. The problems of Indians have always been ideological rather than social, political, or economic. Simply to invite violence upon oneself for the sake of temporary concessions seems ridiculous and stupid.
It would be fairly easy, however, with a sufficient number of articulate young Indians and well-organized community support, to greatly influence the thinking of the nation within a few years. The white man asks only the opportunity to chase the almighty dollar. Whoever can take the burden of thinking from him is worshiped and praised beyond belief. Thus did Americans immortalize John Kennedy who did little to solve America’s problems but seemed as if he thought about them a great deal.
Consider also the strange case of Lyndon B. Johnson. He brought to fruition more programs and opportunities than any other President in history. Yet he never presented the image of a thinker. Johnson was unable to attract the intellectual community to his side. And he never gave the impression that he had deeply considered the problems on an intellectual or philosophical level. People therefore felt that if they themselves had to confront the issues that the President must be the cause of those problems.
So it is vitally important that the Indian people pick the intellectual arena as the one in which to wage war. Past events have shown that the Indian people have always been fooled about the intentions of the white man. Always we have discussed irrelevant issues while he has taken the land. Never have we taken the time to examine the premises upon which he operates so that we could manipulate him as he has us.
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A redefinition of Indian Affairs, then, would concentrate its attention on the coordination among the non-reservation peoples and the reservation programs on a regional or area basis. In that way migrations to and from urban areas could be taken into account when planning reservation programs. There would therefore be a need for the Department of the Interior to re
define its service function. Present regulations restrict Interior services to Indians living on trust land. Only these people are eligible for health, education, and trusteeship services. An urban Indian can become eligible for bureau services simply by returning to the reservation for a decent period and establishing residence. Often he spends as much time and money establishing his eligibility as the services he eventually receives are worth.
Because the bureau is restricted in its services to reservation Indians, little progress is made in uplifting the total Indian community. The result is the continual return of people from the urban areas, adding to the burden carried by the reservation programs.
Interior also concentrates its efforts on a few selected reservations, which have influential lawyers from big law firms in Washington, D.C. The majority of the organized tribes, which are too poor to afford full legal counsel, receive very little from the Department of the Interior. It is these little groups which fall victim to schemes developed by competitive bureaus within Interior, such as the Bureau of Reclamation which is always looking for Indian land to take for a development project of its own.
It is doubtful if Interior will initiate change. The department is ridden with career men who have spent their lives defending the traditional way of doing business. Change has never been Interior’s forte, whether under Democratic or Republican administrations. More likely would be the possibility that as urban Indians begin to work out new policies and programs with the Vice President’s Council on Indian Opportunity, Interior will grudgingly begin to adapt its policies to conform to the new currents moving in national Indian circles.
The most useful thing Interior and its component bureaus could do in the immediate future is to begin contracting with tribes and Indian centers to provide a comprehensive national program for development and training. A tribe or number of tribes could combine with an urban center to provide a reservation-city program of training and employment placement. In this way people could be trained in a city to take over specific jobs existing on the reservation and reservation people could be given pre-urban orientation before they left the reservation. In either case an Indian agency, the tribe or urban center, would be aware that they were receiving training and could expect employment, housing, and services when their training was finished.
Since a majority of Indian people now reside off reservation and are involved in work in the private area, Interior’s most fruitful approach would be to seek out projects which it could initiate in cooperation with tribes and urban centers. It could hold a series of conferences between selected tribes and urban centers, suggesting specific contracts it might issue to them jointly to solve particular problems. Interior already has legal authority for such a move under an old law called the “Buy Indian” Act which gives preference to purchases made directly from a tribe.
Using such an approach, Interior might cushion the shock wave that appears inevitable as non-reservation people become more active. People and funds might be better channeled into projects that have the support of the Indian people in both areas. Ultimately, the federal government has responsibility for all Indian people. Whether or not Interior will take an aggressive stance in program development before Indians take the initiative and put Interior on the defensive is a question to be answered by the present Secretary of the Interior.
Udall proved a tremendous disappointment to the Indian people in his years as head of the Interior Department. Too many times he was totally unresponsive to Indian proposals. When the tribes suggested an advisory council so that tribes and Interior could make plans jointly, Udall refused to act. Yet he had advisory committees for some of his other agencies, notably National Parks. Udall also continued to pack the Indian Arts and Crafts Board with non-Indians who cared little for the development of Indian arts and crafts. Allegedly a great conservationist, Udall promised the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe water for its declining shore line on the lake. Then he failed to deliver any significant amount of water and would not make any effort to clarify the tribe’s rights to water in the lake.
A new Secretary could begin programs on a national scale that would give the tribes almost total control of reservation programs. Expanding the scope of services would mean less decision-making in government and more by Indians. The natural movement in Indian Affairs now exerting itself could fill the vacuum that exists in bureau programs.
A good example of this is the old relocation program. Originally conceived by the bureau in the 1950’s as a means to get Indians off the reservation and into the cities, the program was renamed “Employment Assistance” in a feeble attempt to make it seem contemporary. This program could be expanded threefold by use of the contract method of operation since bureau offices in the relocation cities could be closed.
Churches must also shed their ineptness at facing modern problems. The rise of native religions in the past two decades has clearly put the churches on notice that their days as supreme religious authorities are numbered. Urban areas are showing a great deal of interest in native religions. In St. Paul, Minnesota, an urban chapter of the Medicine Lodge religion holds forth. Religious confrontation in the Great Lakes area may not be far away. With the exception of the Oneidas, Christianity may completely disappear among the Indians in that area.
Churches should acknowledge the relevancy of the Old Testament social forms if they mean to keep abreast of modern religious developments in Indian Affairs. As more urban centers appear on the scene, social-religious functions will begin to merge as Indian people give up differentiated social forms for an integral tribal existence. Even within the white church, men are forsaking the orthodox concept of the ministry for socially oriented functions comparable to the worker-priest movement of France.
Creation of new forms of ministry would place churches in the vanguard of social change within the field of Indian Affairs. Previously, churches have used the paid ministry as the representative of the organized church. Now they must acknowledge and support the informal channels of social activity by which the new Indians are reorienting their people. The informal, yet recognized, ministry would bring new blood into the churches and enable them to understand social fusion into tribal forms of the future.
I strongly doubt that American Christianity has the foresight or flexibility to embark on new paths of action. It has always been torn between being good and being real and generally chosen to be good.
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The future indicates vicious struggles between those that have traditionally dominated Indian Affairs and those of the new movement. The Association on American Indian Affairs, Indian Rights Association, and other white interest groups have seen their best days despite the fact that they presently raise enormous sums of money which are apparently spent on some type of Indian program. For the better part of two generations these whites have not hesitated to make policies and direct programs on behalf of Indians without bothering to consult Indian people on the matter. Those days are vanishing swiftly. For the new Indian groups in the major cities will come to dominate news and programs relating to Indians in the respective areas. It is these new groups which the public will have to face and negotiate with.
National Indian organizations must also take cognizance of the new Indian movements. No longer will the NCAI be able to make simple appeals for membership and support on the basis of unity. Urban Indians, under the new American Indians United, will swiftly move into the lead position in Indian Affairs, determining the trends and issues which will attract both urban and reservation Indians alike.
Urban Indians will have the benefit of city libraries, night schools, all of the communicative tools of modern life. They will be able to focus on simple issues with simple answers in the same manner as the Civil Rights movement once made “We Shall Overcome” a national issue of integration.
Any national Indian organization of the future must contain a number of membership categories that operate by function or area of interest. The simplistic membership by tribes
will no longer support political movements in national Indian affairs. As urban groups achieve organization for political purposes, they will begin to hold the balance of power on a statewide basis. This will be particularly true in Nevada, California (if not true there already), and Minnesota.
In many cases tribal clubs organized under large Indian centers will be wealthier and stronger and contain more people than does their tribal council on its home reservation. It is not inconceivable that people from the larger tribes, Sioux, Cherokee, Chippewa, and Navajo, will have a national urban organization. Individual Indians are now examining the method used by ACLU in building its branch offices. ACLU underwrites the creation of field offices and returns a percentage of income raised by a field office to the local branch. Eventually the local branch builds a sufficient income to operate its own programs.
State organizations of all Indians will be the wave of the future. It will no longer be possible to distinguish reservation from non-reservation people or to play off one tribe against another. Urban Indians will create a new sense of unity as they fight for equal representation in inter-tribal organizations. Their voting power will be sorely needed by reservation people as the population of reservations declines and that of non-Indians in the states continues to rise.
As programs become statewide the power and influence of urban Indians will continue to rise. Indians will begin to seek total development of reservation recreational facilities for their weekend and vacation use.
If the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Congressional committees do not fight the broadening of Indian concerns into these areas, hitherto undefined and unexplored, much of the confusion and indecision now characterizing Indian programs will be cleared up. Total expenditures on Indian programs will decline as Indians rely more and more upon their own resources.