1 CHAPTER 1: AMERICAN INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION AND ...

produced intratribal conflict. Nevertheless, the importance
of Indian New Deal stemmed from its recognition that tribes
had inherent right to self-determination. 32
Not everyone saw Collier's policy as beneficial. The
IRA had long been controversial, and by the 1940s its support
among Indians and non-Indians alike had eroded. Many
American Indians felt frustrated because the IRA had failed
to bring the political and economic improvements promised by
Collier. Consequently, some Native Americans desired to
abolish federal oversight of Indian affairs and to enter more
fully into mainstream society. 33 At least some non-Indians
agreed. In 1943, Senate Report 310 condemned the IRA and
32 The Indian New Deal has been the subject of a number of
scholarly treatments, including Vine Deloria Jr. and Clifford
M. Lytle, The Nations Within: The Past and Future of
American Indian Sovereignty (New York: Pantheon Books,
1984); Laurence M. Hauptman, The Iroquois and the New Deal
(Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1981);
Lawrence C. Kelly, "The Indian Reorganization Act: The Dream
and the Reality," Pacific Historical Review 45 (August 1975):
291-312; Donald L. Parman, The Navajos and the New Deal (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1976); Kenneth R. Philp, John
Collier's Crusade for Indian Reform, 1920-1954 (Tucson:
University of Arizona Press, 1977); Philp, Indian Self-Rule,
part 1; Paul C. Rosier, The Rebirth of the Blackfeet Nation,
1912-1954 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001);
Elmer R. Rusco, A Fateful Time: The Background and
Legislative History of the Indian Reorganization Act (Reno:
University of Nevada Press, 2000); Graham D. Taylor, The New
Deal and American Indian Tribalism: The Administration of
the Indian Reorganization Act, 1934-1945 (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1980).
33 Fixico, Termination and Relocation, 14-15, 17-18;
Philp, Termination Revisited, 11.
17