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

Anthropologists Sol Tax and Nancy Lurie spearheaded the
organization of the conference. The AICC had the support of
the University of Chicago and the National Congress of
American Indians (NCAI)--the largest and (at that time) the
only nationwide, pan-tribal American Indian organization.
Those in attendance drafted a Declaration of Indian Purpose,
a statement of concerns and policy recommendations. 4
1961, "American Indian Chicago Conference (Charter
Convention), 1961)," series XI, box 148/5, National Congress
of American Indian Papers, National Anthropological Archives,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
For secondary accounts, see Thomas Clarkin, Federal
Indian Policy in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001), 17-20;
Thomas W. Cowger, The National Congress of American Indians:
The Founding Years (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1999), 133-140; Laurence M. Hauptman, Tribes and
Tribulations: Misconceptions About American Indians and
Their Histories (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press, 1995), ch. 8; Alvin M. Josephy Jr., Now That the
Buffalo's Gone: A Study of Today's American Indians (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1982), 224; McNickle, Native
American Tribalism, 115-117; Dorothy R. Parker, Singing an
Indian Song: A Biography of D'Arcy McNickle (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1992), 187-191, 283.
4 American Indian Chicago Conference (AICC), Declaration
of Indian Purpose, 13-20 July 1961. The Declaration is
reprinted in American Indian Policy Review Commission, Task
Force Three, Report on Federal Administration and Structure
of Indian Affairs (Washington: Government Printing Office,
1976), 184-218; a partial reprint can be found in Alvin M.
Josephy Jr., Joane Nagel, and Troy Johnson, Red Power: The
American Indians' Fight for Freedom, 2d ed. (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1999), 13-15.
For primary source information on the AICC and the
regional meetings leading up to it, see Progress Report #2,
22 February 1961; Sol Tax to All American Indians, 31 March
1961; "Indians Meet Here to Discuss Problems," 23 June 1961;
"The American Indian Chicago Conference: A Unique Experiment
in Action Anthropology and Political Organization," n.d.; all
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