The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs: Native Americans and Whites in the Progressive Era

265 Pages·2005·1.12 MB·English

by  Tom Holm

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The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs
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THE GREAT
CONFUSION
IN INDIAN
AFFAIRS
(cid:1) (cid:2) (cid:3)
ative mericans & hites
(cid:4) (cid:5)
in the rogressive ra
Tom Holm
University of Texas Press
Austin
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Copyright © by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition,
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to
Permissions,University of Texas Press,Box ,Austin,TX -.
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso
z.-(r) (Permanence of Paper).
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holm,Tom,1946–
The great confusion in Indian affairs :Native Americans and whites in the
progressive era / Tom Holm.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-292-70688-x(cloth :alk.paper)—isbn 0-292-70962-5(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Indians of North America—Cultural assimilation. 2.Indians of North Amer-
ica—Government relations. 3.Indians of North America—Politics and government.
4.Indians in popular culture. 5.Assimilation (Sociology)—United States—History.
6.United States—Social policy. 7.United States—Race relations. 8.United States—
Politics and government. I.Title.
e98.c89h65 2005
305.897'073'09041—dc22
2005003871
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For my grandchildren,Ezikiel,Joaquin,and Sadie Grace
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Contents
Preface ix
Chapter I. The Vanishing Policy 1
Chapter II. Persistent Peoples:Native American Social
and Cultural Continuity 23
Chapter III. The New Indians 50
Chapter IV. Symbols of Native American Resiliency:
The Indian Art Movement 85
Chapter V. Preserving the “Indian”:The Reassessment
of the Native American Image 111
Chapter VI. Progressive Ambiguity:The Reassessment
of the Vanishing Policy 131
Chapter VII. The “Great Confusion”in Indian Affairs 153
Chapter VIII. Epilogue:John Collier and Indian Reform 182
Notes 199
Bibliography 221
Index 239
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Preface
T
his study has spent a long time in scholastic limbo. Its

first materialization was as my doctoral dissertation,done in
under the able direction of Professors Arrell M. Gibson, H. Wayne
Morgan,JonathanW.Spurgeon,and Norman Crockett at the Univer-
sity of Oklahoma.From it I gleaned a few articles and a stack of lecture
notes.At the time I thought that the articles would be sufficient evi-
dence of scholarship that would, in turn, support my teaching career.
Consequently,I did not put a great deal of effort into getting my dis-
sertation published as a book. Besides, I had embarked upon a long-
term study of Native American veterans of the Vietnam War—a proj-
ect that was very close to my heart because I am a Native veteran of
that conflict—which required a series of subsidiary studies in military
history,political cultures,social psychology,and ethnological methods.
What prompted me to take up the dusty manuscript again was the
fact that over the years I have gained several new perspectives and have
expanded my knowledge as a result of stepping outside of my academ-
ic training.Although my doctorate was in history,I have not served in

a department of history since . I have been affiliated with an
American Indian studies program that has encouraged inter- and mul-
tidisciplinary approaches to studying Native topics that transcend the
traditional disciplines of history, anthropology, and sociology. Addi-
tionally,I spent fourteen years in a political science department,during
which time I gained a good deal of know-how and appreciation for
critical thought from the likes of Joyotpaul Chaudhuri, Jim Clarke,
Cliff Lytle,and Vine Deloria,Jr.I also came under the influence of the