The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

In 1918, some tribes organized themselves formally to counteract the paternalism of the Office of Indian Affairs. At Red Lake Reservation, 21-year-old Peter Graves, a half-White and half-Ojibwe resident of the Leech Lake Reservation raised at Red Lake, was recruited to the Red Lake police force, and within five years he became police chief. He developed a good relationship with the Office of Indian Affairs and, in 1898, discouraged Red Lakers from joining Leech Lakers in an armed standoff against the US government, threatening them with being expelled from the tribe.

In concert with chiefs, they and Graves “drafted a constitution for the General Council of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians” (another name for the Ojibwe) that “recognized and codified the positions of the hereditary chiefs at Red Lake” and made them “the primary political agents” (203). This move eventually diminished the Indian agent’s power and allowed the tribe to slowly expel the White people living at Red Lake.

The commissioner of Indian affairs under President Franklin Roosevelt, John Collier, put forth the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) with the purposes of helping Indigenous peoples retain their land and gain more control over their structures of government. To decide on a proposed model of government, the tribes would have the right to vote. However, the voting process was unclear. There was uncertainty over who was eligible and if there would be a process for absentees, as many Indigenous people didn’t live on their tribal homelands. In the end, absentees, too, were given voting rights.

The Navajo people rejected the IRA due to Collier’s involvement in the Livestock Reduction Program, which forced the Navajo to sell off half their cattle to avoid erosion and overgrazing. Collier responded to dissenters by having them jailed. He then demanded a vote. The IRA passed, with 172 tribes voting for it and 73 against. Still, the IRA allowed only for partial sovereignty. Tribes still could not raise armies, develop currencies, enter into treaties with foreign countries, or develop their own trade relationships with foreign nations.

On June 13, 1942, a representative from the Iroquois Confederacy stood on the stairs of the Capitol Building and read a statement in which he declared, on behalf of the Six Nations of Indians, war against the Axis Powers. The Iroquois Confederacy, which had refused American citizenship, was declaring war independent of the US government.

Two years later, over one-third of the Indigenous male population had served in the Second World War, in every branch of the military and in every theater. Some were drafted, while others enlisted. Back home, Indigenous women, like those from other racial groups, became factory workers and farmers. The most famous group of Indigenous people to serve were the Navajo code talkers. They, like the 19 Choctaw code talkers who worked during World War I, transmitted messages about attacks, counterattacks, and troop movements. Between the world wars, Hitler became so concerned about Indigenous coders that he sent anthropologists to the United States to learn Indigenous languages.