John Collier and the New Deal Indian Policy

FAIN: FB-10596-70

Lawrence C. Kelly
University of North Texas (Denton, TX 76203-5017)

Study of the reform program of John Collier, commisssioner of Indian Affairs from 1933 to 1945. Under his administration, attempts to forcibly assimilate the Indians into the dominant white culture--attempts which had characterized US Indian policy in the 1920s--was abandoned in favor of a more humane program of intergration which encourage the preservation of Indian culture and values. Little attention has been paid to the origins of Collier's ideas on assimilation in his work among immigrant groups in New York city (1908-1919). Suggests a cultural link between assimilation of European immigrants and that of the native American Indian which has not previous been explored. Fellow's previous book, The Navajo Indian and Federal Indian Policy, 1900-1935 (1968), deals with US Indian policy in the period preceding the New Deal.