Above: This photo shows American Indians enrolled in a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 1933. CCC work on the reservation included protecting trees from insect damage, increasing the size of buffalo herds, constructing water reservoirs for livestock, putting up telephone lines, fence maintenance, making truck trails to access timber reserves, building firebreaks, firefighting, and planting thousands of trees for the Shelterbelt Project (from various issues of "Indians at Work," 1933-1941). Photo from "Indians At Work," U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, December 1, 1933, p. 28.
Above: The Pine Ridge CCC men, working on the "Kyle Dam," and related projects, 1938. Other New Deal programs assisted the Pine Ridge Indians too. For example, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration contributed cattle ("Indians at Work," May 15, 1935, p. 21), and the following was reported in the September 1939 edition of "Indians at Work": "With the completion of the new $16,800 Indian day school, largest rammed earth structure known, a new chapter has been written into the story of education on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The modern schoolhouse was sponsored by the United States Indian Service and constructed by WPA labor" (p. 34). Photo from "Indians At Work," U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, April 1938, p. 24.
Above: The Pine Ridge CCC men working on the "White Clay Dam" and irrigation project. The men of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were very appreciative of the CCC. One wrote: "This work has provided an income for us and has enabled us to keep alive while, at the same time, it has given us a better perspective on our goals in life" ("Indians at Work," July 1, 1936, p. 19). Photo from "Indians At Work," U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, September 1938, p. 21.
Above: "Tribal Self-Government at Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., Oglala-Sioux Council." The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (The "Indian New Deal") promoted a return to tribal self-government. Photo from "Indians At Work," U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, February 1941, p. 21.
Above: The positive relationship between the federal government and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the New Deal era was not a one-way street. For example, the reservation contributed to America's victory in World War II. The May 1943 edition of "Indians at Work," reported that "Sergeant William Iron Elk, Pine Ridge Sioux, and now a radio operator in the Signal Corps, was wounded in action in the Meuse-Argonne and Ypres in the last war [World War I]. Iron Elk is 42 years old." We also see, in the photo above, "Pfc. Clement P. Crazy Thunder, Pine Ridge Sioux... a Paramarine." The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation also bought war bonds to support the war effort, $50,000 worth as of May, 1943 (about $720,000 in today's dollars). Photo from "Indians At Work," U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, May 1943, p. 39.
President Franklin Roosevelt's statement on the American Indian
The New Deal response to the American Indian: empathy and action
President Franklin Roosevelt's statement on the American Indian
"We can and should, without further delay, extend to the Indian the fundamental rights of political liberty and local self-government and the opportunities of education and economic assistance that they require in order to attain a wholesome American life... the continuance of autocratic rule, by a Federal Department, over the lives of more than two hundred thousand citizens of this Nation is incompatible with American ideals of liberty. It also is destructive of the character and self-respect of a great race... the figures of impoverishment and disease point to their impending extinction, as a race, unless basic changes in their conditions of life are effected" (Statement on the Wheeler-Howard Bill [also known as the Indian Reorganization Act], April 28, 1934).
The New Deal response to the American Indian: empathy and action
New Deal policymakers saw the needs of the Pine Ridge Indians and responded with action. The projects above highlight just a few of the ways that they tried to improve their quality of life. In December 1933 the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, John Collier, reported that, "Except for the infirm and aged, the 8,200 Pine Ridge Sioux all have work. Save for the various emergency grants [which funded the New Deal work programs], most of them would be on the ration list now" ("Indians at Work," December 15, 1933, p. 1).
New Deal assistance for Pine Ridge was not an anomaly. For example, across the U.S. over 85,000 American Indians were employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps; and it was noted that "The improved economic condition of the Indians has definitely influenced their morale. They were participants in the planning, they did the work, and they directly benefited by the results." And like the Pine Ridge Indians, "Thousands of enrollees became skilled workers as a direct result of their participation in the Corps and are now contributing to the war effort, as members of the armed forces, as skilled workers in war industries, and as producers of food" (Perry H. Merrill, Roosevelt's Forest Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942, 1981, pp. 44-45, citing reports from the time).
Other New Deal programs employed American Indians too, for example, the WPA and the National Youth Administration (but not on the same scale as the CCC - see, e.g., Donald S. Howard, The WPA and Federal Relief Policy, 1943, pp. 297-298). Also, the Public Works Administration funded infrastructure on Indian land, the New Deal's Arts and Crafts Board protected and promoted native art, the Public Works of Art Project hired Indian artists, and the short-lived but massive Civil Works Administration provided jobs for American Indians involving home repair, sewing, cutting firewood, disaster response, roadwork, and more (see, e.g., Henry G. Alsberg (ed.), America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, 1934, pp. 141-145.)
Compared to the quick, caring, and significant New Deal response, our present-day indifference to the plight of the Pine Ridge Indians shocks the conscience. As the super-wealthy keep hoarding more and more cash, and as Republicans keep giving them more and more tax breaks, and as American voters keep putting more and more sociopaths into high political office, let's take a look at what's happening at the Pine Ridge Reservation:
New Deal assistance for Pine Ridge was not an anomaly. For example, across the U.S. over 85,000 American Indians were employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps; and it was noted that "The improved economic condition of the Indians has definitely influenced their morale. They were participants in the planning, they did the work, and they directly benefited by the results." And like the Pine Ridge Indians, "Thousands of enrollees became skilled workers as a direct result of their participation in the Corps and are now contributing to the war effort, as members of the armed forces, as skilled workers in war industries, and as producers of food" (Perry H. Merrill, Roosevelt's Forest Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942, 1981, pp. 44-45, citing reports from the time).
Other New Deal programs employed American Indians too, for example, the WPA and the National Youth Administration (but not on the same scale as the CCC - see, e.g., Donald S. Howard, The WPA and Federal Relief Policy, 1943, pp. 297-298). Also, the Public Works Administration funded infrastructure on Indian land, the New Deal's Arts and Crafts Board protected and promoted native art, the Public Works of Art Project hired Indian artists, and the short-lived but massive Civil Works Administration provided jobs for American Indians involving home repair, sewing, cutting firewood, disaster response, roadwork, and more (see, e.g., Henry G. Alsberg (ed.), America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, 1934, pp. 141-145.)
Above: "Classrooms and quarters of the first Navajo day school to be completed under PWA." Photo from "Indians At Work," U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, March 1, 1935, p. 31.
Our present-day response to the American Indian: a wicked indifference
Compared to the quick, caring, and significant New Deal response, our present-day indifference to the plight of the Pine Ridge Indians shocks the conscience. As the super-wealthy keep hoarding more and more cash, and as Republicans keep giving them more and more tax breaks, and as American voters keep putting more and more sociopaths into high political office, let's take a look at what's happening at the Pine Ridge Reservation:
1. Record-breaking rates of suicide.
2. Widespread poverty and despair, with a per capita income of less than $10,000.
3. 80% of residents without a job.
(#'s 1-4, from "Native Americans Who Can’t Afford Heat Take Desperate Measures To Stay Warm," Huffington Post, January 13, 2018; #5 is hyperlinked to its source.)
These types of problems have been going on for a long time on the Pine Ridge Reservation (see, for example, "Ghosts of Wounded Knee," Harper's Magazine, December 2009), as well as other reservations. But that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from threatening Pine Ridge with budget cuts that would "touch every part of life from access to clean drinking water to block grants that fund programs to feed the elderly to much-needed after-school programs" ("Looming Trump budget cuts deepen distress on Pine Ridge," CNN, May 28, 2017). The Obama Administration, though not as callous as Republicans of course, offered only band-aid solutions - nothing too bold, nothing that would offend their neoliberal sensibilities.
What the hell is wrong with us?
Unfortunately, nothing is likely to change for the Pine Ridge Indians until Americans stop voting for the puppets of Wall Street and the puppets of secretive, reclusive billionaires. And I don't see that happening anytime soon. Instead, it looks like we're just going to keep sinking further and further into the cesspool of plutocracy and apathy.
At the end of the day, the poverty of the Pine Ridge Indians is simply a reflection of our national poverty of character. We have exchanged the New Deal ethos for an ethos of shameless indifference. Yet still, somewhere deep down inside, perhaps in crevices of our conscience that we haven't tapped into for decades, we know that we should be ashamed.
At the end of the day, the poverty of the Pine Ridge Indians is simply a reflection of our national poverty of character. We have exchanged the New Deal ethos for an ethos of shameless indifference. Yet still, somewhere deep down inside, perhaps in crevices of our conscience that we haven't tapped into for decades, we know that we should be ashamed.
"I submit that neoliberal capitalist culture in the U.S. deadens feelings of social solidarity, pathologizes how we view ourselves and stunts our natural feelings of empathy and moral responsibility."
--Gary Olson, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, "Why So Little Empathy and Compassion Within American Culture?" Common Dreams, January 14, 2018, emphasis added.
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