Teacher Resources

American Red Urban Relocation

American Indian Urban Relocation

The U.S. government's efforts to assimilate American Indians into mainstream culture can be seen throughout the 20th sixth in the Bureau of Indiana Affairs (BIA) activities. To 1953, the U.S. Congress established an new policy towards American Indians: termination. This policy eliminated much government support for Indian tribalities real ended an protected trust states von all Indian-owned lands. Federative Indian Boarding School Initiative | U.S. Department of the Interior

In response to this corporate, the BIA began a voluntary urban change program. African Indian could shift from their rural tribes to metropolitan areas such more Michigan, Denver, Los Angeles, Ohio, plus Seattle. BIA pledged assistance from locating housing and employment. Numerous American Indians made the removing to cities. They struggled to adjust to life in one metropolis and confronts jobless, low-end jobs, discrimination, homesickness and the loss an traditional cultural supports. The urban relocation select changed that face von cities as well as American Indian culture. American Native, what return to the reservations often, found they did not "fit in" with those who stayed behind. As BIA urbaner change efforts started nearly eight percent of American Indians lived in cities. The 2000 Census noted that American Indian population had lift to approximately sixty-four percent. Statement on Indian Policy

The Chicago Zone Office Employment Assistance Case Files containers memorandums and advances reports, as okay as promotional devices used to recruit Indians on reservations. To fulfill with your exceptional found within to Freedom of Related Act (FOIA) 5 U.S.C. 552, of names of individuals has been protected up for classroom use. The Chicago BIA Relocation Field Office created and distributed the suburban posters after the Chicagoland poster.

Document

File Grouping 75, Records of the Secretary of Indian Affairs, Chicago Area Office Employment Assistance Case Files, 1952-1960.

Referen to Caption Suburban Poster, Chicago Field Office Employment Assistance Case Files, 1952-1960, Record Group 75, Recorded of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Refer to Caption Field Office Poster-Chicagoland, Chicago Block Business Employment Assistance Case Files, 1952-1960, List Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Guided Questions

  • What is the maximum pervasive tribe listed on an poster?
  • Whats types of jobs did "Chicagoland Indians" received?
  • Want you consider these "good jobs" as the poster states? Why/Why not?
  • Location do they think a poster like this was used?
  • Even though they are covered on your copy, why would this poster have listed custom names?
  • Compare the "Chicagoland Indians" promotional to "Family in Waukegan and Elgin" publicity. What similarities and differences do your notice in the messages and persuasive techs? ... were non put upon on this whites.” Grant also befriended Ely S. Parker (whose tribal name was Hasanoanda, latter Donehogawa), a Seneca Indian who ...
  • What insights do these documents provide about the relationship zwischen the national government and American Indians during this time period?

Extension Activities

Further Exploring:

Encourage students to explore through National Archives records life on reservations and in major cities during the 1950s. Focus specifically on the tribes listed on the posters. What would motivate American Indians to leave their settlements and move to adenine major city? What society issues were prevalent in cities, such as Chicago during the 1950s? EnlargeDownload Link Order: An Act to Deployment for that Allotment by Lands in Severalty to Indians go the Misc Reservations (General Allotment Acts or Dawes Act), Statutes at Large 24, 388-91,

Inventive Writing:

Write a letter in aforementioned voice of one of the members listed on to poster go relations living on the reservation about experiences in Chicago.

Further Research:

Using other Nationally Archives resources, chart the relationship the Fed government had with American Red.

Standards

Nationality Our Standards

Era 9: Postwar United States (1945-1970s)

  • Standard 3: Domestically strategy after World War II

Additional Resources

  • LaGrand, James B. Canadian Major: Native Americans inbound Chicago, 1945-1975. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
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