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JUDGE JOHNSON:

We will adjourn until 1:00 p.m. 

Minutes of the 
NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS
December 5, 1947

Afternoon Session

Meeting was called to order by Chairman Judge N.B. Johnson, President, and the following proceedings were had.

MISS ELMA SMITH, Navajo, delivered her address. It is regretted that a copy of Miss Smith's speech was not in our hands in time to include it in our minutes. She made a very able and informative address on the educational needs of the Navajo people.

Miss Smith is a full blood Navajo Indian and received her early education in the Gonodo Mission School, where she is now a teacher among her own people. She attended the University of Arizona where she was graduated with A.B. Degree. She later returned and obtained a Master's Degree. She has chosen to cast her lot with her own people and devote her time and talents to better their status. 

Judge N. B. Johnson:

We want to proceed with the discussion of the special problems of the various tribes. We have conferred with the Navajo delegation and have their problem pretty well in mind. you have heard two fine addresses by the representatives of the Navajo people. Miss Smith is an outstanding example of what an Indian can do if he or she is given an equal opportunity with the white man. This Navajo problem has been a concern of our Indian Congress for some time. There are organizations and individuals in New Mexico who have for a long time been trying to awaken the public to the seriousness of their plight. Women's Clubs, Mrs. John Kirk, Chairman of the State Welfare Board of New Mexico, and the New Mexico Association on Indian Affairs, all should be given due credit for what they have done.

On the 28th day of November, I wrote President Truman a letter, calling his attention to the deplorable condition existing on the Navajo reservation and urging that immediate relief be given.

When we arrived here a few days before this Convention opened, we found that efforts were under way to get immediate relief to them. We learned that a Congressional Committee was meeting on the 2d of December to consider the Navajo situation, whereupon I wired the Committee as follows:

"Economic plight Navajos is desperate. Government has

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