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Indian Congress to Convene in Santa Fe Dec. 4

Gallup Indp. 11-5-47

OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov. 5 - (Special)-N. N. Johnson, president of the National Congress of American Indians, has issued a call for the fourth annual congress to convene at Santa Fe, N. M., Dec. 4-6.
Registration of delegates will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the convention will convene at 1:30 p. m. Dec. 4.

Johnson stated in his congress call:

"During the past year, this organization has made considerable and worthwhile progress in carrying out the program heretofore established.  Legislation before congress and various movements have been influenced by the Executive Council in keeping with authorization granted to it.

"It is important that as many tribes as possible be in attendance-and help guide the future course of Indians in the United States.

"Indian Tribes wishing to defray expenses of their delegates to the convention from tribal funds should consult with the superintendent of their respective agencies.

"A cordial invitation is hereby extended to all of those of recognized Indian ancestry to attend this convention.

"Convention headquarters will be at the La Fonda hotel, Santa Fe, N. M.

"It is important that the executive secretary, Mrs. Ruth Muskrat Bronson, 1426 35th street, N. W. Washington, D. C., be advised as soon as possible by those who expect to attend the convention."

N.M. Clipping Bureau
Santa Fe, N. M.

[[stamp]] October 31 1947 [[/stamp]]
Aztec Independent Review

RIPS AND TEARS
By Geo. B. Bowra

The Indian Bureau has been receiving a lot of unfavorable publicity the past few weeks for the way they have neglected the Navajo Indians. The strange part of the whole story is why all the sudden exposure of the Navajo situation? The condition has been thus with the Navajo for the past 15 years.  It started when John Collier became Indian Commissioner, Harold Ickes became Secretary of the Interior, and the Indian Bureau was built into the largest and most expensive Bureau created in the boom days of the New Deal.

The inmates in the insane asylum knew the final results of the theories advanced by Collier and his Indian Bureau. And several of us out of the asylum called the cards by name. But, for some reason. Poor Lo had to carry his burden until the war came along and acted as a delaying process to the final result of the wild, red-dyed theories plastered upon the Navajo by Collier and his crew of experts who cured all Indians' ills with appropriations and crack-pot philosophy.

Ten years ago the Navajo situation was much worse than it is today. So bad, in fact, that numerous persons looked at the situation as a means to make careers for themselves, and because most of the career-seekers sided with Collier the Indian situation became so bad that several changes were made in the Indian Bureau and Mr. Collier found himself outside looking in. But Collier, who is mentally blind, did not give up. Immediately he set to work organizing the "National Congress of American Indians," an organization with the purpose of dominating the lives and destinies of the 30 million Indians and natives of the Western Hemisphere. He found his usual group of followers and his influence continued with the Indian Bureau. For the most part the theories that have been expounded upon the Navajo Indians are as red as the blood that has flowed from Navajo heads as they were pounded into submission with black-jacks during the early days of the stock-reduction program.

Despite the fact that Congress has been liberal with appropriations for the Navajo the Collier administration closed schools and hospitals, while the money went down the drain pipe filling the barrels the Indian Bureau had placed at the end of the gutter.

Now, Congress has been awakened again to the plight of the Navajo. As usual their remedy is an appropriation of sixty million dollars for the development of the Navajo and his empire. But Congress won't have time to see where the money goes. Thirty-three thousand employees of the Indian Bureau have a better idea than Congress where that money will go.

As for us, we wonder. Will it pay for mountain resorts for Indian Bureau officials? Will it pay for divorces? Will it pay for vacation trips? Will it  pay the expenses of career men? Will it leak into sources that have Communism as their purpose in education? Who knows? Few acquainted with the situation expect the Navajo to get benefits from it. 

We would be rude enough to suggest that the Navajo Indians ask for an itemized statement showing where all the money has gone that has been appropriated for the Navajo during the past 15 years.

Indian Congress Comes to State

The fourth annual convention of the National Congress of American Indians will be held at Santa Fe Dec. 4-6, according to an announcement Wednesday by N. B. Johnson, Oklahoma, president.

Johnson, in a notice to the newspapers, called on chiefs, governors, headmen, officers, councilmen and members of any Indian tribes of the United States and Alaska to attend.

Registration of delegates at convention headquarters, La Fonda hotel, will begin the morning of Dec. 4 and the first session will convene at 1:30 p.m. that day, Johnson said.

He urged those planning to attend to notify the organization's executive secretary, Mrs. Ruth Muskrat Bronson, 1426 Thirty-fifth Street Northwest, Washington, D.C.

Albuquerque
Journal
11/6/47