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Article: American Indian Defense Association
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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AMERICAN INDIAN DEFENSE ASSOCIATION
AMERICAN INDIAN DEFENSE ASSOCIATION.
In 1923, Richard E. Ely and other writers and social scientists interested in helping American Indians formed the American Indian Defense Association (AIDA). Ely named John Collier as executive secretary. The AIDA succeeded in defeating legislation harmful to Indians such as the Bursum Bill of 1922 and the Leavitt Bill of 1926, which would have taken land away from Pueblo Indians and curtailed American Indian civil and religious rights. Promoting American Indian cultural autonomy, it proposed a full reform agenda that included legislation on education, land rights, and arts and ...