ard reform, Collier convinced President Roosevelt to abolish the Board of Indian Commissioners, an agency created during the Grant Administration to oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The board long dominated by supporters of land allotment and assimilation policies, was a major obstacle to reform. Elimination of the agency was a deft political maneuver that allowed Collier a freer hand in implementing Indian New Deal policies. Soon thereafter, Collier pushed through Congress the Pueblo Relief Act of 1933. The measure provided additional payments to Pueblos and settlers who were inadequately compensated by the Pueblo Land Act of 1924. This marked a successful conclusion to a battle Collier had fought in previous years and the first of many legislative triumphs. As outlined in the Meriam Report of 1928, reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Montana and Washington were in dire need of conservation programs. Responding to these problems, Collier and Congress established the Indian Emergency Conservation Work (IECW) program, which provided $5.9 million dollars for the establishment of seventy-two work camps on over 30 reservations. The program employed Native Americans during the worst of the depression while at the same time allowing them to stay close to their families. With the support of the President firmly behind him, John Collier successfully channeled funds and aid from other agencies to benefit Native Americans. Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace allocated $800,000 dollars from the Agricultural Adjustment Administration to be used by Indians to purchase cattle. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration was persuaded to provide aid to reservations left out of the original legislation. At Collier’s request, the Department of War donated surplus clothing to impoverished Native Americans. Additional economic relief was extended to Indians by the Public Works Administration (PWA), the Works Progress Administra...
