rs. Native American youths that participated in the NYA were entitled to six dollars per month to be used for clothing, supplies and lunches while attending day schools. At Collier’s insistence, the Resettlement Administration provided funding for digging wells on reservations in North and South Dakota and to purchase 993,673 acres for Pueblos and Navajos to use as grazing land. In February 1936, the Resettlement Administration spent over $1 million on self-help projects for Native Americans. Pursuing a policy advocated by the American Indian Defense Association, the FDR administration used executive powers to eliminate tribal debts. Over $3 million dollars of debt was voided in the first year alone. By 1936, the administration had eliminated over $12 million dollars of Indian debt. Indian New Deal programs to improve medical care for Native Americans also bore fruit. From the PWA, Collier secured $1.7 million dollars for the construction of eleven reservation hospitals and improvements to ten others. Furthermore, doctors, nurses and dentists were hired and treatment programs for tuberculosis and trachoma were developed. Consequently, trachoma breakouts dropped over 64% between 1939 and 1943. After 1930, the death rates of Native Americans were on a steady decline. The Indian New Deal reform that had the most profound and lasting impact on Native American society was the Indian Reorganization Act. The IRA brought about this impact primarily in two ways: (1) it formally ended the practice of land allotment and, (2) it provided a mechanism for tribal self-government. The original intent of the Dawes Severalty Act 1887 was to “transform Native Americans into practical, property owning farmers”. It called for subdividing tribal lands into small plots, which were assigned to individual Native Americans in return for U.S. citizenship. The Dawes Act proved to be devastating. Between 1881 and 1900 Indian land holdings decli...
