Abstract: During the 1930s and 1940s, the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) used the periodical Indians at Work to forward reforms and policies of the New Deal era. Seen primarily as a vehicle to transmit the views of John Collier, Roosevelt's commissioner of Indian Affairs, the periodical has often been overlooked as a source for understanding the perspectives and concerns of tribal communities. But many Indigenous authors appear in the magazine, and highlighting these contributions adds to the significance of Indians at Work . Critically, Indigenous authors conveyed meaning through culturally specific forms of expression that were recognizable to various audiences. Authors employed these discursive strategies to assert their authority to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers and to counter dominant historical narratives. Seen in this way, Indians at Work is a vital primary resource that illuminates how Indigenous communities were positioning themselves in a moment of significant political, social, and economic change. Local authors demonstrated a keen awareness of documentary power and used this form to challenge existing ideas and tropes about what it meant to be Indigenous in the early twentieth century.
Mindy Morgan (Sun,) studied this question.