World War II and the American Indian

"This book is the first full account of Native American experiences from the 1930s to 1945. It begins with their responses to the drift toward war in the 1930s, including their reactions to propaganda campaigns directed at them by Nazi sympathizers. It is also the only ethnohistory of their experiences during World War II. Included are the voices and recollections of Indian men who resisted the draft, those who fought in Europe and the Pacific, and of Indian women on the homefront.

The book is also a careful reinterpretation of John Collier, commissioner of Indian affairs during the Roosevelt years. Townsend argues that Collier's attempt to fundamentally redirect policies to preserve traditional Native American lifeways inadvertently provided indians the resources, training, and services necessary for assimilation in the postwar years."--BOOK JACKET.