i think that history can point towards two other issues that are embedded in
how anthropologists and other social scientists acted as intermediaries between
native peoples and State power in the 1950s.
1) during the 1950s, academics were caught up in the cold war, and by and large
sought a response to communism. in history, (i don't know much about the
history of anthropology), scholars sought to create a unity in historical ap-
proaches and interpretations, that became part of the "consensus school".
i suspect that academics weren't as a rule eager to point towards social and
historical conditions on the reservation or for urban indians, as the circum-
stances in these places violated the academics cheerful view of american his-
tory.
2) as for your notice that anthropologists rarely testified in congressional
hearings during the 50s, i think that we should realize that the control of
congressional hearings was quite different in that era. congress rarely opened
up these hearings to the testimony of a general public. hearings were mostly
conducted by invitation, and guess who came to dinner?-- mostly business
people.
my research in gov. documents has tended to the study of social relationships
revolving around natural resource exploitation, and the cozy gov.-business
partnership that i outlined was the rule in uranium procurement and other min-
ing business, as well as forest policy. not sure if this is the case for
native policy, but i'd be surprised if it was different.
clearly this history is relevant in the present-day climate of american politic
s and social relations-- it points out some of the inherent biases in political
norm. how is this useful today? we're already skeptical of these norms, but
perhaps the knowldege that political relationships tended (and still tend) to-
wards elite participation can impell us-- citizens-- to be more forceful about
pushing our ideals, attitudes, and behaviors into the public eye.
PLEASE THINK OF FUTURE GENERATIONS: PRESERVE THE ENVIRONMENT!
PETE SHEMITZ, DEPT. OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS-LAWRENCE
PSHEMITZ@UKANVM.BITNET