Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, Summer of 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has signed the Indian Reorganization Act, the IRA, the centerpiece of what is often called the Indian New Deal.

This was part of FDR's larger New Deal economic policies.

Tens of thousands of Native Americans found work

as part of FDR's economic development programs.

FDR would say, quote, we can and should without further delay extend to the Indian the fundamental

rights of political liberty and local self-government and the opportunities of education and economic

assistance that they require in order to attain a wholesome American life.

And so you can hear in that quote, not just economic policies, but also this idea of political liberty and local self-government and opportunity.

So this era and this IRA, this Indian New Deal, signaled a larger shift in how the US saw

Native peoples, both as a political entity and for lack of a better way of putting it kind of in the public imagination.

We'll get into it, but the man in charge of putting these policies into effect, John Collier, kind of saw himself as an advocate and sort of a paternalistic

defender of native culture, especially in comparison to what he saw as modern corrupt American

ways. And throughout the 20th century that idea of

Indian identity has been often romanticized and corrupted and

contested and messy and controversial and our two guests today are two people who

have thought a lot about this.

They are the co-host of a new series from Canada Land called The Pretendians, which is a look

at the long history of people who have claimed indigenous identity who aren't necessarily always actually indigenous.

So Robert Jago is a writer and activist from Richmond, BC, a citizen of both the

Quantland First Nation and Nucksuck Indian Tribe, and Angel Ellis is the co-host of Pretendians.

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