The American Indian: The Last Minority

Speaker(s): Robert Bennett, Cal Shields (guest host)

Description: Robert L. Bennett (1912-2002) had just resigned as the second Native American appointed commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Cal (Calvin) Shields, nephew of Del Shields, filled in as host of the show. Topics include Native American political activity, attempts to improve protection of land and property, education on reservations, national Native cooperation, the status of old treaties, Native-government cooperation, and why President Nixon would appoint a new commissioner without checking with the tribes. Bennett was born on the Oneida Reservation near Green Bay, Wisconsin, and attended the BIA's boarding school at the Haskell Institute in Kansas. He studied law at Southeastern University School of Law in Washington, D.C., earning his law degree in 1941. Bennett served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. He received the Indian Achievement Award in 1962 and Outstanding American Indian Citizen Award in 1966. In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Bennett head of BIA. He left the BIA in 1969 and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he founded the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame. Bennett was director of the American Indian Law Center at the University of New Mexico Law School from 1970 to 1975. He was recognized as Outstanding Member of the Oneida tribe of Wisconsin in 1988.

Length: 58:50
Recording Date: September 1, 1969
Recorded at: WRVR Radio Studio, New York City

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