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Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division

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CCC-ID workers from Nett Lake

Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID) workers from the Nett Lake Reservation (one of the reservations of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa), July 30, 1941.

Between 1933 and 1943, Native Americans worked on their lands as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division, run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). More than 2,000 Native families in Minnesota benefited from the wages as participants developed work skills and communities gained infrastructure like roads and wells.

The federal public work program known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) formed in 1933 in response to the soaring unemployment rates of the Great Depression. Native American communities faced deeper poverty and hardship than many others, prompting the BIA to create a CCC division that could bring jobs and skills training to reservations. First called the Indian Emergency Conservation Work program (IECW), it was eventually renamed the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID).

Beginning in 1933, Ojibwe and Dakota work crews in Minnesota signed on with the CCC-ID to provide income for themselves and their families. The BIA ran the program and allotted federal funding for the CCC-ID for about nine years. The Consolidated Chippewa Agency (serving White Earth, Nett Lake, Grand Portage, Fond du Lac, Mille Lacs, Leech Lake) and the Red Lake Agency both registered Ojibwe people in the program with the help of Ojibwe social worker and CCC-ID employee Isabella Robideau. The Minnesota Sioux Agency registered Dakota men from Eggleston, Prairie Island, Shakopee, Granite Falls, Morton, Pipestone, and Prior Lake.

Men seventeen years and older as well as some women worked on CCC-ID projects that mattered to their communities, both on and off reservations. They experienced fewer military-style regulations in their work lives than those in the rest of the CCC, and some Ojibwe workers spoke Anishinaabemowin in addition to English. Men held positions as camp managers, assistant foremen, draftsmen, transit operators, mechanics, machine operators, blacksmiths, and laborers. They sometimes worked through the winter and in bad weather.

The CCC-ID offered classes on topics like fighting forest fires and using building tools. In July 1935, the Consolidated Chippewa agency offered classes in forestry, bookkeeping, art, English, and history. Nett Lake’s offerings included science, mechanics, chorus, art, English, drama, shorthand, and tap dancing.

Consolidated Chippewa crews cleared pathways like the Blacklock Trail—described as “mostly uphill”—for the transportation of fire personnel and horses. They strung telephone wire, built fire look-out towers, and even fought forest fires directly. They also cleared bushes in white pine forests to prevent blister rust.

Consolidated Chippewa workers took on two of the CCC-ID’s largest-scale projects. For the first, completed at Grand Portage between 1939 and 1940, they rebuilt the historic site’s stockade and gathered archeological objects for donation to the Cook County Historical Society. Thanks in part to their efforts, the nine-mile Grand Portage Trail, a site of cultural and historical importance to the Ojibwe, later became the Grand Portage National Monument.

For the second project, a thirty-five-person unit from White Earth made a wild rice site at Rice Lake more accessible by building a log walkway, constructing docks and canals, clearing five ten-acre campsites, and adding restrooms. A Nett Lake crew also worked on a rice camp project. The workers left projects when necessary in order to gather wild rice with their families.

Blister-rust work at Red Lake meant cutting, clearing, and burning bushes and stumps to protect white pines from the spores of currant bushes. Crews there also did fire prevention work, and one project at Ponemah Camp created a tree nursery. Workers grew trees in the Experimental Plot project, made maple syrup, and surveyed and mapped 80,000 acres of the Red Lake forest. The Red Lake Agency offered classes in first aid, forestry, communication, and current events.

The Minnesota Sioux Agency’s projects varied. From 1934 to 1936, one Dakota crew worked in the Pipestone quarry to create picnic areas and a visitors’ shelter, laying the groundwork for the Pipestone National Monument. Another dug wells and installed water pipes for the local community. Workmen also cleared trees around a school and erected a railing of posts and wire to mark boundaries between reservation and non-reservation land.

The CCC-ID dissolved in 1943 when the federal government diverted attention and funding to World War II. By then, Native Americans from multiple Minnesota communities had gained wages, work experience (including management experience), and some improvements in living conditions.

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Aurelio, George H. “New Project at Consolidated Chippewa (Minnesota).” Indians at Work 4, no. 1 (August 15, 1936): 50.

Balmer, J. W. Drilling Work at Pipestone (Minnesota).” Indians at Work 4, no. 1 (August 15, 1936): 48.

――― . “Report from Pipestone (Minnesota).” Indians at Work 4, no. 8 (December 1, 1936): 49.

――― . “Work at Pipestone (Minnesota).” Indians at Work 4, no. 10 (January 1, 1937): 48.

Benedict, Warren V. History of White Pine Blister Rust Control: A Personal Account. Washington, DC: United States Forest Service, Division of Forest Pest Control, 1981. https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/defaults/7m01br856

Bitney, Raymond. “Spring Work in the Woods at Red Lake.” Indians at Work 1, no. 20 (June 1, 1934): 22‒24.

Brown, George R. “Dance at Pipestone, Minnesota.” Indians at Work 5, no. 6 (February 1938): 38.

Carlson, E. J. “Indian Rice Camps White Earth Reservation.” Indians at Work 2, no. 7 (November 15, 1934): 16‒23.

Child, Brenda J.. Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community. New York: Viking, 2012.

――― . My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014.

Collier, John. Editorial. Indians at Work 1, no. 12 (February 1, 1934):1–4.

Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group Inc. Minnesota’s Civilian Conservation Corps Camps and Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division Camps as Archaeological Properties: Report of Database Development, Camp Documentation, National Register Eligibility Considerations, and Proposed Management Strategies. May 2014.
https://mn.gov/admin/assets/2014-MN-Civilian-Conservation-Corps-Camps-and-Civilian-Conservation-Corps--Indian-Division-Camps-as-Archaeological-Properties_tcm36-187024.pdf

“Enrollee Training Program at Red Lake.” Indians at Work, no. 6 (February 1938): 36.

“Fire Prevention and Emergency Conservation Work: Some Practical Examples.” Indians at Work 1, no. 5 (October 15, 1933). 14–16.

Gower, Calvin W. "The CCC Indian Division: Aid for Depressed Americans, 1933–1942." Minnesota History 43, no. 1 (Spring 1972): 3–13. http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/43/v43i01p003-013.pdf

Graves, Joseph. Fire Hazard Reduction at Red Lake. Indians at Work 3, no. 17 (April 15, 1936): 49.

Grey, P. “Various Activities at Consolidated Chippewa (Minnesota).” Indians at Work 4, no. 7 (November 15, 1936): 51.

Gurneaux, S. S. “Camp News: Red Lake No. 1.” Indians at Work 1 no. 4 (October 1, 1933): 21.

——— . “Blister Rust and Trail Work at Red Lake.” Indians at Work 1, no. 5 (October 15, 1933): 27.

——— . “Forestry at Red Lake.” Indians at Work 1, no. 12 (February 1, 1934): 32

——— . “Not a Word for the Negative at Red Lake.” Indians at Work 2, no. 7 (November 15, 1934): 46.

Hellwig, R. W. “Tree Planting at Sac and Fox.” Indians at Work 3, no. 8 (December 1, 1935): 48.

“Indians at Consolidated Chippewa (Minnesota) Are Good Sportsmen.” Indians at Work 4, nos. 18‒19 (May 1937): 49.

Lego, Andrew B. Activities at Consolidated Chippewa (Minnesota). Indians at Work 4, no. 11 (January 15, 1937): 50.

“The List of Indians in Responsible Positions Continues to Grow.” Indians at Work 1, no. 4 (October 1, 1933): 28–29.

Mille Lacs Ojibwe Social History Project. Interview with James Edward Clark by Anthony Godfrey. Minnesota Historical Society. OH 36, AV1993.251.5, 40–46. http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10469204

Mitchell, J. H., and Charles H. Racey. “Indian Emergency Conservation Workers Restore the Historic Grant Portage Trail.” Indians at Work 1, no. 4 (October 1, 1933): 22–24.

Mitchell, J. H., and Charles A. Dunaven. “Red Lake Indians in Semi-Technical Positions—IECW.” Indians at Work 2, no. 5 (October 15, 1934): 21–22.

Nega, Tsegaye Habte. “Saving Wild Rice: The Rise and Fall of the Nett Lake Dam.” Environment and History 14, no. 1 (February 2008): 5–39.

“New Name for I.E.C.W.” Indians at Work 4, nos. 23–24 (July 15–August 1, 1937): 48.

Sommer, Barbara W. Hard Work and a Good Deal: the Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008.

“State Cooperation and an ‘Act of God.’” Indians at Work 2, no. 13 (February 15, 1935): 29–32.

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CCC-ID workers from Nett Lake
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CCC-ID crew at Mille Lacs

Turning Point

In 1941, the United States enters World War II. Two years later the federal government diverts CCC-ID funding to military production, ending the program.

Chronology

1933

The Indian Emergency Conservation Work program begins with funding in six-month increments. Workers who live in camps earn $30 a month; those who live at home earn $42 a month. Some also find jobs in the Works Progress Administration.

1933

In July, work crews walk up to sixteen miles a day to clear the Grand Portage Trail and recover artifacts from Fort Charlotte, the western terminus of the trail and a nearly forgotten historic site.

1933

On October 1, Indians at Work, a BIA publication, reports that “Unit No. 1 at Red Lake, known as the Ponemah Camp, has ninety men housed in a modern, well-equipped logging camp and is efficiently managed by Samuel Guerneau, an Indian.”

1934

The first page of the February 1 issue of Indians at Work reads: “Emergency Conservation work means…Indian Bureau service working with the Indians to make white-man management of Indian Affairs increasingly unnecessary.”

1934

Ponemah Camp work crews care for 30,000 two-year-old white and Norway pine seedlings.

1934

Crews of male workers at White Earth work at a wild rice location. This breaks with the traditional practice of Ojibwe women managing wild rice beds.

1935

Red Lake’s tree nursery gives 20,000 black ash seedlings to a Sac and Fox (Sauk and Meskwaki) CCC-ID division in Oklahoma.

1936

The BIA and CCC-ID receive money for a work project on a stockade reconstruction at Grand Portage as a joint venture between the Consolidated Chippewa Agency and the Minnesota Historical Society.

1936

In November, a supervisor from the Consolidated Chippewa Agency reports on a bear nosing through food and tools at a CCC-ID work crew’s camp.

1937

Eighteen Sisseton Dakota from South Dakota join the Nett Lake work crew and camp.

1937

The CCC-ID team at Consolidated Chippewa Agency wins the North Shore Championship and best sportsmanship award in basketball. The after-work entertainment sometimes included baseball and activities like listening to the radio and games.

1937

The CCC-ID team at Consolidated Chippewa Agency wins the North Shore Championship and best sportsmanship award in basketball. The after-work entertainment sometimes included baseball and activities like listening to the radio and games.

1937

On July 1, the name of the program changes from the Indian Emergency Conservation Work program (IECW) to the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID).

1937

In the fall, Dakota CCC-ID workers attend a dance in a new dance hall. The event includes square dancing, fox trotting, and local Native American community dancing such as the stomp dance.

1943

The CCC‒ID comes to an end. By this year, $84,901,852 has been spent in Minnesota, with $1,694,355 at the Consolidated Chippewa agency, $1,158,133 at Red Lake Agency, and $164,488 at Pipestone.