Largely forgotten today, the National Council on Indian Opportunity (1968–1974) was the federal government’s establishment of self-determination as a way to move Indians into the mainstream of American life. By endorsing the principle that Indians possessed the right to make choices about their own lives, envision their own futures, and speak and advocate for themselves, federal policy makers sought to ensure that Native Americans possessed the same economic, political, and cultural opportunities afforded other Americans. In this book, the first study of the NCIO, historian Thomas A. Britten traces the workings of the council along with its enduring impact on the lives of indigenous people.

Largely forgotten today, the National Council on Indian Opportunity (1968-1974) was the federal government's establishment of self-determination as a way to move Indians into the mainstream of American life. By endorsing the principle that Indians possessed the right to make choices about their own lives, envision their own futures, and speak and advocate for themselves, federal policy makers sought to ensure that Native Americans possessed the same economic, political, and cultural opportunities afforded other Americans. In this book, the first study of the NCIO, historian Thomas A. Britten traces the workings of the council along with its enduring impact on the lives of indigenous people.

"More than an outgrowth of public policy implemented by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the exodus of American Indians from reservations to cities was linked to broader patterns of social and political change after World War II. Indian Metropolis places the Indian people within the context of many of the twentieth century's major themes, including rural to urban migration, the expansion of the wage labor economy, increased participation in and acceptance of political radicalism, and growing interest in ethnic nationalism."--Jacket.

Reproduced documents from the Records of Temporary Committees, Commissions, and Boards in the custody of the National Archives. The records document federal government policy toward Indians and the lives of reservation and nonreservation Indians in the late 1960s and 1970s.