Indian Emergency Conservation Work (CCC-ID) Sites

The Civilian Conservation Corps' Indian Division (CCC-ID) did archeological excavation and stabilization work at several sites of ancient indigenous ruins across Arizona in the 1930s.  A Navajo Indian CCC mobile unit was formed under a joint program between the Park Service and the Indian Service (later the Bureau of Indian Affairs) to work under the supervision of an archeologist on stabilization work on pre-Columbian ruins in Chaco Canyon, Navajo, Tonto, Wupatki, Aztec Ruins, Montezuma Castle, and Gran Quivira national monuments (Paige 1985, p. ?) It is likely that CCC enrollees also built the main visitor trail at the monument, but that needs...

“Of all the Minnesota CCC-ID projects perhaps the most well known is the reconstruction of the North West Company Fur Post, a historic fur trade site at Grand Portage on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Grand Portage (‘the great carrying place’) was part of an age-old route connecting Lake Superior with inland waterways used first by Indians and later also by fur traders. Between 1778 and 1802, a large fur trading organization, the North West Company, built a summer rendezvouz and supply center there, on the shores of Lake Superior. In 1933, CCC-ID enrollees started work by clearing nine...

This historic Iowa Tribe Community Building was constructed in 1940 as a New Deal project. It is "one of the only extant resources built by the Civilian Conservation Corps – Indian Division in Kansas." NRHP nomination form: "The Iowa Tribe Community Building ... is located in northeast Brown County on the reservation of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. ... The one-and-a-half-story limestone building exhibits elements of the Rustic and Colonial Revival architectural styles, which were popular during the New Deal era. It was constructed as part of a project of the Civilian Conservation Corps - Indian Division (CCC-ID), a...

"Kinishba Ruins was constructed by the Pueblo people and occupied as early as 800 until as late as 1400 A.D. Byron Cummings, director of the Arizona State Museum, and his students began excavation and reconstruction of Kinishba in 1931. In 1934 Cummings requested funds from the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division to hire 25 local Apache laborers. Between 1934 and 1937 Kinishba also served as an archaeological field school where Cummings trained more than 70 students. In 1938 and 1939 Cummings and Apache enrollees continued to excavate and restore the ruins; they also constructed a small museum and residence. Cummings hoped...

“Almost immediately upon the initiation of CCC-ID work on the Klamath Reservation, several projects were outlined. Authority was granted to spend $25,000 to conduct CCC-ID conservation work. The first project, implemented on December 9, 1933, was coyote eradication. The second project, started on January 5, 1934, was the Agency-Lone Pine telephone line. The third was to construct the Sycan Bridge, which was started in January. Although the initial projects were not forestry related, most of the CCC-ID work on the Klamath Reservation concerned forestry activities such as fire hazard reduction, tree planting, mistletoe control and especially, pine bark beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis)...

“When the Pipestone National Monument was established in 1937 as part of the National Park Service to protect quarries sacred to many Native American groups, the site already had picnic tables and a shelter built by the CCC-ID. In 1939, an educational program on maple sugar production was held at the Nay-tah-waush and Beaulieu (Consolidated Chippewa) sites. Through it, program leaders taught sugar bush improvement and modern maple sugar production.”

Second Half of Final Extended Building Phase (1941-1942). Residential housing for employees of the Stewart Indian Boarding School Staff and Civilian Conservation Corp - Indian Division (CCC-ID) was acute by the late 1930s. Off-site rental units in Carson City and Reno were expensive and hard to find. Stewart Indian Agency Superintendent Don C. Foster made several attempts to gain approval for two new cottages for CCC-ID employees and approval finally came after his offer to redirect CCC-ID funds (earmarked for a Walker River project) to the cause. Five cottages (including two duplexes) were built west of the Indian School in the...

Built in 1940-41 to serve as a multi-purpose community center for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, this tribal hall is the last known intact New Deal Indian Community Building left in Oregon. Its funding came through the Works Projects Administration (WPA), the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA), and the Indian Division of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC-ID). The hall was designed to support what was then an unorganized group of Indians in southwestern Oregon in addressing economic, social, health and political needs. The functional building provided an auditorium to seat 300, a kitchen for canning...

Construction of the 1,950-foot earthen dam (embankment), gatehouse, spillway and outlet channel commenced in 1933 and was largely completed in 1935; the spillway gates were finished between 1937-1939. The concrete gatehouse was stamped with the year "1934" and "USIS" (Indian Irrigation Service). The purpose of the dam and reservoir is to impound much needed East Walker River water for agricultural use on the Walker River Indian Reservation. The dam project is a good example of the New Deal at work on Indian lands. Approximately $130,000 of the project was financed by the Public Works Administration (PWA). Weber Dam and Reservoir was...

The main purpose of these dams (and others) on the Muddy River is flood control and protection of downstream decreed agricultural land owned by the Moapa Indian Reservation and/or private water users in Moapa Valley. The White Narrows Dam No. 1 also impounds water during wetter years and/or off-season useage. Dam No. 2 is located within the Reservation while Dam No. 1 and its reservoir are at the edge but mostly outside of the Reservation boundary. Dam No. 2 was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps - Indian Division (CCC-ID) in 1935 under supervision of the Office Indian Affairs and...