#ccc-id

Stewardship at Grand Portage National Monument

The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the National Park Service work together at Grand Portage National Monument to support, interpret, and protect the lifeways of the Ojibwe people, including the preservation of historic landscape features of the Grand Portage trail. 

The Grand Portage was a vital part of both American Indian and fur trade transportation routes because of the area’s geology, topography, natural resources, and strategic location between the upper Great Lakes and the interior of western Canada. Grand Portage National Monument is in the homeland of the Grand Portage Ojibwe. The Band has long been involved in stewardship of the Monument, where tribe members play a critical role in management, landscape maintenance, and historic preservation. 

Discover more about this agreement, ethnobotanical restoration, the role of the Civilian Conservation Corps – Indian Division during the 1930s, and the youth contributions of the Grand Portage Conservation Crew: Stewardship at Grand Portage National Monument

Learn more about Grand Portage National Monument

Keep on Truckin’!!

Today we are sharing with you photographs of a “Semi-Trailer” which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID) shop on the Viejas Reservation around 1936.  The building of this vehicle was significant as it allowed the CCC-ID to perform its work in a more productive manner.

These images are a part of a series of over 1400 photographs created or collected by the Mission Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  We are excited to announce that our staff is currently preparing digital copies of these photographs to be added to the National Archives Catalog.  So, in the near future, check out National Archives Identifier 561578 to see these images once they are available!

Men at Work

You may have heard of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a depression-era program designed to put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work and to bring stability back to the U.S. economy. What you may not know is that there was also the CCC-Indian Division (CCC-ID), formerly called the Indian Emergency Conservation Work (IECW) program, which was created to focus on work by Native American men on or near Indian reservations.

Pictured here are Alvino Trujillo of the Pala Indian Reservation planting incense cedar trees and Marcus Golsh of the Rincon Indian Reservation caring for an apiary (a place where bees are kept so that their honey can be collected).

Over its nearly 10-year existence, the CCC-ID employed over 88,000 Native American men.  A number of reservation infrastructure projects were completed, including water development, forestation, erosion control, and construction of roads and trails.  Many Native families were lifted out of poverty as a result of the program.  

To learn more about the CCC, please visit this webpage.