Over the years friends and foes of the NAACP have urged the civil rights group to drop the word “colored,” feeling that it was negative or dated. But the original founders, including whites, envisioned that group would expand its base beyond African Americans to include Hispanics and Native Americans. As in, “people of color.”
From the earlier days, there were calls to NAACP executives Walter White, Roy Wilkins and Benjamin Hooks to get Native Americans into the membership mix. But due to various cultural and political differences, some of the invites were rebuffed, others placed on stall, and many Native Americans felt no need to work with the NAACP, because of its heavy emphasis on blacks.
Now comes the announcement that the Eastern Shoshone Indians Tribe at Ft. Washakie in Wyoming is planning to build an alliance with the association.
Earlier this year, the Shoshone became the first Native American tribe to purchase an NAACP corporate membership. Tribe Chairman Ivan Posely said they would eventually form an adult branch and youth counsel, hopefully by year’s end.
Ina M. Boon, retired regional director of Area IV of the NAACP, confirmed that the association has always extended a glad hand to various Indian tribes in her region, which includes Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and North and South Dakota. And while tribal groups were not corporate members, some individual Native Americans were life members, per Boon, who oversaw the 10-state region for more than 35 years.
It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the NAACP is hurting for members. That $30 adult membership fee can be still hard to come by. Insiders believe if the NAACP is to survive it must have a larger and stronger diverse membership. And, how about that? The Eastern Shoshone are fixing to get a casino. The NAACP is snuggling up with these guys at exactly the right time.