ABSTRACT
Albuquerque has either 12,000 American Indian residents or closer to 35,000. In the earliest days, when everyone would listen and nod politely but no one would give them any money, the Albuquerque Indian Center was just a name they called themselves. In those days, Tony Jojola, a businessman, worked for Albuquerque Public Schools Indian Education Program as a home/school liaison. It gave him and his colleagues a firsthand look at how Indians in the city were living, and that convinced them that an Indian Center must be resurrected. The problems of urban Indians have been blamed in part on the 1950s' federal policy of forced assimilation. During that time, Indians were encouraged, through financial aid, to leave reservations. The critics point to more well-established, comprehensive urban Indian centers in Phoenix and Los Angeles as examples of what Albuquerque's should become.
