Arthur Vivian Watkins
Encyclopedia
Arthur Vivian Watkins was a Republican U.S. Senator
from 1947 to 1959. He was influential as a proponent of terminating federal recognition of American Indian
tribes
.
. He attended Brigham Young University
(BYU) from 1903 to 1906, and New York University
(NYU) from 1909 to 1910. He graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1912, and returned to Utah. There he was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Vernal, Utah
.
He engaged in newspaper work in 1914 (The Voice of Sharon, which eventually became the Orem-Geneva Times, a weekly newspaper in Utah County
.) In 1914 Watkins was appointed assistant county attorney of Salt Lake County
. He engaged in agricultural pursuits 1919-1925 with a 600 acre (2.4 km²) ranch
near Lehi
.
Watkins served as district judge of the Fourth Judicial District of Utah 1928-1933, losing his position in the Roosevelt Democratic landslide in 1932. An unsuccessful candidate for the Republican
nomination to the Seventy-fifth Congress in 1936, Watkins was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate
in 1946, and reelected in 1952. He served from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1959. Watkins was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the most influential church in Utah. He worked as an LDS missionary in the Eastern States Mission from 1907–1910 and as President of the Sharon LDS Stake in Orem, Utah
for 16 years.
to determine whether his conduct as Senator merited censure. As Chairman, Watkins barred television
cameras from the hearings, and insisted that McCarthy conform to Senate protocol. When McCarthy appeared before the Watkins committee in September 1954 and started to attack Watkins, the latter had McCarthy expelled from the room.
The committee recommended censure of Senator McCarthy. Initially, the committee proposed to censure McCarthy over his attack on General Ralph Zwicker and various Senators, but Watkins had the charge of censure for the attack on General Zwicker dropped. The censure charges related only to McCarthy's attacks on other Senators, and excluded from criticism McCarthy's attacks on those outside of the Senate.
McCarthy's anti-communist rhetoric was popular with Utah's electorate, however. Former Utah Governor J. Bracken Lee
took the opportunity in 1958 to oppose Watkins for the nomination in the senatorial election. Though Watkins won the Republican primary
, Lee ran as an independent in the general election
. This caused a split in the Republican vote and allowed Democrat Frank E. Moss to win the seat. Lee went on to a long career as mayor
of Salt Lake City
. Moss served three terms in the Senate, losing to Republican Orrin Hatch
in 1976.
. He advocated termination
of Indian Tribal Entities in the belief that it was better for tribal members to be integrated into the rest of American life. He believed that they were ill-served by depending on the federal government for too many services.
Watkins called his policy the "freeing of the Indian from wardship status" and equated it with the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves during the Civil War. Watkins was the driving force behind termination. His position as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs gave him tremendous leverage to determine the direction of federal Indian policy. His most important achievement came in 1953 with passage of House Concurrent Resolution No. 108, which stated that termination would be the federal government's ongoing policy. Passage of the resolution did not in itself terminate any tribes.
That had to be accomplished one tribe at a time by specific legislation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) began to assemble a list of tribes believed to have developed sufficient economic prosperity to sustain themselves after termination. The list was headed by the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin
. One reason the BIA chose the Menominee was that the tribe had successful forestry and lumbering operations which the BIA believed could support the tribe economically. Congress passed an act in 1954 that officially called for the termination of the Menominee as a federally recognized Indian tribe.
Termination for the Menominee did not happen immediately. Instead, the 1954 act set in motion a process that would lead to termination. The Menominee were not comfortable with the idea, but they had recently won a case against the government for mismanagement of their forestry enterprises, and the $8.5 million award was tied to their proposed termination. Watkins personally visited the Menominee and said they would be terminated whether they liked it or not, and if they wanted to see their $8.5 million, they had to cooperate with the federal government. The tribal council reluctantly agreed. Many Menominee tribal members believed that it was the intent of Wilkins to have termination be a means to force the loss of rich tribal lands to non-Indians.
To set an example, Watkins pushed for termination of Utah Indian groups, including the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koorsharem, and Indian Peaks Paiutes. Once a people able to travel over the land with freedom and impunity, they were forced to deal with a new set of unfamiliar laws and beliefs. He terminated them without their consent and with results that ultimately came to be seen as disastrous to the Paiutes. The terminaton policy soon fell out of favor, and after many years of struggle, the Utah Paiutes saw their federal status restored with Public Law 96-227, signed by President Carter on April 3, 1980. On February 17, 1984, President Reagan signed HR 2898, placing 4,770 acres of (relatively low quality) federal land in trust for the Utah Paiutes.
In 1969 Watkins published a book about his investigation of McCarthy, Enough Rope: The Inside Story of the Censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his Colleagues: The Controversial Hearings that Signaled the End of a Turbulent Career and a Fearsome Era in American Public Life, (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1969).
A project of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
, the Arthur V. Watkins Dam north of Ogden, Utah
, created Willard Bay off of the Great Salt Lake
.
Watkins died in Orem, Utah
.
His son, Arthur R. Watkins, was a professor of German at Brigham Young University
for more than 25 years.
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from 1947 to 1959. He was influential as a proponent of terminating federal recognition of American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribes
Indian tribe
In the United States, a Native American tribe is any extant or historical tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Indigenous peoples in the United States...
.
Biography
Watkins was born in Midway, UtahMidway, Utah
Midway is a city in Wasatch County, Utah, United States. It is located in the Heber Valley, approximately three miles west of Heber City and 28 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, on the opposite side of the Wasatch Mountains...
. He attended Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
(BYU) from 1903 to 1906, and New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU) from 1909 to 1910. He graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1912, and returned to Utah. There he was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Vernal, Utah
Vernal, Utah
Vernal, Uintah County's largest city, is located in eastern Utah near the Colorado State Line, and 175 miles east of Salt Lake City. It is bordered on the north by the Uinta Mountains, one of the few mountains ranges in the world which lie in an east-west rather than the usual north to south...
.
He engaged in newspaper work in 1914 (The Voice of Sharon, which eventually became the Orem-Geneva Times, a weekly newspaper in Utah County
Utah County, Utah
Utah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000, the population was 368,536 and by 2008 was estimated at 530,837. It was named for the Spanish name for the Ute Indians. The county seat and largest city is Provo...
.) In 1914 Watkins was appointed assistant county attorney of Salt Lake County
Salt Lake County, Utah
Salt Lake County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. It had a population of 1,029,655 at the 2010 census. Its county seat and largest city is Salt Lake City, the state capital. It occupies Salt Lake Valley, as well as parts of the surrounding mountains, the Oquirrh Mountains to the west...
. He engaged in agricultural pursuits 1919-1925 with a 600 acre (2.4 km²) ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
near Lehi
Lehi, Utah
-Attractions:Lehi Roller MillsLehi Roller Mills was founded in 1906 by a co-op of farmers. George G. Robinson purchased the mill in 1910, and since then it has remained in the family. It is run today by grandson R. Sherman Robinson....
.
Watkins served as district judge of the Fourth Judicial District of Utah 1928-1933, losing his position in the Roosevelt Democratic landslide in 1932. An unsuccessful candidate for the Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
nomination to the Seventy-fifth Congress in 1936, Watkins was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
in 1946, and reelected in 1952. He served from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1959. Watkins was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the most influential church in Utah. He worked as an LDS missionary in the Eastern States Mission from 1907–1910 and as President of the Sharon LDS Stake in Orem, Utah
Orem, Utah
Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the north-central part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is about south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Utah and...
for 16 years.
The Watkins Committee
In 1954, Watkins chaired the committee that investigated the actions of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthyJoseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
to determine whether his conduct as Senator merited censure. As Chairman, Watkins barred television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
cameras from the hearings, and insisted that McCarthy conform to Senate protocol. When McCarthy appeared before the Watkins committee in September 1954 and started to attack Watkins, the latter had McCarthy expelled from the room.
The committee recommended censure of Senator McCarthy. Initially, the committee proposed to censure McCarthy over his attack on General Ralph Zwicker and various Senators, but Watkins had the charge of censure for the attack on General Zwicker dropped. The censure charges related only to McCarthy's attacks on other Senators, and excluded from criticism McCarthy's attacks on those outside of the Senate.
McCarthy's anti-communist rhetoric was popular with Utah's electorate, however. Former Utah Governor J. Bracken Lee
J. Bracken Lee
Joseph Bracken Lee was a political figure in the state of Utah, United States. A Republican, he served two terms as the ninth Governor of Utah , six two-year terms as mayor of Price, Utah , and three terms as the 27th mayor of Salt Lake City ., Lee is the most recent Governor of Utah who was not a...
took the opportunity in 1958 to oppose Watkins for the nomination in the senatorial election. Though Watkins won the Republican primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
, Lee ran as an independent in the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
. This caused a split in the Republican vote and allowed Democrat Frank E. Moss to win the seat. Lee went on to a long career as mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
. Moss served three terms in the Senate, losing to Republican Orrin Hatch
Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005...
in 1976.
Indian Affairs
Watkins served as chair of the Senate Interior Committee Subcommittee on Indian AffairsUnited States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 1947, after which it was folded into the Committee on...
. He advocated termination
Indian termination policy
Indian termination was the policy of the United States from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. The belief was that Native Americans would be better off if assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society. To that end, Congress proposed to end the special relationship between tribes and the...
of Indian Tribal Entities in the belief that it was better for tribal members to be integrated into the rest of American life. He believed that they were ill-served by depending on the federal government for too many services.
Watkins called his policy the "freeing of the Indian from wardship status" and equated it with the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves during the Civil War. Watkins was the driving force behind termination. His position as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Affairs gave him tremendous leverage to determine the direction of federal Indian policy. His most important achievement came in 1953 with passage of House Concurrent Resolution No. 108, which stated that termination would be the federal government's ongoing policy. Passage of the resolution did not in itself terminate any tribes.
That had to be accomplished one tribe at a time by specific legislation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
(BIA) began to assemble a list of tribes believed to have developed sufficient economic prosperity to sustain themselves after termination. The list was headed by the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin
Menominee
Some placenames use other spellings, see also Menomonee and Menomonie.The Menominee are a nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. The Menominee, along with the Ho-Chunk, are the only tribes that are indigenous to what is now Wisconsin...
. One reason the BIA chose the Menominee was that the tribe had successful forestry and lumbering operations which the BIA believed could support the tribe economically. Congress passed an act in 1954 that officially called for the termination of the Menominee as a federally recognized Indian tribe.
Termination for the Menominee did not happen immediately. Instead, the 1954 act set in motion a process that would lead to termination. The Menominee were not comfortable with the idea, but they had recently won a case against the government for mismanagement of their forestry enterprises, and the $8.5 million award was tied to their proposed termination. Watkins personally visited the Menominee and said they would be terminated whether they liked it or not, and if they wanted to see their $8.5 million, they had to cooperate with the federal government. The tribal council reluctantly agreed. Many Menominee tribal members believed that it was the intent of Wilkins to have termination be a means to force the loss of rich tribal lands to non-Indians.
To set an example, Watkins pushed for termination of Utah Indian groups, including the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koorsharem, and Indian Peaks Paiutes. Once a people able to travel over the land with freedom and impunity, they were forced to deal with a new set of unfamiliar laws and beliefs. He terminated them without their consent and with results that ultimately came to be seen as disastrous to the Paiutes. The terminaton policy soon fell out of favor, and after many years of struggle, the Utah Paiutes saw their federal status restored with Public Law 96-227, signed by President Carter on April 3, 1980. On February 17, 1984, President Reagan signed HR 2898, placing 4,770 acres of (relatively low quality) federal land in trust for the Utah Paiutes.
After the Senate
After Watkins left the Senate, he served as a member of the U.S. Indian Claims Commission from 1959 to 1967. He retired to Salt Lake City, and in 1973, to Orem.In 1969 Watkins published a book about his investigation of McCarthy, Enough Rope: The Inside Story of the Censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his Colleagues: The Controversial Hearings that Signaled the End of a Turbulent Career and a Fearsome Era in American Public Life, (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1969).
A project of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
United States Bureau of Reclamation
The United States Bureau of Reclamation , and formerly the United States Reclamation Service , is an agency under the U.S...
, the Arthur V. Watkins Dam north of Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...
, created Willard Bay off of the Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...
.
Watkins died in Orem, Utah
Orem, Utah
Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the north-central part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is about south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Utah and...
.
His son, Arthur R. Watkins, was a professor of German at Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
for more than 25 years.