- For American Indians across the United States.

The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 promised prosperity and opportunity, a fresh start in a big city.

The reality for those who moved to Dallas was a far cry from the picture that was painted.

- West Dallas was the dumping ground for the things that the city of Dallas did not want, and that included heavy industry.

- She said, I was not going to let the federal government come get you and stick you in these boarding schools.

What started as an attempt to decimate a culture led to an intertribal community united by history and resilience.

- Dallas, Many of them didn't even know there were Indians living here, and so we wanted to educate them, so that was the main purpose behind that.

- For many who relocated to North Texas, their new life in a big city started in West Dallas.

West Dallas, a section of the city historically neglected and contaminated by toxic pollution.

In the nineties, it was declared the largest lead contaminated Superfund site in the United States surrounded by schools and homes.

- The children of the West Dallas Project suffered the most from the lead contamination from the RSR lead smelter as did the residents in West Dallas and the city deliberately maintained its summing to keep industry next to residents.

- This was the setting for the country's largest low-rise segregated housing projects.

The George Loving section housed the white residents.

The Edgar Ward Place was designated for black people and the Elmer Scott Project for Hispanic residents.

But for many of the relocated American Indians, the Elmer Scott Project will be their first introduction to Dallas.

- I never seen anything like what we went to.

I never seen apartments and didn't know what apartments was - Lacquintino or "Lucky" Johnson and his family came to Dallas under the Indian Relocation Act.

They were placed in the section of the housing projects designated for Hispanic people.

- What I liked about it was it seemed like this whole area, this community was nothing but Indians.

But I remember a lot of Mexicans and I, - I thought Mexicans was a different tribe.

- Some 10,000 Native Americans were brought to Dallas from reservations around the country.

It was one of several major cities in the United States to take part in the program.

An article published by the Dallas Times Herald featured the arrival of the first American Indian family to settle in the Elmer Scott Housing Project.

They were given a quote, Red Carpet Welcome.

Their new home was an area known to be a hotbed of violence and crime.

- The thing about living there were the gangs.

The gangs were the biggest thing.

There were areas that we could not walk through because if you did, the chances of you getting hurt was real good.

- Lucky never told his mom about the depth of violence he experienced.

He did later ask his mother why they relocated to Dallas.

- One of the reasons why we came was because of it was promise of housing, education for the kids and job opportunities.

It made it sound like it was something that you have to get into to better your life.

- More importantly, according to his mother, her options were clear, relocate or have her sons taken away and sent to boarding school.

Over more than 200 years of colonization, roughly 90% of indigenous people were killed by waves of epidemics, warfare, massacres, and the forced removal from their homelands.

In North Texas, it was the Battle of Village Creek in 1841.

The site now largely covered by Lake Arlington, Texas militia attacked the Caddo, Cherokee, Tonkawas and other tribes living there and forcibly pushed them out of the region and onto reservations.

It was the final act to get rid of natives in the area, clearing the way for what will become Dallas and Fort Worth.

- The trauma started when the Indians were always taken advantage of.

Then they were brutalized, they were killed.

Then they were pitied against each other.

They were bought off, and so, you know, it just goes on and on and on, and a lot of our Indian people had to move from their homeland to another homeland to survive.

- This former resident of North Dakota is using his training on a job obtained for him by the school immediately upon graduation.

With this skill, he can be sure of a job with good pay almost anywhere he might wish to work.

- Within a year of the first Indian families settling in Dallas, the weaknesses in the federal plan were apparent.

They faced little job opportunities, poverty and discrimination.

It was up to the community to join forces and bridge the gaps.

- Reservation is one type of thing and then they come down here and it's a little bit different.

You don't have...

The whole setup is contained.

Very different.

You've got your, on the reservation, everything's furnished for them medical, dental supplies, your school supplies and everything.

And they come down here and they don't know what procedures to use or where to go or anything like that.

- Is it difficult getting off of a reservation and then getting into an urban [inaudible].

- It's not difficult to get off and the BIA and training or job placement, but making the change from the reservation to the city is hard.

And this is why the Indian Center is important.

The center may be in danger of closing a storage system because of lack of funding.

- We try to help people find jobs and find housing and there is discrimination, but just, I don't like to say that it's there.

- A lot of our families going through culture shock, some of them were going into racial discrimination.

They just kinda all stayed together and supported each other, but they had to survive and so that was the main thing.

- It was estimated that around 35% of those brought to Dallas through the Relocation Act moved back to the reservation.

For those who stayed in Dallas with decreasing numbers came decreasing visibility.

- They've been told things like American Indians are extinct, so we wanted to make sure they seen pictures of themselves in regalia.

As many images that we could find of our family in either regalia or fashion, that shows your pride in your heritage in some way.

- Jodi Voice Yellowfish is a local advocate and activist.

She's worked tirelessly to spread awareness about American Indians, especially regarding missing and murdered indigenous women.

Her mother Toni came here under the relocation program.

- You know, there's Indian kids out there, but people didn't know there Indian kids out there because they, they were so, we were such a small group, I think in the Dallas ISD.

We were like 1% of the whole population.

- In 2013, Jodi joined forces with other activists to seek official recognition from the state of Texas.

- On Columbus Day, I made this post, it is inappropriate for Indian children and children of America to celebrate a day honoring a person for discovering a nation of people and not having a holiday paying tribute to the people of those nations.

- It wasn't the first time Peggy Larney was pushed to action on behalf of the native community.

She has been a prominent voice for decades pushing to rid Dallas ISD schools of racist mascots and much more.

Now, her goal was to get the state to officially recognize her people, - And one of my friends from the southwest Jewish Congress called me that evening.

She said, Peggy, let's do something about this.

I said, okay, what?

- The chair now calls Peggy Larney.

- The state of Texas, of course you probably heard, is the fourth largest state with Indian population.

Many people are very surprised because they don't even know that American Indians exist in the state of Texas.

The American Indians have and continued to play a vital role in the life of Texas.

I strongly encourage the Committee of Cultural, Recreation & Tourism, to support and promote the passage of House Bill 174, American Indian Heritage Day.

Yakoke, thank you in my tribal language - To consideration of House Bill 174.

In 2013, the Texas legislature designated the last Friday in September, American Indian Heritage Day in Texas, It's a small token of acknowledgement, but for Dallas' socially invisible community, it's a day to showcase and celebrate the diversity that exists within its intertribal population.

A population that almost two centuries ago were forcibly removed out of this land.

Today, there are over 75,000 people who identify as full or part Native American living in Dallas County.

Community resources like the health clinic that was once meant to serve relocated American Indians is still in operation providing valuable care to indigenous people throughout the state.

More importantly, it's a reminder of the strength and resilience of Dallas' small but powerful intertribal community.