From 1945 to 1952, the executive secretary of the NCAI was Ruth Muskrat Bronson ( Cherokee), who established the organization's legislative news service. Dan Madrano ( Caddo) was the first secretary-treasurer he also had been serving as an elected member of the Oklahoma State Legislature. The first president of the NCAI was Napoleon B. The convention decided that BIA employees should be excluded from serving as general officers or members of the executive committee. At the second national convention, Indian women attended as representatives in numbers equal to the men. Among this group was D'Arcy McNickle of the BIA. The initial organization of the NCAI was done largely by Native American men who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and represented many tribes.
They wanted to challenge the government on its failure to implement treaties, to work against the tribal termination policy, and to improve public opinion of and appreciation for Indian cultures. Activists formed the National Congress of American Indians to find ways to organize the tribes to deal in a more unified way with the US government. In addition, with the efforts after 1934 to reorganize tribal governments, activists believed that Indians had to work together to strengthen their political position. They increasingly felt the need to work together politically in order to exert their power in dealing with the United States federal government. They began to think with a broad pan-Native American vision, and they learned to form alliances across tribes. In the 20th century, a generation of Native Americans came of age who were educated in multi-tribal boarding schools. One reason was that most tribes were highly decentralized, with their people seldom united around issues. Historically the Native Americans of North America rarely joined forces across tribal lines, which were divisions related to distinct language and cultural groups. Goombi ( Kiowa), former first vice-president of the National Congress of American Indians