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The Phoenix Indian Center, Inc., was established in 1947 to serve the needs of the American Indians who came to downtown Phoenix to sell their arts and crafts or shop for their families. They needed a place to receive messages, freshen up, help find a job or socialize with other Indians. After years of using volunteers to help maintain the location on Wall Street (Downtown), the Center received funding and created a more formal structure. In 1954, the Center incorporated with the State of Arizona as a private non-profit "501(c)(3)" status. Today, the Center is the primary resource of social, economic, educational, leadership, employment and training for urban American Indians residing in Maricopa County. The Phoenix Indian Center is the oldest urban-based nonprofit organization serving the needs of American Indians. As an outgrowth of the Federal Government's Relocation Act, one that took American Indians from the reservation to a far-away urban community in an attempt to assimilate them, several Indian Centers across the Nation appeared in metropolitan areas between 1950-1960. The Phoenix Indian Center was actually founded by Leon Grant, an Omaha tribal member from the Omaha tribe in Nebraska, now residing in Chinle, Arizona.