During the administration of Plutarco Calles (1924–28), Moisés Sáenz, who held a doctorate from Columbia University and was a follower of John Dewey's educational methods, implemented aspects of indigenismo in the Department of Public Education. Sáenz had initially taken an assimilationist position on the "Indian problem," but after a period of residence in the Purépecha community of Carapan, he shifted his stance to one focusing on the material conditions affecting the indigenous. He influenced the administration of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934–40), which established the cabinet-level position of the Department of Indigenous Affairs in 1936. The department's main efforts were in the economic and educational spheres. Cárdenas valorized indigeneity, as indicated by the creation of the cabinet-level position and resources put into indigenous communities. In 1940, Mexico hosted a multinational meeting on indigenism, The Congress of Inter-American Indigenism, held in Pátzcuaro, where Cárdenas himself addressed the gathering. President Miguel Alemán reorganized the Mexican government's policies directed at the indigenous by creating the National Indigenist Institute ("Instituto Nacional Indigenista" or INI). In the Vicente Fox administration, the unit was reorganized and renamed.