Indian Reorganization Act

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Indian Reorganization Act

Overview

• The Indian Reorganization Act, often referred to as the Wheeler-Howard Act or the Indian New Deal, was passed on June 18, 1934.
• It was inspired by the policies set forth in the New Deal programs set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
• This act was a reaction to the 1928 Meriam Report, a governmental study of Indian reservations.
• The report described extreme issues residents faced like poverty, poor living conditions, high mortality rates, disease, and inadequate care of children.
• According to the Meriam Report, much of this misery was compounded by the General Allotment Act.

parcels were owned by American Indian tribes and some by non-American Indians. If these lands had remained communal, only American Indians would have been allowed to remain. The Meriam Report was an eye opener for the nation. Unfortunately, the Great Depression set in shortly after the report’s release in 1928.

The Meriam Report revealed the effects of the US government's agenda to force the assimilation of American Indians into American society. One way the government had sought to assimilate American Indians was through allotment. This was the division of tribal lands into individual holdings of 80-acre parcels. The policy went against the traditional American Indian belief that land should be communal and shared by the entire tribe. By 1934, due to the General Allotment Act, almost two-thirds of Indian lands had been privatized or allotted.In many cases, the land ended up being sold off for far less than fair-market value. This was often because the owners needed money or had to move to cities to find work. The results were checkerboard patterns of lands where some

The Meriam Report

• to encourage written constitutions and charters that would give the Indians on the reservations power to manage their internal affairs
• to establish funds for revolving lines of credit for tribal land purchases, educational assistance, and greater tribal organization
• to hire primarily American Indians to staff the Indian Bureau

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The Meriam Report(continued)

Collier was a major proponent of the Indian Reorganization Act. He had several main goals.

• to limit the portioning of tribal communal lands
• to return all surplus lands to the appropriate Indian tribes

Once the Depression struck, the United States’ goals were focused elsewhere. However, in 1933, John Collier Sr. was determined to improve conditions for American Indians. Collier was US commissioner of the Indian Bureau, now called the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He set out to reverse some of the government policies that had led to the problems highlighted in the report.

acres of land were also added to reservations through land purchases. In all, in the 20 years following the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act, more than two million acres of land were returned to tribes. Health and educational services also saw improvement, and there was an increase in civic affairs.

the indian reorganization act (continued)

However, these initiatives would only apply to tribes that voted for the act. In addition, many decisions would still be subject to the approval of the secretary of the interior. This was a major criticism of the act; the US government still did not fully recognize the Indian tribes’ right to self-govern. However, its attempts to allow American Indians to reestablish sovereignty and self-government, reduce the loss of reservation lands, and establish ways to build economic self-sufficiency met with some success.Around 160 tribes adopted written constitutions. Many were able to use the revolving credit fund to improve their economic position. Millions of additional

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While this act was also intended to help Alaskan tribes, they would not see the immediate effects. This was because the laws focused on those who lived on reservations. By 1936, however, Congress allowed Alaskan native villages to organize tribal governments under this law. Additionally, the secretary of the interior was allowed to establish new reservations in Alaska. He was also able to reclassify prior-designated reserves as Indian reservations.