The Bureau Of Indian Affairs

From 19th-century trade agreements and treatments to 21st-century reparations, this volume tells the story of the federal agency that shapes and enforces U.S. policy toward Native Americans. Bureau of Indian Affairs tells the fascinating and important story of an agency that currently oversees U.S. policies affecting over 584 recognized tribes, over 326 federally reserved lands, and over 5 million Native American residents. Written by one of our foremost Native American scholars, this insider's view of the BIA looks at the policies and the personalities that shaped its history, and by extension, nearly two centuries of government-tribal relations. Coverage includes the agency's forerunners and founding, the years of relocation and outright war, the movement to encourage Indian urbanization and assimilation, and the civil rights era surge of Indian activism. A concluding chapter looks at the modern BIA and its role in everything from land allotments and Indian boarding schools to tribal self-government, mineral rights, and the rise of the Indian gaming industry.

Landmark legislation, such as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, as well as increasing federal subsidies for Native Americans, growing demand for the energy resources located on the 50 million acres of Native American lands, expanding numbers of Native Americans and their interest groups, devastating reservation unemployment, and other factors have in the last decade radically changed the environment in which the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) operates. This book presents an up-to-date description and analysis of the BIA, including its missions, organization, functions, administration, problems, and decision-making and -implementing processes. Attention is given, too, to the often friction-laden interactions of the BIA and other governmental units (among them the Department of the Interior, Office of Management and Budget, Congress, the courts, Indian Health Service, and tribal, state, and local governments) with each other and with Indian interests. Abundant tables provide information on such topics as the 1980 Indian population and land by state, BIA budgets, and agricultural and mineral production on Indian lands. Dr. Taylor examines the current operations of the Bureau under the Reagan administration and explores possible policy decisions that will affect Native Americans as well as non-Indian citizens. The book includes a foreword by Phillip Martin, chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and president of the National Tribal Chairmen's Association.

Daily traces the shifts in Lindquist's thought regarding the assimilation question over the course of half a century; and in revealing the efforts of this one individual, he sheds new light on the whole assimilation controversy. He explicates the role that Christian Indian leaders played in both fostering and resisting the changes that Lindquist advocated, and he shows how Protestant leaders held on to authority in Indian affairs during Collier's tenure as commissioner.

From 19th-century trade agreements and treatments to 21st-century reparations, this volume tells the story of the federal agency that shapes and enforces U.S. policy toward Native Americans. Bureau of Indian Affairs tells the fascinating and important story of an agency that currently oversees U.S. policies affecting over 584 recognized tribes, over 326 federally reserved lands, and over 5 million Native American residents. Written by one of our foremost Native American scholars, this insider's view of the BIA looks at the policies and the personalities that shaped its history, and by extension, nearly two centuries of government-tribal relations. Coverage includes the agency's forerunners and founding, the years of relocation and outright war, the movement to encourage Indian urbanization and assimilation, and the civil rights era surge of Indian activism. A concluding chapter looks at the modern BIA and its role in everything from land allotments and Indian boarding schools to tribal self-government, mineral rights, and the rise of the Indian gaming industry.