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Bureau of Indian Affairs

As one of the oldest agencies within the U.S. government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) shares a complex and traumatic history with Native Nations. Originally part of the War Department, the BIA was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1849 by an act of Congress. Since its establishment as a federal agency, the BIA as well as its precursors have been tasked with managing and overseeing most matters relating to Indian affairs and relations between Indian Nations and the U.S. government; examples include educational services, land and other asset management, health care, and economic development. As the relations between Native Nations and the United States have changed dramatically since colonization, the roles of the BIA have also transformed. The agency's responsibilities have changed to reflect evolution of the U.S. government's policies toward Native Nations that have been shaped by treaties, laws, and court rulings. These responsibilities have ranged from enforcing policies of removal, “civilization,” assimilation, and termination of American Indian tribes to implementing policies that support tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and self-government. However, the relationship between the BIA and Native Nations remains complex.

Historical Context

Removal and Reservations

From 1824 to 1849, the BIA was housed within the War Department; the agency was then known as the Office of Indian Affairs. The placement of the agency was reflective of the mostly constant hostile and conflictual nature of U.S. and Native relations. Through warfare, other uses of military force, and the creation of treaties (many of which were fraudulent) with Native Nations, the United States gained control of more than 90% of Indian lands. As part of the removal policy and also the treaty-making process, the government created the reservation system, lands where tribes were permanently removed to or relocated and forced to remain under military sanction. In exchange for ceding their ancestral lands, Native Nations were promised in treaties they would be provided food, education, other goods, and annuities, thereby creating a state of dependency on the U.S. government. However, treaties were chronically violated through official corruption within the government, specifically, the Office of Indian Affairs, and continued hostile acts of European American settlers against Native peoples.

Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Office of Indian Affairs oversaw the removal of southeastern tribes (primarily Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw) to what was then called Indian Territory, today known as the state of Oklahoma. Whereas some citizens of these tribes had relocated to lands west of the Mississippi prior to the removal act, the U.S. military, under the auspices of the Office of Indian Affairs, forcibly removed others to Indian Territory. For example, in 1838, the Cherokees, most of whom had not migrated to Indian Territory, were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands on a thousand-mile march that became known as the Trail of Tears. More than 4,000 people died on the journey. The primary objective of the removal was to open up more than 25 million acres of eastern land to European American settlement.

Assimilation

In 1847, the Office of Indian Affairs was renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and 2 years later the agency was transferred to the Department of the Interior, which had been newly established by Congress. Following the era of removal, relocation, and creation of the reservation system, the official U.S. policy toward American Indians changed to one of assimilation. This policy aimed to extinguish Native culture and “civilize” or “Americanize” Indians; it was enforced mostly through the boarding school system formally administered by the BIA, and it continued governmental control of land also under the auspices of the BIA.

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