Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

The federal government legislates and implements policies that affect Indian tribes. Under the U.S. Constitution, the government has the ability to regulate commerce. Under U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Native nations are considered domestic, dependent nations. There have been several important laws with far-reaching effects on Indian Country. One of the most significant is the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), or the Wheeler-Howard Act, often called the Indian New Deal. Signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt on June 18, 1934, the bill was designed to reverse the General Allotment Act (Dawes Severalty Act) of 1887, which alienated millions of acres of Indian homelands and reservation lands and produced devastating poverty.

The bill was conceptualized by John Collier, the commissioner of Indian affairs, based on findings of the 1928 Meriam Report about social and economic conditions on reservations, the work of several reform groups and the administration's new deal policies. Collier wanted to stop what he called the “twin evils” of assimilation and allotment and help tribes preserve their cultures, which he felt added to the health and heritage of the United States. He also felt the law was a step toward social justice. Collier held that tribes deserved to be able to determine their own sociopolitical organization and how they would live, without being handicapped.

The IRA specifically aimed to stop allotments and change the system of land tenure for trust lands, enable tribal self-government with limited sovereignty, establish court systems, rebuild societies and rejuvenate cultures, and improve the ability of tribes to conduct business as corporations. Unallotted communal lands were returned to the tribes rather than reserved for Euro-American homesteaders. Congress also added provisions that reduced self-government from Collier's model but still called for the establishment of tribal elections to accept or reject the bill's provisions for establishing tribal governments under the model outlined in the U.S. Constitution and for the acceptance or rejection of tribal constitutions or charters that would enable them to conduct their own business.

Congress insisted that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the commissioner have oversight and approval/veto power for all major governance acts, including leasing authority. This made the act primarily a new form of political organization rather than increasing true self-governance as originally envisioned. The IRA also established revolving credit programs for economic development, to purchase land, educate the young, and aid in establishing political structures. Conservation funds were made available to try to stop erosion and renew overgrazed and overfarmed land that had been hit by the droughts of the 1920s and 1930s. The IRA gave Indians preference in hiring, waiving civil service requirements.

These gains were restricted, however, to federally recognized tribes that accepted the IRA provisions—and not all tribes did, much to Collier's displeasure. Public hearings were held in states and on reservations, and there was opposition from people who wanted to purchase Indian lands or eliminate reservations and the trust status. One of the largest tribes to reject the IRA was the Navajo, who did not trust Collier or the BIA because of their sheep reduction program the year before.

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