Wheeler-Howard Act (1934)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Wheeler-Howard Act, commonly called the Indian Reorganization Act, into law on June 18, 1934. Named for Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana and Representative Edgar Howard of Nebraska who presented the bill in Congress, the legislation was an essential part of a larger policy reform movement known as the Indian New Deal begun under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. The primary intentions of the Wheeler-Howard Act were to restore tribal self-governance, discontinue the land allotment policy established by the Dawes Act of 1887, return federal landholdings back to tribal ownership, and improve the economic development of tribes through a revolving loan fund. The Wheeler-Howard Act brought in a new era of American Indian affairs that was markedly different from earlier policies that centered on individual ownership of land and ending tribal sovereignty through assimilation. Although strong support for the Wheeler-Howard Act existed, opposition came from many fronts, including tribes that viewed the act as another form of federal paternalism and proponents of assimilation who criticized the legislation for attempting to restore communal ways of life.

The guiding force of the Wheeler-Howard Act and the Indian New Deal was John Collier, commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1933 to 1945. Once the former executive secretary of the American Indian Defense Association, Collier made it his mission to dissolve the Dawes Act, and he believed the Wheeler-Howard Act was a certain path to that particular goal. Collier was a romantic and often imposed his own vision of what a tribal community should be without regard to individual tribal differences or, in many instances, input from tribes. In this way, Collier failed to relinquish power to American Indians themselves. Collier found resistance from tribes who resented the paternalism of the Wheeler-Howard Act.

The act, for instance, gave the Department of the Interior the power to amend and approve tribal constitutions and bylaws. Selected intellectuals and Washington bureaucrats influenced the direction of tribal constitutions, resulting in governing [Page 2174]documents that reflected the U.S. Constitution and not traditional models of tribal governance. Tribes, for example, that depended on the authority of tribal elders had their traditional forms of governance replaced by tribal officials and unfamiliar political structures. Self-government, under the Wheeler-Howard Act's restrictions, put into question the very nature of the act's true intent and its ultimate limits for bringing forth reform based upon true tribal autonomy. Furthermore, resistance to Collier's reforms also came from tribes whose members preferred the individual ownership of land and did not want lands returned to communal ownership.