INDIAN REORGANIZATION ACT OF 1934

The Indian Reorganization Act represented a basic shift in federal Indian policy. It overturned forced assimilation, revived tribal governance, and ended land allotment. The act grew out of a dozen years of criticism of federal Indian administration, especially the agitation of reformer John Collier, who became Indian commissioner in 1933.

Felix S. Cohen and Marvin Siegel, assistant solicitors, and Ward Shepard, a land management expert, started drafting the reorganization bill in late 1933. Commissioner Collier and his top assistants oversaw the process. Indians played no role in writing the measure. The lengthy draft bill contained four titles. The first permitted tribes to organize reservation governments and to form business corporations. Title II called for educational loans and scholarships and strongly endorsed preservation of Indian heritages. Title III ended further allotment, outlined a complex program for land consolidation on checker-boarded reservations, gave the secretary of the interior extraordinary authority to implement consolidation, and provided for some acquisition. Title IV established a special Indian court with original jurisdiction over cases involving Indians or tribes.

The bill faced serious opposition after congressional hearings opened in mid-February 1934. Opponents during House sessions complained it would isolate Indians and condemned the arbitrary powers associated with land consolidation. In the midst of the hearings, Collier conducted ten generally successful Indian congresses to explain the bill to tribal representatives, answer questions, and gain delegates' support. When Collier returned to Washington, Burton K. Wheeler, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, severely attacked the bill on various grounds and threatened to stall passage. Only the last minute intervention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a "summit" between Assistant Indian Commissioner William F. Zimmerman, Jr., and Wheeler overcame the latter's objections. Essentially, the Montana senator rewrote the bill to suit his own beliefs.

The final act of June 18, 1934, differed greatly from the original bill in substance and form. The special Indian court and involuntary land consolidation were entirely omitted. Provisions such as tribal governance, business corporations, a ban on further allotment, land acquisition, educational benefits, and Indian hiring preference remained, but in highly abbreviated form. Despite its major revisions, the Indian Reorganization Act became the centerpiece of Collier's administration.

Subsequently, 174 tribes with an adult population of 132,425 approved the Indian Reorganization Act in referenda, but only 92 tribes later drafted constitutions. Seventy-three tribes with 78,415 members rejected it. Approximately 103,000 Indians came under the Act and 113,000 did not. Despite this, after 1934 Collier habitually acted as if all tribes had approved the law. Some reservations later came under the Indian Reorganization Act by special legislation, but far more simply utilized governments that operated without a written constitution.

Placed in its best light, the Indian Reorganization Act strengthened tribal governments during the New Deal and helped preserve Indian cultures. It also served as an important model for Indians of the 1970s and 1980s who demanded stronger tribal sovereignty. In this sense, Collier planted the seeds that later generations of Indians harvested.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Deloria, Vine, Jr. The Indian Reorganization Act: Congresses and Bills. 2002.

Deloria, Vine, Jr., and Clifford M. Lytle. The Nations Within: The Past and Future of American Indian Sovereignty. 1984.

Kelly, Lawrence C. "The Indian Reorganization Act: The Dream and the Reality." Pacific Historical Review 44 (1975): 291–312.

Rusco, Elmer R. A Fateful Time: The Background and Legislative History of the Reorganization Act. 2000.

Taylor, Graham D. The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism: The Administration of the Indian Reorganization Act, 1934–1945. 1980.

Washborn, Wilcomb E. "Fifty-Year Perspective on the Indian Reorganization Act." American Anthropologist 86 (1984): 279–289.