Indian Reorganization Act - Background

Background

At the time the Act passed, it was U.S. policy to eliminate Indian reservations, dividing their territory and distributing it to individual Indians to own like any other person, in a process called "allotment." Before allotment, reservation territory was not owned in the usual western sense, but was reserved for the benefit of entire Indian tribes, with its benefits apportioned to tribe members according to tribal law and custom. Generally, Indians held the land in a communal fashion. It was not possible for any non-Indian to own land on reservations, a fact which limited the value of the land to the Indians (It reduced the market for it).

The process of allotment started with the General Allotment Act of 1887, and by 1934, two thirds of Indian land had converted to traditional private ownership (i.e. it was owned in fee simple) and most of that had been sold by its Indian allottee.

The Indians who sold their land (most received 80 acres) often did not get much value for it, either getting a poor price or squandering the cash windfall they received. This left Indians as a class poor.

John Collier, who was appointed Commissioner of what is now called the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1933 under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had become convinced that federal Indian policies needed to be changed to correct injustices. He had already worked ten years at the Indian Defense Fund and become familiar with many issues.

The Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1934.