Bureau of Indian Affairs

"Indian Office" redirects here. For the former British government department, see India Office.
Bureau of Indian Affairs

Seal of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs

Flag of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
Agency overview
Formed March 11, 1824
Preceding agency
Jurisdiction Federal Government of the United States
Headquarters 1849 C Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20240
Employees 8,701 Permanent (FY08)
Annual budget $2.8 billion (FY16)
Agency executives
  • Michael Black, Bureau Director
  • Michael R. Smith, Deputy Bureau Director (Field Operation)
Parent agency United States Department of the Interior
Website www.BIA.gov

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of 55,700,000 acres (225,000 km2) of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American Tribes and Alaska Natives.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of two bureaus under the jurisdiction of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs: the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education, which provides education services to approximately 48,000 Native Americans.

The BIA’s responsibilities once included providing health care to American Indians and Alaska Natives. In 1954 that function was legislatively transferred to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, now known as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where it has remained to this day as the Indian Health Service.

Organization

Located at 1849 C Street, NW, in Washington, D.C., the BIA is headed by a bureau director who reports to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs. The current director is Michael S. Black. The current assistant secretary (acting) is Lawrence S. Roberts, an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. On January 1, 2016, Roberts succeeded Kevin K. Washburn, an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, who served from October 9, 2012, to December 31, 2015.[1]

The BIA serves the 567 federally recognized tribes through four offices:

History

Ely S. Parker was the first Native American to be appointed as Commissioner of Indian affairs (1869–1871).
Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1913.

Early US agencies and legislation: Intercourse Acts

Agencies to relate to Native Americans had existed in the U.S. government since 1775, when the Second Continental Congress created a trio of Indian-related agencies. Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry were appointed among the early commissioners to negotiate treaties with Native Americans to obtain their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War.[3]

Office of Indian Trade (1806 - 1822)

In 1789, the U.S. Congress placed Native American relations within the newly formed War Department. By 1806 the Congress had created a Superintendent of Indian Trade, or "Office of Indian Trade" [4] within the War Department, who was charged with maintaining the factory trading network of the fur trade. The post was held by Thomas L. McKenney from 1816 until the abolition of the factory system in 1822.

The government licensed traders to have some control in Indian territories and gain a share of the lucrative trade.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (1824 - present)

The abolition of the factory system left a vacuum within the U.S. government regarding Native American relations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was formed on March 11, 1824, by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, who created the agency as a division within his department, without authorization from the United States Congress. He appointed McKenney as the first head of the office, which went by several names. McKenney preferred to call it the "Indian Office", whereas the current name was preferred by Calhoun.

In 1832 Congress established the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In 1849 Indian Affairs was transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1869, Ely Samuel Parker was the first Native American to be appointed as commissioner of Indian affairs.

One of the most controversial policies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was the late 19th to early 20th century decision to educate native children in separate boarding schools, with an emphasis on assimilation that prohibited them from using their indigenous languages, practices, and cultures. It emphasized being educated to European-American culture.[5] Some were beaten for praying to their own creator god.[6]

20th century

1940 Indians at Work magazine, published by the Office of Indian Affairs, predecessor agency to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The bureau was renamed from Office of Indian Affairs to Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947.

With the rise of American Indian activism in the 1960s and 1970s, and increasing demands for enforcement of treaty rights and sovereignty, the 1970s were a particularly turbulent period of BIA history.[7] The rise of activist groups such as the American Indian Movement (AIM) worried the U.S. government; the FBI responded both overtly and covertly (by creating COINTELPRO and other programs) to suppress possible uprisings among native peoples.[8]

As a branch of the U.S. government with personnel on Indian reservations, BIA police were involved in political actions such as:

Feeling the government was ignoring them, the protesters vandalized the building. After a week, the protesters left, having caused $700,000 in damages. Many records were lost, destroyed or stolen, including irreplaceable treaties, deeds, and water rights records, which some Indian officials said could set the tribes back 50 to 100 years.[10][11]

The BIA was implicated in supporting controversial tribal presidents, notably Dick Wilson, who was charged with being authoritarian; using tribal funds for a private paramilitary force, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (or "GOON squad"), which he employed against opponents; intimidation of voters in the 1974 election; misappropriation of funds, and other misdeeds.[13] Many native peoples continue to oppose policies of the BIA, particularly problems in enforcing treaties, and handling records and income for trust lands.

21st century

In 2013 the Bureau was greatly affected by sequestration funding cuts of $800 million, which particularly affected the already-underfunded Indian Health Service.[14][15]

Legal issues

Employee overtime

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has been sued four times in class action overtime lawsuits brought by the Federation of Indian Service Employees,[16] a union which represents the federal civilian employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education, the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs and the Office of the Special Trustee for Indian Affairs. The union is represented by the Law Offices of Snider & Associates, LLC,[17] which concentrates in FLSA overtime class actions against the federal government and other large employers. The grievances allege widespread violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act [18] and claims tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Trust assets

Cobell vs. Salazar, a major class action case related to trust lands, was settled in December 2009. The suit was filed against the U.S. Department of Interior, of which the BIA is part. A major responsibility has been the management of the Indian trust accounts. This was a class-action lawsuit regarding the federal government's management and accounting of more than 300,000 individual American Indian and Alaska Native trust accounts. A settlement fund totaling $3.4 billion is to be distributed to class members. This is to compensate for claims that prior U.S. officials had mismanaged the administration of Indian trust assets. In addition, the settlement establishes a $2 billion fund enabling federally recognized tribes to voluntarily buy-back and consolidate fractionated land interests.[19]

Mission

The Bureau is currently trying to evolve from a supervisory to an advisory role; however, this has been a difficult task as the BIA is known by many Native Americans as playing a police role in which the U.S. government historically dictated to tribes and their members what they could and could not do in accordance with treaties signed by both.[20]

Commissioners and Assistant Secretaries

Commissioners of Indian Affairs[21]

Heads of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Commissioners of Indian Affairs

Assistant Secretaries of the Interior for Indian Affairs[21]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bureau of Indian Affairs (United States).
  1. ↑ http://www.indianaffairs.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc1-032765.pdf
  2. ↑ "Who We Are", BIA
  3. ↑ Henson, C.L. "From War to Self-Determination: a history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs". American Resources on the Net. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  4. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=P2HKD9PgC6wC&lpg=PA236&ots=Rwg0QOTYWX&dq=%22Office%20of%20Indian%20Trade%22&pg=PA236#v=onepage&q=%22Office%20of%20Indian%20Trade%22&f=false Atlas of the North American Indian By Carl Waldman, Molly Braun, ISBN 978-0-8160-6858-6, 2009, Infobase Publishing p. 236 "in 1806, an Office of Indian Trade was created within the War Department"
  5. ↑ Dennis Banks, "Ojibwa Warrior," 2004: 29–28
  6. ↑ Dennis Banks, "Ojibwa Warrior," 2004: 24
  7. ↑ Philip Worchel, Philip G. Hester and Philip S. Kopala, "Collective Protest and Legitimacy of Authority: Theory and Research," The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 18 (1) 1974): 37–54
  8. ↑ The COINTELPRO PAPERS – Chapter 7: COINTELPRO – AIM Archived July 23, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ Paul Smith and Robert Warrior, Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee, New York: The New Press, 1996.
  10. ↑ "Stop bandwidth theft!". Maquah.net. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  11. ↑ "Stop bandwidth theft!". Maquah.net. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  12. ↑ "American Indian Rights Activist Vernon Bellecourt", Washington Post, 14 October 2007
  13. ↑ Ward Churchill, Jim Vander Wall, Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, South End Press, 2002.
  14. ↑ Gale Courey Toensing (March 27, 2013). "Sequestration Grounds Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs". Indian Country Today. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  15. ↑ Editorial Board (March 20, 2013). "The Sequester Hits the Reservation" (Editorial). The New York Times. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  16. ↑ "FEDERATION OF INDIAN SERVICE EMPLOYEES - AFT - AFL/CIO, Local 4524 - Home". Ief.aft.org. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  17. ↑ "Overtime Lawyer Website". Overtime.com. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  18. ↑ Wikipedia Article on FLSA
  19. ↑ “Cobell vs. Salazar Lawsuit”. doi.gov/tribes/special-trustee.cfm. Office of Special Trustee, n.d. Web. April 24, 2011
  20. ↑ author (2011-05-25). "From War to Self-Determination: the Bureau of Indian Affairs". Americansc.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  21. 1 2 "U.S. government departments and offices, etc". Rulers.org. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
  22. ↑ "John O. Crow Named Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Member of Advisory Board on Indian Affairs" (PDF). Bureau of Indian Affairs. February 10, 1961. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
  23. ↑ "Nash Nominated as Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Crow Appointed Deputy Commissioner" (PDF). Bureau of Indian Affairs. August 1, 1961. Retrieved 2015-07-30.
  24. ↑ http://www.indianaffairs.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc1-032765.pdf

Additional reading

Primary sources

External links

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