The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) was passed by Congress in 1934 in an attempt to conditions on Indian reservations. Six years ago, in 1928, the Meriam Report had been published, detailing the poverty and the living conditions suffered on the reservations. There were terrible disease and death rates, as well as inadequate care and education for Indian children. However, shortly after the report was issued, the Great Depression struck, and the rest of the country began sinking towards poverty, as well. It was not until FDR’s New Deal that efforts were made to improve life for Native Americans.
The IRA accomplished many important goals, but one of the most important was promotion of self-government by the tribes. They were encouraged to formalize their authorities and even adopting constitutions, which also spread to tribes that were not included in the IRA. In addition, the act took steps to curb the erosion of the tribal land by ending the allotment of land (the government had previously taken land held by Indians and used it for other purposes) and prohibiting land being taken from tribes without them allowing it. It also allowed the Secretary of the Interior to accept additional lands in trust and to create new reservations on those lands. There was also a loan program to encourage development and a program that allowed for preference hire for Natives for jobs with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The act in 1934 was not fully applicable to Alaskan tribes because of its provisions for reservations, and very few tribes in Alaska were on reservations. Two years later, in 1936, Congress added an amendment called the Composite Indian Reorganization Act for Alaska. It allowed villages in Alaska to organize their governments under the act, and it authorized several new reservations there. In Alaska, too, the tribes felt the government’s encouragement in adopting a formal constitution, and today, most of the remaining recognized tribes in Alaska have constitutions.
The IRA was one of the first effective movements towards helping Native Americans, and it is still the basis of legislation regarding Native Americans. In the 1960s and 70s, there was a further transfer of power from the reservations to the Indians themselves, although they are still dependent on the federal government. Our government is still working towards improving conditions on reservations, and we have a long road ahead of us, but we have certainly made progress since then.
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I wonder how this new government of Native Americans during Roosevelt's rule was created by the depression. There seemed to be no other work done for the Native Americans before this time. I wonder how this ties into the way we treat Native Americans today and how the reserves are treated in modern politics.
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