Indian Land Areas Judicially Established 1978

Indian Reorganization Act

The Indian Reorganization ("Wheeler-Howard") Act of 1934 was the keystone of the "Indian New Deal," the most important turning point in federal policy toward American Indians since the early nineteenth century. The New Deal prescribed tribal constitutions, reversal of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) land policy, application of the First Amendment to tribal religions, and reservation economic development and social programs outside the control of the BIA. For the first time in living memory, the BIA reservation superintendents began to lose their positions as de facto colonial administrators with almost total power over their charges. Some historians, both Indian and non-Indian, have raised serious questions about the effectiveness -- and sincerity -- of the reforms. It would, nevertheless, be difficult to argue that the Wheeler-Howard Act and the other measures of the Indian New Deal were not perceived by many at the time as revolutionary or that its effects were trivial.
 

Indian Claims Commission

On August 13^th, 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed into law the Indian Claims Commission Act.  Perhaps one of the most unique tools for judicial intervention in history, this Act created a special judicial body before which American Indian tribes could file claims of all kinds against the United States government.  Any claim that any Indian tribe had against the United States, extending back to the American Revolution, could be brought before the Commission.  In order to be valid, however, the claims had to be brought within five years of the passage of the Act.  Any claims not brought before August 13^th, 1951 would be forever barred by the statute.  Despite the passage of the deadline, claims that arose from events prior to 1946 continue to be brought by Indian tribes.  Congress passed the ICCA in order to allow Indian tribes the opportunity to “have their day in court,” but that day has long since passed.  The important goal of the Indian Claims Commission has been largely forgotten or ignored, as courts persist in allowing tribal suits.  As Congress itself pointed out, the purpose of the Act was to “bring this practice to an end and to settle once and for all every claim [Indian tribes] could possibly have under the categories set forth in the law.” Today, a half-century later, the Act’s purpose still stands unrealized.

Indian Claims Commission Decisions