Law attempting to move Native Americans from reservations and traditional homelands to cities
Not to be confused with Indian Removal Act.
Indian Relocation Act of 1956
Long title
An Act relative to employment for certain adult Indians on or near Indian reservations.
Enacted by
the 84th United States Congress
Effective
August 3, 1956
Citations
Public law
84-959
Statutes at Large
70 Stat. 986
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 3416 on July 19, 1956
Committee consideration by U.S. Senate Committee on Interior and Insulars Affair, U.S. House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs
Passed the Senate on July 23, 1956 (Passed)
Passed the House on July 27, 1956 (Passed)
Signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 3, 1956
The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 (also known as Public Law 959 or the Adult Vocational Training Program) was a United States law intended to create a "a program of vocational training" for Native Americans in the United States. Critics characterize the law as an attempt to encourage Native Americans to leave Indian reservations and their traditional lands, to assimilate into the general population in urban areas, and to weaken community and tribal ties.[1] Critics also characterize the law as part of the Indian termination policy between 1940 and 1960, which terminated the tribal status of numerous groups and cut off previous assistance to tribal citizens.[1] The Indian Relocation Act encouraged and forced Native Americans to move to cities for job opportunities.[1] It also played a significant role in increasing the population of urban Native Americans in succeeding decades.[2][3][4][5]
At a time when the U.S. government was decreasing subsidies to Native Americans living on reservations, the Relocation Act offered to pay moving expenses and provide some vocational training for those who were willing to move from the reservations to certain government-designated cities, where employment opportunities were said by the legislators to be favorable.[2] Types of assistance offered included relocation transportation, transportation of household goods, subsistence per diem for both the time of relocation and up to four weeks after arrival, and funds to purchase tools or equipment for apprentice workers. Vocational training was oriented towards jobs in industry and other professions that hadn't existed in rural communities. Additional benefits offered included: medical insurance for workers and their dependents, grants to purchase work clothing, grants to purchase household goods and furniture, tuition costs for vocational night school training, and in some cases funds to help purchase a home.[6] However, not all who accepted these offers actually received these benefits once they arrived in the cities, leading to some cases of poverty, culture shock, joblessness and homelessness among this population in the new, urban environment.[7][8] A major issue that came with this was the then inability for Native Americans to return to their reservations. If relocation had been completed, the reservation the Natives had previously lived on was dissolved. From 1950 to 1968 almost 200,000 Native Americans migrated to cities, leaving reservations almost completely a thing of the past.[9]
^ abcGlenn, Evelyn Nakano (January 2015). "Settler Colonialism as Structure: A Framework for Comparative Studies of U.S. Race and Gender Formation". Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. 1 (1): 52–72. doi:10.1177/2332649214560440. ISSN 2332-6492. S2CID 147875813.
^ abRebecca L. Robbins, "Self-Determination and Subordination: the Past, Present, and Future of American Indian Governance" (87:122) in M. Annette Jaimes (editor), The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-424-8. p. 99.
^Employment Assistance Program Archived July 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, The United Sioux Tribes of South Dakota Development Corporation. Accessed online May 4, 2009.
^Information on Chippewa Indians Turtle Mountain Reservation Archived January 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Turtle Mountain Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs. Belcourt, North Dakota. Accessed online May 4, 2009.
^History and Facts Archived December 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Phoenix Indian Center. Accessed online May 4, 2009.
^[1], Bureau of Indian Affairs website
^Weeks, Philip (2014). "They Made Us Many Promises": The American Indian Experience 1524 to the Present. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 196–197. ISBN 9781118822821. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
^Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Native Americans in Philosophy and Candid (2023). "Indian Relocation Act passes, launching the urban relocation process".
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