An Act to conserve and develop Indian lands and resources; to extend to Indians the right to form business and, other organizations; to establish a credit system for Indians; to grant certain rights of home rule to Indians; to provide for vocational education for Indians; and for other purposes.
Nicknames
Wheeler–Howard Act
Enacted by
the 73rd United States Congress
Effective
June 18, 1934
Citations
Public law
Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 73–383
Statutes at Large
48 Stat. 984
Codification
Titles amended
25 U.S.C.: Indians
U.S.C. sections created
25 U.S.C. ch. 14, subch. V § 461 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 3645 by Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT) on May 22, 1934
Passed the Senate on June 12, 1934 (passed)
Passed the House on June 15, 1934 (284-101)
Reported by the joint conference committee on June 15, 1934; agreed to by the Senate on June 16, 1934 (agreed) and by the House on June 16, 1934 (agreed)
Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 18, 1934
The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian New Deal".
The Act also restored to Indians the management of their assets—land and mineral rights—and included provisions intended to create a sound economic foundation for the residents of Indian reservations. Total U.S. spending on Indians averaged $38 million a year in the late 1920s, dropping to an all-time low of $23 million in 1933, and reaching $38 million in 1940.[1]
The IRA was the most significant initiative of John Collier, who was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) from 1933 to 1945. He had long studied Indian issues and worked for change since the 1920s, particularly with the American Indian Defense Association. He intended to reverse the assimilationist policies that had resulted in considerable damage to American Indian cultures, and to provide a means for American Indians to re-establish sovereignty and self-government, to reduce the losses of reservation lands, and to build economic self-sufficiency. He believed that Indian traditional culture was superior to that of modern America, and thought it worthy of emulation. His proposals were considered highly controversial, as numerous powerful interests had profited from the sale and management of Native lands. Congress revised Collier's proposals and preserved oversight of tribes and reservations by the Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of Interior. Felix S. Cohen, an official at the Department of the Interior Solicitor's Office, was another significant architect of the Indian New Deal who helped draft the 1934 act.[2][3]
The self-government provisions would automatically go into effect for a tribe unless a clear majority of the eligible Indians voted it down.
^US Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1951 (1951) pp 14, 306
^"Felix Cohen: Father of Federal Indian Law". U.S. Department of the Interior. July 2015. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
^"On the Drafting of Tribal Constitutions". The University of Oklahoma Press. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
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