The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 reversed the Dawes Act that attempted to privatize common holdings of American Indians, and instead provided a basis for native communities to establish and have recognized sovereign governments. The act required tribes to select consitutions from among a set of proposed governmental forms offered by the Act. The act slowed a practice of assigning tribal lands to invidual tribal members, and reduced the divestiture of native holdings that were being lost through a practice of checkerboard land sales to non-members within tribal areas.
The act also offered United States citizenship to those born in the United States of American Indian parantage.
In 1954, the United States Department of Interior began implementing Termination and Relocation phases of the Act. Among other effects, the termination resulted in the legal dismanteling of 61 tribal nations within the United States.
Related Topics
ethnic cleansing
