The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is a federal agency within the Department of Interior. The BIA is responsible for the administration and management of 55.7 million acres of land held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives. Although there are 561 federally recognized tribal governments, it is the BIA that controls the development of forestlands, leasing assets on these lands, directing agricultural programs, protecting water and land rights, developing and maintaining infrastructure and economic development. The BIA also provides education services to 48,000 Native Americans.

The BIA had its beginnings in 1775 when a trio of Indian agencies were created by the Second Continental Congress to negotiate treaties with Native Americans and secure their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War. In 1789, Congress moved all Native American relations to the War Department, which had just formed that year. Today, the War Department is known as the Department of Defense. In 1806, Congress established a Superintendent of Indian Trade in the War Department whose responsibility it was to maintain the factory trading network of the fur trade. When the factory system ended, it left a hole in the network of relations between the U.S. government and Native Americans. Seeing this, then Secretary of War John C. Calhoun created the Bureau of Indian Affairs (also referred to as the Office of Indian Affairs or Indian Office until 1849), in 1824, but he did so without Congressional approval. Nonetheless, the bureau attained viability inside the Department of War and was officially transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1849.

During the 1960s and 1970s, many tribes fought to regain their rights. One result of this struggle was the institution of Indian rights organizations such as the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM’s mission was to make the public aware of Native American civil rights violations, as well as the government’s flippancy toward Indian interests. To this end, AIM famously seized the BIA headquarters in Washington in 1972, and in 1973 became engaged in an armed standoff with the U.S. Marshals Service at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The FBI continuously tried to stifle the activities of AIM, paying informants to report on its activities and members, as well as using various intimidation tactics including violence. Despite this, AIM continues to bring successful suit against the federal government for the protection of Native American rights.

From War to Self-Determination: A History of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (by C.L. Henson, American Studies Today)

Our Red Earth

The primary stakeholders affected by the BIA should of course be Native Americans. Unfortunately, there is a broad spectrum of those who face potential profits and losses dependant on BIA policy, and therefore seek to influence the BIA. These stakeholders include mining companies, non-Indian casinos, residents and business owners in areas of proposed Indian casinos, residents and business potentially affected by tribal recognition, and the federal government itself, among others.

Leading Contractors 2000-2008

Cobell Litigation

Timbisha Shoshone Death Valley Land Restoration Project (Dickshovel)

Calls for reform of the BIA have been centered on the mishandling of trust funds. 

DOI Trust Reform: Trust Reform Final Report and Roadmap (PDF)

Carl J. Artman