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Indian Reorganization Act

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".

Other short titles

  • Indian New Deal
  • Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

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.

Wheeler–Howard Act

the 73rd United States Congress

June 18, 1934

Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 73–383

48 Stat. 984

25 U.S.C.: Indians

25 U.S.C. ch. 14, subch. V § 461 et seq.

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, reduce the losses of reservation lands, and 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.

Cultural assimilation of Native Americans

Henry Roe Cloud

Native Americans in the United States

Navajo Livestock Reduction

Totem pole

Hauptman, Laurence (1979). "Alice Jemison ... Seneca Political Activist". The Indian Historian (Wassaja). 12 (July): 15–22, 60–62.

Hauptman, Laurence (1988) [1981]. . Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815624395.

The Iroquois and the New Deal

Wallis, Michael & Parsons, Jack (2001). . Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co. pp. 73 ff. ISBN 9781558685475.

Heaven's Window: A Journey Through Northern New Mexico

Blackman, Jon S. Oklahoma's Indian New Deal. (University of Oklahoma Press, 2013)

Clemmer, Richard O. "Hopis, Western Shoshones, and Southern Utes: Three Different Responses to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934." American Indian culture and research journal (1986) 10#2: 15–40.

Kelly, Lawrence C. "The Indian Reorganization Act: The Dream and the Reality." Pacific Historical Review (1975): 291–312.

in JSTOR

Kelly, L. C. The Assault on Assimilation: John Collier and the Origins of Indian Policy Reform. (University of New Mexico Press, 1963)

Kelly, William Henderson, ed. Indian Affairs and the Indian Reorganization Act: The Twenty Year Record (University of Arizona, 1954)

Koppes, Clayton R. "From New Deal to Termination: Liberalism and Indian Policy, 1933-1953." Pacific Historical Review (1977): 543–566.

in JSTOR

Parman, Donald Lee. The Navajos and the New Deal (Yale University Press, 1976)

Philp, K. R. John Collier and the American Indian, 1920–1945. (Michigan State University Press, 1968)

Philp, K. R. John Collier's Crusade for Indian Reform, 1920-1954. (University of Arizona Press, 1977)

Philp, Kenneth R. "Termination: a legacy of the Indian new deal." Western Historical Quarterly (1983): 165–180.

in JSTOR

Rusco, Elmer R. A fateful time: the background and legislative history of the Indian Reorganization Act (University of Nevada Press, 2000)

Taylor, Graham D. The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism: The Administration of the Indian Reorganization Act, 1934-45 (U of Nebraska Press, 1980)

(PDF/details) as amended in the GPO Statute Compilations collection

Indian Reorganization Act

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Indian Reorganization Act - Information & Video