Native American policy of the Richard Nixon administration

The administration of Richard Nixon, from 1969 to 1974, made important changes in United States policy towards Native Americans through legislation and executive action. The Nixon Administration advocated a reversal of the long-standing policy of "termination" that had characterized relations between the U.S. Government and American Indians in favor of "self-determination." The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act restructured indigenous governance in the state of Alaska, creating a unique structure of Native Corporations. Some of the most notable instances of American Indian activism occurred under the Nixon Administration including the Occupation of Alcatraz and the Standoff at Wounded Knee.

Public Law 87-273 approved on September 22, 1961 increased to $7,500,000 the annual authorization to carry out a vocational training program for American Indians residing on our near Indian reservation.

[5]

Public Law 88-168 approved on November 4, 1963 to establish a $900,000 revolving loan fund for the Secretary of the Interior to make loans to Indian tribes for services of expert researchers and witnesses in prosecuting their cases before the Indian Claims Commission.

[5]

S. 1049 passed the Senate on October 11, 1963 to provide the Secretary of the Interior with the authority to reduce the rapidly increasing number of Indian allotments in multiple ownership.

[5]

The Nixon Years (1969–1974)[edit]

The Nixon Administration[edit]

Richard Nixon took office as president in 1969. It was under his administration that Senator Jackson and Forrest J. Gerard were most active in their reform efforts. The efforts of Jackson and Gerard mirrored the demands of Indians for "self-determination." President Nixon called for an end to termination and provided a direct endorsement of "self-determination."

Special message to Congress on Indian Affairs[edit]

In a 1970 address to Congress, President Nixon articulated his vision of self-determination. He explained, "The time has come to break decisively with the past and to create the conditions for a new era in which the Indian future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions."^[9] Nixon continued, "This policy of forced termination is wrong, in my judgment, for a number of reasons. First, the premises on which it rests are wrong. Termination implies that the Federal government has taken on a trusteeship responsibility for Indian communities as an act of generosity toward a disadvantaged people and that it can therefore discontinue this responsibility on a unilateral basis whenever it sees fit."^[9] Nixon's overt renunciation of the long-standing termination policy was the first of any President in the post World War II era.

Henry M. Jackson and Forrest J. Gerard[edit]

In 1971, Senator Henry Jackson of Washington, Chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs, hired Forrest J. Gerard. Gerard was born on Montana's Blackfeet Reservation in 1925, served in the United States Air Force in World War II, and received a college education on the G.I. Bill of Rights. Following college, Gerard worked for agencies in Montana and Wyoming before moving to Washington, D.C. to work for the Indian Health Service. Eventually, Gerard would work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Health and Human Services.^[10] Gerard would provide Jackson with the experience and network of relationships with tribal leaders necessary for serious policy reform.^[7]

Together, Jackson and Gerard worked hard to put the policies of self-determination outlined by Kennedy and Johnson into action. Beginning with Jackson's call for a Senate resolution to reverse House Concurrent Resolution 108, they embarked on an ambitious legislative agenda to reform Indian affairs in the United States. The legislation regarding Indian Affairs that bears the authorship of Senator Jackson and Gerard, and the sponsorship of Senator Jackson includes: