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Federal Policy

Background/Overview

Arnold, Laurie. “Termination and Restoration.” In Finkelman, Paul and Garrison, Tim eds. Encyclopedia of United States Indian Policy and Law. Congressional Quarterly Press, 2009, pp. 751-756.

Carlson, Leonard A. “Allotment in Severalty.”  In Finkelman, Paul and Garrison, Tim eds. Encyclopedia of United States Indian Policy and Law. Congressional Quarterly Press, 2009, pp.70-72.

Fitzpatrick, Tana. Tribal Land and Ownership Statuses: Overview and Selected Issues for Congress. Congressional Research Service, 2021 (July 21). (26 pp.)

Jones, Richard.  American Indian Policy: Background, Nature, History, Current Issues, Future Trends. Congressional Research Service, 1987.  (109 pp)
ProQuest Congressional – NU affiliated users only

Books, Reports, & Articles

Burt, Larry W. “Factories on Reservations: The Industrial Development Programs of Commissioner Glenn Emmons 1953-1960.” Arizona and the West 19, no. 4 (1977): 317–32.

DeJong, David H. The Commissioners of Indian Affairs : The United States Indian Service and the Making of Federal Indian Policy, 1824 to 2017. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2020.

Edmo, Se-ah-dom. American Indian Identity : Citizenship, Membership, and Blood. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2016.

Ellinghaus, Katherine. Blood Will Tell : Native Americans and Assimilation Policy. Lincoln, NE: The University of Nebraska Press and The American Philosophical Society, 2017.

Fixico, Donald Lee. Termination and Relocation : Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960. 1st paperback printing. Albuquerque, N.M: University of New Mexico Press, 1990. (e-book)

“Overtly, freeing tribal groups of their federal trust restrictions was the official intent of the termination policy. More importantly, however, termination essentially implied the ultimate destruction of tribal cultures and native life-styles, as withdrawal of federal services was intended to desegregate Indian communities and to integrate Indians with the rest of society.

Gray, Christine K. The Tribal Moment in American Politics: The struggle for Native American Sovereignty.  AltaMira Press, 2013.

“...just as the American colonists felt burdened more than protected by the mercantilism of Britain as the “mother” country, so too, the tribes in post-WWII America were increasingly coming to articulate their frustration with the BIA as the face of an exploitative colonialism rather than the agent of protection and development, which the federal government’s self-asserted trust relationship with the tribe supposedly called for.

Madigane, La Verne.  American Indian Relocation Program: A report undertaken with the assistance of The Field Foundation, Inc. Based upon the findings of a Relocation Survey Team under the direction of Dr. Mary H.S. Hayes.  The Association of American Indian Affairs, Inc. 1956, December. [PDF embedded in the APM Reports website]

Myers, Leah. Thinning Blood : A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity. First edition. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Company, 2023.

Nesterak, Max. Uprooted: The 1950s plan to erase Indian Country. APM Reports. 2019, November 1.  [lengthy story, podcast recording, and transcript]

Philp, Kenneth R. Termination Revisited : American Indians on the Trail to Self-Determination, 1933-1953. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.

Prucha, Francis Paul. The Great Father : The United States Government and the American Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.E-Book edition

Ratteree, Kathleen, and Norbert S. Hill, eds. The Great Vanishing Act : Blood Quantum and the Future of Native Nations. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2017.

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA) was even more shattering to natives, because the legislation defined who “Indians” were. The more salient points: “Indians” were members of federally recognized tribes; they and their descendants must have resided on reservations on June 1, 1934; and “Indians were also defined as all other persons of one-half or more Indian blood.

Redbird, Beth and Kiel, Doug. “Looking Back on the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act”.  Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research. 2024, May 29.

Richotte, Keith. Claiming Turtle Mountain’s Constitution : The History, Legacy, and Future of a Tribal Nation’s Founding Documents. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.

Rosenthal, Harvey D. (Harvey Daniel). Their Day in Court : A History of the Indian Claims Commission. New York: Garland Pub., 1990.

Samuels, Ellen. “Revising Blood Quantum.” In Fantasies of Identification, 141–60. New York, USA: New York University Press, 2020.

“…the CDIB [Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood] materializes a powerful and totalizing fantasy of identification that obscures not only its discursive roots but also the multiplicity of definitions of Indian that have existed historically and into the present day. Ellen Samuels. From Fantasies of Identification

Ulrich, Roberta. American Indian Nations from Termination to Restoration, 1953-2006. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.

Selected Primary Sources & Congressional Publications

Bureau of Indian Affairs Records: Termination. U.S. National Archives.  Last modified March 16, 2023.

Commission on Organization of The Executive Branch of the Government. Report of Commission on Organization of Executive Branch on Social Security and Education. Indian Affairs.  (H. Doc. 129).  Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949. (Known as The Hoover Commission).
ProQuest Congressional – NU Affiliated users only

  • Table of contents: pdf pagination p.5
  • Indian Affairs: pdf pagination pp.57-85

Meriam, Lewis. The Problem of Indian Administration: Report of a Survey made at the Request of Honorable Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior, and Submitted to Him, February 21, 1928/Survey Staff: Lewis Meriam…[et al.]. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1928.

Meriam and his team’s response to the conditions it found on the reservations and in the BIA schools was to call for the ‘reconstruction of the machinery of trusteeship.’ The existence of that machinery itself was not questioned. Christine K. Gray. From The Tribal Moment in American Politics

U. S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Termination of Federal Supervision Over Certain Tribes of Indians: Joint Hearings, Eighty-third Congress, Second Session Part 6, Menominee Indians, Wisconsin, March 10, 11, and 12, 1954. Washington: U. S. Govt. Print. Off., 1954.
Online via HeinOnline – NU Affiliated users only
ProQuest Congressional – NU Affiliated users only
HathiTrust – open access copy, pts. 1-12 in 2 volumes

U. S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Termination of Federal Supervision Over Certain Tribes of Indians: Joint Hearings, Eighty-third Congress, Second Session. Part 12, Turtle Mountain Indians, North Dakota, March 2 and 3, 1954. Washington: U. S. Govt. Print. Off., 1954.
Online via HeinOnline – NU Affiliated users only
ProQuest Congressional – NU Affiliated users only
HathiTrust – open access copy, pts. 1-12 in 2 volumes

  • Testimony by Patrick Gourneau on pp.1448, 1485 (pdf pagination pp. 34 and 72)

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Subcommittee on Indian Affairs. Federal Indian Policy: Hearings Before the United States Senate Committee On Interior And Insular Affairs, Subcommittee On Indian Affairs, Eighty-Fifth Congress, First Session, On Mar. 27, May 13, 16, June 17, July 1, 22, 1957. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1957.
ProQuest Congressional – NU Affiliated users only
HathiTrust – open access copy

  • Table of contents, pdf pagination pp.3-7
  • Testimony and statement of Patrick Gourneau, pdf pagination 176-178.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking and Currency. Area Redevelopment: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee On Banking And Currency, United States Senate, Eighty-fifth Congress, First[-second] Session, On S. 104, S. 964, S. 1433, And S. 1854, Bills to Assist Areas to Develop And Maintain Stable And Diversified Economies by a Program of Financial And Technical Assistance And Otherwise. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1957-58.
HathiTrust – open access copy

  • Table of Contents, pdf pagination pp.3-11
  • Testimony of Patrick Gourneau, part 1, pdf pagination pp. 834 –835.

Congressional Record – Proceedings of the House and the Senate

Rep. Edmond Edmonson (OK). “Freeing Certain Tribes of Indians from Federal Supervision,” Congressional Record, vol:issue (July 20, 1953) pp.9262. [discussion of H. Con.Res. 108 by Mr Edmondoson and Mr D’Ewart]

Rep. Arthur Miller (NE). “Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin,” Congressional Record, vol:issue (August 1, 1953) pp. 10930-10942. [conference report and statement re: H.R. 2828 and discussion of termination for Menominee Tribe].

Rep. Arthur Miller (NE). “Competent Indians: First-Class Citizens,” Congressional Record, vol:issue (January 18, 1954) p.410. Extension of Remarks of Hon. A.L. Miller of Nebraska

Sen. Arthur Watkins (UT). “Termination of Federal Supervision Over Certain Indian Property,” Congressional Record, vol:issue (January 18, 1954) p. 325. [Sen. Watkins statement when introducing 8 bills to terminate federal supervision of named Indian tribes]

Sen. Wayne Morse (OR). “Termination of Federal Supervision Over Certain Tribes of Indians in the State of Utah,” Congressional Record, vol: issue (May 4, 1954) pp.5926-5927 [Sen. Morse asking questions about S.2670] – check earlier pages for additional discussion of termination

Rep. Arthur Miller (NE). “Amending Act of Congress of September 3, 1935 (49 Stat. 1085), as Amended,” Congressional Record, vol:issue (June 8, 1954) pp.7842-44 [conference report on H.R. 2828]

Sen. Arthur Watkins (UT). “Indian Legislation Affecting the Indians,” Congressional Record, vol:issue (August 20, 1954) pp15452-15453. [statement by Senator Watkins re: legislation passed and signed into law during the 83rd Congress].