Enabling Legislation
In 1943 the United States Senate commissioned a survey of Indian conditions. It indicated that living conditions on the reservations were extremely poor. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and its bureaucracy were found to be at fault for the troubling problems due to extreme mismanagement. Congress concluded that some tribes no longer needed federal protection and would be better off with more independence, rather than having them depend on and be poorly supervised by the BIA. They also thought the tribes should be part of mainstream American society. Goals of termination included freeing the Indians from domination by the BIA, repealing laws that discriminated against Indians, and ending federal supervision of the Indians. Senator Arthur V. Watkins of Utah, the strongest proponent of termination, equated it with the Emancipation Proclamation, which had declared the freedom of all slaves in the territory of the Confederate States of America.
In 1953, the United States House of Representatives and the Senate announced their support for the termination policy, with House Concurrent Resolution 108:
| “ | Whereas it is the policy of Congress, as rapidly as possible, to make the Indians within the territorial limits of the United States subject to the same laws and entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as are applicable to other citizens of the United States, to end their status as wards of the United States, and to grant them all of the rights and prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship. | ” |
Read more about this topic: Indian Termination Policy
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