Repudiation
By the early 1960s, some federal leaders began opposing the implementation of any more termination measures, although the administration of President John F. Kennedy did oversee some of the last terminations. The final termination, that of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, legally began in 1962 - after Kennedy signed the order, at the urging of Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall - and culminated in 1966. Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon decided to encourage Indian self-determination instead of termination.
| “ | Forced termination is wrong, in my judgment, for a number of reasons. First, the premises on which it rests are wrong.... The second reason for rejecting forced termination is that the practical results have been clearly harmful in the few instances in which termination actually has been tried.... The third argument I would make against forced termination concerns the effect it has had upon the overwhelming majority of tribes which still enjoy a special relationship with the Federal government.... The recommendations of this administration represent an historic step forward in Indian policy. We are proposing to break sharply with past approaches to Indian problems. | ” |
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—- President Richard Nixon, Special Message on Indian Affairs, July 8, 1970. |
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Some tribes resisted the policy by filing civil lawsuits. The litigation lasted until 1980, when the issue made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 1974 Boldt Decision was upheld in 1980 to recognize those treaty rights that were lost.
With problems arising in the 1960s, several organizations were formed, such as the American Indian Movement (AIM) and other organizations that helped protect the rights of Indians and their land. In 1975, Congress had implicitly rejected the termination policy by passing the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which increased tribal control over reservations and helped with funding to build schools closer to reservations. On January 24, 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued an American Indian policy statement that supported explicit repudiation of the termination policy.
Read more about this topic: Indian Termination Policy
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