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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2002

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in 1824. Right from the beginning, the BIA cheated Indians out of minerals, water and grazing rights on reservation lands. There is a $10-billion lawsuit against the BIA by tribes trying to collect the money they are due. The courts and the General Accounting Office criticized the BIA for failing to cooperate with the efforts to resolve that suit.

In 1887, the Dawes Act allowed individual Indians to hold title to 160 acres of land and become farmers. A policy of “assimilation” was adopted. Indians were to be absorbed into the American melting pot. To that end, children were taken away from their parents, native languages were prohibited, and a policy of erasing Indian culture was practiced. Today, we look at those policies as misguided and wrong. At the time, the government thought it was acting in the best interests of Native Americans.

The 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was supposed to help impoverished tribes develop economic independence. Instead, it overwhelmed the BIA with an avalanche of petitions for recognition by groups who are backed by casino developers whose sole interest is to take advantage of a loophole around the law."

Get the Story:
Letter: Time to examine 1983 Settlement Act (Mac Turner. The New London Day 12/17)