The politics of American Indian self-determination, 1958-75 : the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the policy of the U.S. government toward American Indians shifted from termination of federal protection of tribal entities to federal support of tribal self-determination. This study examined the factors which produced passage of one of the most important reforms of this period, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, which enabled Indian tribes to assume control of federal programs. Data for this analysis were gathered from interviews with participants in the Indian affairs legislative process, congressional documents, executive branch records in the National Archives, and secondary sources.

The findings of the study revealed several features of the agendabuilding process in the 1960s: (1) the emergence of Indian political activism; (2) federal program expansion for Indians, including tribally-administered community action programs; (3) policy entrepreneurship in Congress, particularly Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy, Sam Ervin, and George McGovern; and (4) presidential intervention. Presidents Johnson and Nixon presented special messages on Indian affairs to Congress, and Nixon proposed legislation which promoted "self-determination without termination." By early 1971 the major proponents of termination, the Senate Interior Committee and chairman Henry Jackson, re versed their position on Indian policy and formulated their own legislative program.

The early 1970s were the most productive period of legislative reform in Indian affairs since the Indian New Deal. The factions which contributed to legislative activism included; (1) an abortive attempt by Interior Department officials in 1970-71 to promote self-determination under existing authority by contracting with tribes which wanted to administer federal programs; (2) Jackson's subsequent sponsorship of a bill which authorized contracting, the Indian Self-Determination Act; (3) the escalation of Indian protest activity; (4) vigorous legis lative leadership by Senator James Abourezk and Representative Lloyd Meeds, chairmen of the Senate and House Indian affairs subcommittees; and (5) rivalry between the Senate Interior and Labor and Public Welfare Committees, and between Jackson and Kennedy over Indian education reform, which resulted in the addition of an education section to the Indian Self-Determination Act. The study concluded with analysis of how the Indian policy process was transformed from a "subsystem" (J. Leiper Freeman, The Political Process) to a policy network.