Public Law 280 (L25)
Dr. Anton Treuer
Bemidji State University
Merriam Report Review
• Exposed problems with boarding schools:
malnutrition of students, harsh physical
punishments, deaths
• Exposed poverty: Indians making 1/7 of the
average American household income
• Failure of allotment and assimilation programs
to improve life for Indians or assimilate them
into mainstream
John Collier & Indian New Deal Review
• BIA becomes advisory not supervisory
• Work program, public health, education
funding
• Indian Reorganization Act: end allotment,
enable creation of modern tribal government
Unraveling the Indian New Deal
• Indian resistance
– 77 tribes voted not to accept IRA
– 17 accepted it against their will
– More than 50,000 Indians not recognized as such
by federal government
– Over 100,000 Indians in OK not affected by IRA
Unraveling the Indian New Deal
• Nonnative resistance to IRA & Collier
– Collier seen as a radical, segregationist, communist
– BIA moved temporarily to Chicago, 1941 to distance
BIA from legislators and President
– Several attempts to repeal IRA
– Reservations are negative: relics of a racist past,
obstacle to assimilation
– Desire for unity, consensus during WWII (in spite of
Japanese internment camps & anti-immigration)
– Navajo Code Talkers unnoticed
– Collier resigns, 1945
Policy Shift
• Previous policies focused on changing Indians,
but also isolating them from whites:
reservations, boarding schools, allotment,
even citizenship
• Now policy-makers advocated assimilation by
integration: relocating Indians away from
home communities and terminating tribal
sovereignty
Indian Claims Commission
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Clean up past messes
Cloud titles turned clean
Quantify solutions to complex problems
Tribes have to establish competing claims to
prove who got cheated
• No apologies, no reparations
Relocation
• Entice Indians to move to urban areas:
Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago
• One-way bus fare and first month’s rent
supplied by government
• Once relocated, Indian families found little
economic opportunity
• Put first significant numbers of Indian on
welfare – entitlement mentality
• Cost the government more than it saved
Relocations Advertisements
Relocation Families
Effects of Relocation
• Urbanization is permanent: most tribes have
half their population living off-reservation,
37% of Indians in MN in the 7 country metro
• Red Lake and many other reservations
establish urban offices to outreach
constituents
• Poverty, gangs, drop out rates all higher for
urban Indians than their reservation
counterparts
Termination
• Prelude: full lecture on subject later
• Disband tribal governments, making Indians
American with tribal heritage but without
tribal government, land, or assistance
• Menominee terminated
Indian Health Service
• Treaty-stipulated obligation to many tribes
• Reorganized under U.S. Public Health
Program, 1954
• Quality of care
• Privacy
• Sterilization: 25,000 tubal ligations by 1975
without consent
Public Law 280, 1953
• Federal congressional act: “Only Congress
shall…”
• Test case, affecting MN, WI, CA, NEB, OR
• Other states added later
Public Law 280
Jurisdiction Before PL 280
• Federal government has
plenary power (Kagama
decision)
• Federal government has
jurisdiction over Major
Crimes (Major Crimes Act,
1885)
• State has no authority over
tribes
• Tribes maintain civil and
criminal jurisdiction over all
but major crimes
Jurisdiction After PL 280
• Federal government has
plenary power (Kagama
decision)
• State government has
jurisdiction over crime
• Tribes maintain civil
jurisdiction
• Only affects tribes in named
states
• Treaty rights not affected
Red Lake Exempted
Giniwgwaneyaash
• Scrutinized legislative
agenda and intervened
• Angry testimony in
Washington
• Bill amended to exclude Red
Lake before it came to a
vote
Roger Jourdain
Eroding PL 280
• Many tribes seek exemption from PL 280
• Boise Forte (Nett Lake, Vermilion, Deer Creek)
exempted in 1975
• All tribes in MN except Fond du Lac have tribal
courts and police
• Double jeopardy – separate sovereigns
New Assimilation Approach
• Reservation period, up to 1933: allotment,
boarding schools – keep them separate and
assimilate them before integration
• Indian New Deal period, 1933-1945:
expanding tribal sovereignty and autonomy
• Post-IRA period, 1945-1970: relocation,
termination, PL 280 - assimilate by integration