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Article: Indian Reorganization Act
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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INDIAN REORGANIZATION ACT
INDIAN REORGANIZATION ACT.
The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 represented a shift in U.S. Indian policy away from forced acculturation and assimilation. In 1928 the government-sponsored Meriam Report had documented problems of poverty, ill health, and despair on many reservations and recommended reforms in Bureau of Indian Affairs administration, including ending allotment and the phasing out of boarding schools. In 1933 the new administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt named John Collier, a former New York City social worker, to be commissioner of Indian affairs. Disillusioned with the materialistic and individualistic nature of industrial society, ...