The Indian Reorganization Act and Its Impact Throughout the centuries, the Native American tribes have endured an onslaught of injustices and mistreatment. Many different policies had been created by the US government that further pushed the indigenous populations further into poverty and oppression, causing strong mistrust in the government. However, their struggles did not fall on deaf ears, as many US citizens would rally to their cause and call for fair treatment of the indigenous populations. One of these people, John Collier, worked as best as he could, with the knowledge he had of the varying Native cultures, to put an end to the decades of severe mistreatment, thus creating the Indian Reorganization Act, or IRA for short. The overall purpose of the IRA was to …show more content…
For centuries, Native Americans had been mistreated by Europeans. This mistreatment came from racist sentiments held by whites that negatively and fallaciously viewed Native American people as uncivilized and inferior6. These sentiments continued into the 19th century, with many events from the Trail of Tears march to the formation of the Dawes Severity Act, forcing Native American land to be federally monitored and allotted to the government, the remaining lands being auctioned off to non-Native settlers. As conditions continued to get worse by the decade, people eventually opened their eyes to the cause of the Natives and pushed for fair treatment for the tribespeople, thus the Indian Reorganization Act had been created. The creation of the Indian Reorganization Act, or the IRA, had several different purposes throughout, with the ultimate goal of helping the Native American tribes throughout the United States. First and foremost, the IRA’s first title was to undo the policies of the Dawes Severalty Act. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 initiated the national policy of allotment of