OPA

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is a rarity among federal agencies. With roots reaching back to the earliest days of the republic, the BIA is almost as old as the United States itself. For most of its existence, the BIA has mirrored the public's ambivalence towards the nation's indigenous people. But, as federal policy has evolved from seeking the subjugation of American Indians and Alaska Natives into one that respects tribal self-determination, so, too, has the BIA's mission evolved into one that is based on service to and partnership with the tribes.

The Continental Congress governed Indian affairs during the first years of the United States – in 1775 it established a Committee on Indian Affairs headed by Benjamin Franklin.  At the end of the eighteenth century, Congress transferred the responsibility for managing trade relations with the tribes to the Secretary of War by its act of August 20, 1789 (1 Stat. 54).  An Office of Indian Trade was established in the War Department by an act of April 21, 1806 (2 Stat.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is the primary federal agency charged with carrying out the United States’ trust responsibility to American Indian and Alaska Native people, maintaining the federal government-to-government relationship with the federally recognized Indian tribes, and promoting and supporting tribal self-determination.  The bureau implements federal laws and policies and administers programs established for American Indians and Alaska Natives under the trust responsibility and the government-to-government relationship.

Yes.  American Indians and Alaska Natives have a long and distinguished history of serving in our nation’s Armed Forces.

No.  American Indians and Alaska Natives live and work anywhere in the United States (and the world) just as other citizens do.  Many leave their reservations, communities or villages for the same reasons as do other Americans who move to urban centers:  to seek education and employment.  Over one-half of the total U.S.

No.  American Indians and Alaska Natives come from a multitude of different cultures with diverse languages, and for thousands of years used oral tradition to pass down familial and cultural information among generations of tribal members.

Yes.  As U.S. citizens, American Indians and Alaska Natives are generally subject to federal, state, and local laws.  On federal Indian reservations, however, only federal and tribal laws apply to members of the tribe, unless Congress provides otherwise.  In federal law, the Assimilative Crimes Act makes any violation of state criminal law a federal offense on reservations.  Most tribes now maintain tribal court systems and facilities to detain tribal members convicted of certain offenses within the boundaries of the reservation.

Yes. They pay the same taxes as other citizens with the following exceptions:

• Federal income taxes are not levied on income from trust lands held for them by the U.S.
• State income taxes are not paid on income earned on a federal Indian reservation.
• State sales taxes are not paid by Indians on transactions made on a federal Indian reservation.
• Local property taxes are not paid on reservation or trust land.

Any “special” rights held by federally recognized tribes and their members are generally based on treaties or other agreements between the tribes and the United States.  The heavy price American Indians and Alaska Natives paid to retain certain rights of self-government was to relinquish much of their land and resources to the United States.  U.S. law protects the inherent rights they did not relinquish.  Among those may be hunting and fishing rights and access to sacred sites.

Yes.  American Indians and Alaska Natives have the same rights as other citizens to hold public office.