From 19th-century trade agreements and treatments to 21st-century reparations, this volume tells the story of the federal agency that shapes and enforces U.S. policy toward Native Americans.

Bureau of Indian Affairs tells the fascinating and important story of an agency that currently oversees U.S. policies affecting over 584 recognized tribes, over 326 federally reserved lands, and over 5 million Native American residents.

Written by one of our foremost Native American scholars, this insider’s view of the BIA looks at the policies and the personalities that shaped its history, and by extension, nearly two centuries of government-tribal relations. Coverage includes the agency’s forerunners and founding, the years of relocation and outright war, the movement to encourage Indian urbanization and assimilation, and the civil rights era surge of Indian activism. A concluding chapter looks at the modern BIA and its role in everything from land allotments and Indian boarding schools to tribal self-government, mineral rights, and the rise of the Indian gaming industry.

20 original documents, including the Delaware Treaty of 1778, the Indian Removal Act (1830), and the act of 1871 that halted Indian treaty making

Biographies of key figures, including longtime bureau commissioners John Collier and Dillon Myer