Why was the bureau of indian affairs included in the dept of the interior?

Question

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Answer 1

One of the first acts of the Continental Congress was the creation, in 1775, of three departments of Indian affairs; northern, central, and southern. Among the first departmental commissioners were Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry. Their job was to negotiate treaties with tribes and obtain tribal neutrality in the coming Revolutionary War. Fourteen years later, the U. S. Congress established a War Department and made Indian relations a part of its responsibilities.

The office of superintendent of Indian trade was in the War Department in 1806. The superintendent was responsible for the operation of the factory trading system. Thomas L. McKenney held this office from 1816 to the end of the factory system in 1822.

The abolition of the trading system removed even this effort to centralize the work with the Indians within the War Department. March 11, 1824 Secretary of War John C. Calhoun created what he called the Bureau of Indian Affairs without authorization from the Congress. McKenney, formerly superintendent of Indian trade, was appointed to head the office, with two clerks assigned to him as assistants.

McKenney was instructed to take charge of the appropriations for annuities and current expenses, to examine and approve all vouchers for expenditures, to administer the funds for the civilization of the Indians, to decide on claims arising between Indians and whites under the intercourse act, and to handle the ordinary Indian correspondence of the War Department.

Only Secretary Calhoun seems to have called this newly created agency a Bureau of Indian Affairs. McKenney first designated it the "Indian Office" in his correspondence, and later uniformly used the "Office of Indian Affairs." He and the clerks assigned to him became in actual practice an Indian secretariat within the War Department, handling a large volume of correspondence and other detailed routine business that pertained to Indian matters.

It was apparent to McKenney that he had inherited all the routine work that related to Indian affairs but that the authority and responsibility was still in the Secretary of War. What was needed was the necessary Congressional action creating an Office of Indian Affairs, with the essential responsibility placed in a department head who would receive and act upon all matters pertaining to relations between the United States and the Indian tribes.

Thomas L. McKenney on March 31, 1826 drew up a bill that called for the Office of Indian Affairs created by the Congress, with a responsible head having authority and responsibility to deal with all matters relating to Indian affairs. This requested the appointment of a "General Superintendent of Indian Affairs," to head the Office of Indian Affairs, and to whom would have been assigned all Indian relations that had rested with the Secretary of War. After commitment to the Committee of the Whole, the bill failed to receive further action during that congress.

In 1829, at the request of the Secretary of War, Governor Cass and General Clark included McKenney's proposal in their plan to recognize Indian affairs. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs introduced the measure a third time in the 22nd Congress, and it passed both houses to become law on July 9, 1821. The bill gave the president authority to appoint a Commissioner of Indian Affairs to serve under the Secretary of War, and have "the direction and management of all Indian affairs, and all matters arising out of Indian relations." The Commissioner was to receive an annual salary of $3,000.

With a Bureau or Office of Indian Affairs and a Commissioner to head that section within the War Department, it was now possible to work toward the development of more orderly methods of conducting Indian relations and to bring to a close what had been referred to as a period of confusion in matters that involved Indians. That part of the act of July 9, 1821 authorizing the appointment of the Commissioner was later amended by the act of 1849 that transferred the Office of Indian Affairs to the Department of the Interior. Within a century it controlled virtually every aspect of Indian existence.