NCJ Number
84493
Journal
Social Science Journal Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: (July 1982) Pages: 73-85
Date Published
1982
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper details a conflict between reservation Indians and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BIA is characterized as an interest group seeking to maintain dominance over its clients during a period when its formal dominant position is threatened by federal legislation.
Abstract
The BIA response to its threatened status has taken the forms of a program planning orientation which forces tribes to refer most decisions to the BIA and the perpetuation of a bureaucratic ethos among tribes which serves to compartmentalize tribal problems to the point that tribal members desire no active role in their solution. The delegation of solution tasks to the bureaucracy of the BIA both perpetuates BIA dominance and works against preservation of traditional Indian culture and social structure. This theme is illustrated through a description of BIA criminal justice planning on the reservation. The same illustration is used to describe the possibility of a compromise which responds to both BIA and tribal interests. (Author abstract)