# Bureau of Indian Affairs *United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior responsible for federal Indian-affairs policy* The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also called Indian Affairs (IA), is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. It carries out federal law and policy concerning Native Americans and Alaska Natives.[^1] Wikipedia's summary puts the reservation land the bureau manages in federal trust for tribes at more than 55,700,000 acres. It puts the population the bureau serves at roughly 2 million people in 574 federally recognized tribes.[^1] The bureau publishes its offices, regional structure, tribal listings and press releases on its own website.[^2] Wikipedia's account describes the bureau as working with tribal governments to improve quality of life in tribal communities. It also records that the bureau's mandate historically reflected federal policies of forced assimilation and the annexation of native land. A shift toward tribal self-determination began with the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.[^1] The documented outputs in the pack sit beside that account. The bureau's Office of Justice Services runs directly, or funds, police, tribal courts and detention facilities on federal Indian lands.[^1][^3] The federal government's handling of more than 300,000 individual Indian trust accounts ended in a settlement of *Cobell vs. Salazar* in December 2009, with a $3.4 billion fund for class members.[^1] In the Minnesota record, the pack carries the bureau's pages for the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe's six component reservations, including Bois Forte (Nett Lake), and for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. It also carries a gaming-compact decision page concerning the Prairie Island Indian Community dated December 10, 2024, and a press release on reservation proclamations for Shakopee.[^4][^5][^6][^7][^8] The project's at-issue record places the bureau among three federal agencies under whose contracts the Sherburne County jail holds federal detainees.[^9] ## Who A bureau director heads the agency and reports to the assistant secretary for Indian affairs, who in turn answers to the Secretary of the Interior.[^1] Wikipedia's revision retrieved on 27 October 2026 names Scott Davis as the official exercising the delegated authority of the Assistant Secretary Indian Affairs.[^1] The Bureau of Indian Education, which provides educational services, is the only other agency under the assistant secretary.[^1][^10] Health care for tribal members falls instead to the Indian Health Service in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.[^1] ## What The bureau oversees the 574 federally recognized tribes through four offices:[^1] - **Office of Indian Services**: general assistance, disaster relief, Indian child welfare, tribal government, Indian self-determination and the Indian Reservation Roads Program.[^1] The bureau maintains an ICWA page under this office.[^11] - **Office of Justice Services**: police, tribal courts and detention on federal Indian lands.[^1][^3] - **Office of Trust Services**: management of the trust lands, assets and resources of tribes and of individual American Indians and Alaska Natives.[^1][^12] Its pages include a Division of Forestry and Wildland Fire Management and tribal climate resilience programs.[^13][^14][^15] - **Office of Field Operations**: 12 regional offices and 83 agencies that carry out the bureau's work at the tribal level.[^1] Wikipedia's Mission section states that the bureau is "trying to evolve from a supervisory to an advisory role." The same section reports that many Indians regard the bureau as having played a police role, through which the federal government dictated to tribes what they could and could not do.[^1] ## When - **1775**: The Second Continental Congress created three Indian-related agencies. Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry were among the early commissioners appointed to negotiate treaties.[^1] - **1789**: Congress placed relations with Native Americans in the new War Department.[^1] - **1806–1822**: A Superintendent of Indian Trade within the War Department ran the government fur-trade factory system. Thomas L. McKenney held the post from 1816 until the system was abolished in 1822.[^1] - **March 11, 1824**: Secretary of War John C. Calhoun created the bureau as a division of his department without authorization from Congress. He named McKenney its first head.[^1] - **1832 and 1849**: The bureau received statutory authority in 1832. It was moved to the newly created Department of the Interior in 1849.[^1] - **1947**: The bureau formally adopted its present name after operating as the Indian Office, Indian Bureau, Indian Department and Indian Service.[^1] - **1977**: The post of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs was created.[^1] - **December 2009**: *Cobell vs. Salazar* was settled.[^1] Wikipedia's article is internally inconsistent on two points. Its commissioners list places the 1806–1822 Office of Indian Trade in the Treasury Department and dates the Indian Office's transfer to Interior to 1832. Elsewhere, the same article gives the War Department and 1849.[^1] ## Where The bureau is headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C.[^1] Its 12 regional offices are: - Alaska - Great Plains - Northwest - Southern Plains - Eastern - Navajo - Pacific - Southwest - Eastern Oklahoma - Midwest - Rocky Mountain - Western The bureau publishes pages for the Midwest region.[^1][^16][^17] ## How The Office of Justice Services funded 208 law enforcement agencies: 43 police agencies operated by the bureau and 165 operated by tribes under contract or compact with the office.[^1][^3] Its seven areas of activity include Detention/Corrections and Inspection/Internal Affairs. Its four divisions are Corrections, Drug Enforcement, the Indian Police Academy and Law Enforcement.[^1] The bureau also publishes a range of reference material: - a question-and-answer page on what Public Law 280 is and where it applies[^18] - pages on CFR courts[^19][^20] - an online index of tribal constitutions[^21] - the Department of the Interior's annual report on co-stewardship[^22] ## How much The *Cobell vs. Salazar* settlement funded $3.4 billion for class members. The settlement compensated for claims that prior U.S. officials had mismanaged Indian trust assets. It also established a $2 billion fund that federally recognized tribes may use, voluntarily, to buy back and consolidate fractionated land interests.[^1] Separately, grievances brought by the Federation of Indian Service Employees allege widespread violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and claim tens of millions of dollars in damages. The pack does not record their outcome.[^1] ## How many - 574 federally recognized tribes and about 2 million people served.[^1] - More than 300,000 individual trust accounts at issue in *Cobell vs. Salazar*.[^1] - 42 commissioners led the bureau between 1824 and 1977.[^1] - Four class-action overtime lawsuits have been brought against the bureau by the Federation of Indian Service Employees, the union for its federal civilian employees.[^1] ## In the at-issue record The project's at-issue entry on the Sherburne County jail rests on the county's own description of its facility. In that description, the county calls the jail "the 2nd largest county facility in the state." The county says the jail holds more than 500 federal detainees on average per day under contracts with ICE, the [[U.S. Marshals Service]], and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[^9] The same entry puts the jail's local inmate population at one to two hundred.[^9] The county's description is the entry's only source. The pack does not establish the terms of the bureau's contract, its dates, or its dollar value.[^9] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who The bureau publishes pages for the following Minnesota tribes: - the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and its six component reservations[^4] - the Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake)[^5] - the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians[^6] The project files these pages, and the bureau's other pages in this pack, under a research layer on [[Dakota]] and Ojibwe land cession. The pack carries the page addresses, not their text.[^4] ### What The bureau's gaming-compacts listing includes a decision concerning the Prairie Island Indian Community.[^23][^7] Its press-release archive includes a release on Assistant Secretary Sweeney's signing of reservation proclamations for Shakopee.[^24][^8] ### When - **December 10, 2024**: the date in the address of the Prairie Island Indian Community gaming-compact decision page.[^7] ### Where The bureau's Midwest region pages cover its regional administration.[^16][^17] The Sherburne County jail in Minnesota holds detainees under a bureau contract, according to the county's own description.[^9] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Bureau of Indian Affairs* (revision 1375460140, retrieved 2026-10-27), CC BY-SA 4.0 — the agency's organization, history, mission section, legal issues and commissioners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Indian_Affairs [^2]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Indian Affairs home page* (undated) — the bureau's own published record. https://www.bia.gov/ [^3]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Office of Justice Services* (undated) — the bureau's page for its justice office. https://www.bia.gov/bia/ojs [^4]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Minnesota Chippewa Tribe — Minnesota Six Component Reservations* (undated) — tribal record page. https://www.bia.gov/tribe/minnesota-chippewa-tribe-minnesota-six-component-reservations [^5]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Minnesota Chippewa Tribe — Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake)* (undated) — component-reservation record page. https://www.bia.gov/tribe/minnesota-chippewa-tribe-minnesota-six-component-reservations-bois-forte-band-nett-lake-fond [^6]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians* (undated) — tribal record page. https://www.bia.gov/tribe/red-lake-band-chippewa-indians [^7]: Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs, *Prairie Island Indian Community decision* (2024-12-10, per page address) — gaming-compact decision page. https://www.bia.gov/as-ia/oig/gaming-compacts/2024-12-10/prairie-island-indian-community-decision [^8]: Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs, Office of Public Affairs, *Assistant Secretary Sweeney signs reservation proclamations, Shakopee* (undated) — press release. https://www.bia.gov/as-ia/opa/online-press-release/assistant-secretary-sweeney-signs-reservation-proclamations-shakopee [^9]: The White House, *Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System* (May 2026, per page address) — anchor page the project pairs with at-issue entry AI-Sherburne-086. The entry's source is Sherburne County's own jail description (co.sherburne.mn.us; not among this pack's allowed URLs), which supplies the quoted words and figures. The pack does not show this page stating them. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/restoring-integrity-to-americas-financial-system/ [^10]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Bureau of Indian Education* (undated) — page for the education agency under the assistant secretary. https://www.bia.gov/bie [^11]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Services, *ICWA* (undated) — Indian child welfare page. https://www.bia.gov/bia/ois/dhs/icwa [^12]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Office of Trust Services* (undated) — the bureau's page for its trust office. https://www.bia.gov/bia/ots [^13]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Trust Services, *Division of Forestry and Wildland Fire Management* (undated) — division page. https://www.bia.gov/bia/ots/division-forestry-and-wildland-fire-management [^14]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Trust Services, *Tribal Climate Resilience* (undated) — program page. https://www.bia.gov/bia/ots/tcr [^15]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Trust Services, *Tribal Resilience Program* (undated) — program page. https://www.bia.gov/bia/ots/tribal-resilience-program [^16]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Midwest Regional Office* (undated) — regional-office page. https://www.bia.gov/regional-offices/midwest [^17]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Midwest Region* (undated) — regional page. https://www.bia.gov/bia/midwest [^18]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *What is Public Law 280 and where does it apply?* (undated) — FAQ page. https://www.bia.gov/faqs/what-public-law-280-and-where-does-it-apply [^19]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *CFR Courts* (undated) — courts page. https://www.bia.gov/cfr-courts [^20]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *CFR Court* (undated) — courts page. https://www.bia.gov/cfr-court [^21]: U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, *Online tribal constitutions index* (undated) — index page. https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/assets/public/raca/online_constitutions/index.html [^22]: U.S. Department of the Interior, *Annual Report on Co-Stewardship* (undated; hosted by the bureau) — departmental report. https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/inline-files/doi_annual_report_on_co-stewardship.pdf [^23]: Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs, *Gaming Compacts* (undated) — listing of gaming-compact actions. https://www.bia.gov/as-ia/oig/gaming-compacts [^24]: Assistant Secretary–Indian Affairs, Office of Public Affairs, *Online press releases* (undated) — press-release archive. https://www.bia.gov/as-ia/opa/online-press-release/