When most people think of Richard Nixon, the Watergate scandal and his resignation from the presidency probably come to mind first.
Although Nixon remains a complicated figure in U.S. history, one area of his political legacy is often overlooked. Richard Nixon repeatedly demonstrated his support for Native American self-determination and was the first U.S. president to return sacred tribal lands.
Nixon strongly opposed the U.S. government’s so-called “termination” policy. Codified by Congress in 1953 by House Concurrent Resolution 108, this policy pushed Native Americans to assimilate and took away tribal rights to manage resources, enforce laws, and determine membership.
During his presidency, Nixon signed more than 50 pieces of legislation that helped shift federal policy to support greater tribal sovereignty. Those legislative efforts included a healthcare act, a water rights act, funding for reservation schools, and scholarship opportunities for Native American students, among many other areas. He also doubled the budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and appointed Louis Bruce, a member of the Mohawk Nation, as its commissioner. Amazingly, Bruce was only the third indigenous person to lead the BIA since its creation in 1824.
In 1970, Nixon enacted the federal government’s first return of sacred tribal land in nearly two centuries, handing New Mexico’s Blue Lake back to the Taos Pueblo. Similarly, a 1972 executive order returned Mount Adams to the Yakama in Washington state. The Nixon administration went even further with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which returned 45.5 million acres to Native Alaskans (along with $962.5 million USD) and supported a unique structure of indigenous governance.
Notably, the momentous Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which Richard Nixon supported, was ultimately signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1975, following Nixon’s resignation the previous year over his role in the Watergate scandal.
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- The period between 1953 and 1969 was known as the “Termination Era.” More than 100 tribes were stripped of federal recognition and lost the ability to set laws, police their citizens, levy and collect taxes, and invest in development projects. Although Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson took steps to move away from this policy, they neither overtly rejected it nor publicly proclaimed their full support for tribal self-determination.
- Historians often cite the character-building influence of Wallace "Chief" Newman on Richard Nixon's strong support of Native American rights. Newman, a Luiseño tribal leader, was Nixon's football coach at Whittier College in the early 1930s. He would remain a lifelong friend and mentor to Nixon, and he served on Nixon's Commission on Physical Fitness and Sports.
- The Nixon administration coincided with a period of heightened political activism among many Native American groups, including an occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, the Trail of Broken Treaties protest in Washington, D.C., and the American Indian Movement’s 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. In each of these incidents (though with varying degrees of success), Nixon attempted to listen to the protestors’ grievances and negotiate, urging restraint from law enforcement.
