Traces the efforts of seven landless tribes in western Washington to maintain their tribal identity, establish their treaty rights in court, secure allotments of land, and achieve federal recognition of their tribal status. The absence of trust land holdings among these tribes is the federal government's justification for nonrecognition. (SV)

The relationship between Native Americans and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is ambivalent. Most BIA commissioners, like Dillon Myer, have been assimilationists who have tried to get the government "out of Indian business." Recent policies stressing self-determination are in jeopardy as pressure mounts for decreased federal domestic…

When used in the 1950s primarily as an alternative to reservation economic development, relocation failed to achieve its intended goals. It failed to reduce federal commitment to Indian welfare, promote cultural assimilation, or improve the economic status of Indians. Indians with existing job skills and off-reservation experience--the most…