1945-1961
Facing new financial challenges resulting from the U.S. involvement in World War II, Congress began making plans to cut the domestic budget. Tasking former President Herbert Hoover and a team of researchers with studying the administrative duties of the presidency, President Harry Truman received the recommendation from the Hoover Commission in 1948 that all services provided to tribal nations by the United States should be sent to the states, thereby eliminating its role as trustee. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the federal government dismantled a wide array of services provided, under both treaty and legislation, to tribal nations. In some instances, this included full termination of tribal nations as a distinct group of people. In supporting its right to do so, the Supreme Court affirmed an earlier court decision in 1955 that Congress has complete authority over tribal nations. Throughout the termination process, an additional million acres of Indigenous land was lost.
