The Bureau of Indian Affairs (Indian Affairs) is an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior responsible for managing the federal government’s relationships and obligations to federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and communities. Its mission includes administering trust lands and resources, supporting tribal governance and self-determination, delivering services in areas such as education, law enforcement, and infrastructure, and carrying out the federal trust responsibility to protect tribal assets and rights.
Tribal governance and sovereignty; federal trust responsibility and trust asset management; land, water, and natural resource management on trust lands; tribal education and Bureau of Indian Education policy; economic development, housing, and infrastructure for tribal communities; law enforcement, public safety, and tribal justice systems; cultural and historic preservation; consultation and government-to-government relations; energy and mineral development and regulation; land acquisitions and fee-to-trust processes.
Primarily funded through annual appropriations from the U.S. Congress, supplemented by trust income, fees, reimbursements, and grants administered to or through tribes.
Bureau of Indian Education; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs; federally recognized Tribal Nations and tribal governments; Department of the Interior leadership (Secretary of the Interior); partner federal agencies such as the Indian Health Service and Bureau of Land Management; tribal advocacy organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians.
Federal government agency (U.S. Department of the Interior)
