Indian Reorganization Act: "one-half or more Indian blood" (Washington, D.C., 18 June 1934)

SUMMARY12. Indian Reorganization Act: "one-half or more Indian blood" (Washington, D.C., 18 June 1934) [Connections: Who decided who's Indian, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDSection 19 (now 25 U.S.C. 5129): "The term 'Indian' as used in this Act shall include all persons of Indian descent who are members of any recognized Indian tribe now under Federal jurisdiction, and all persons who are descendants of such members who were, on June 1, 1934, residing within the present boundaries of any Indian reservation, and shall further include all other persons of one-half or more Indian blood." Source credit: "June 18, 1934, ch. 576, § 19, 48 Stat. 988."

PATTERNThree doors: (1) members of a tribe already "under Federal jurisdiction," (2) their descendants living on a reservation on 1 June 1934, (3) anyone else only at one-half blood. Southeastern people with no reservation and no federal tribe had only door 3, a blood fraction proved on paper that had already marked them B, Mu or Negro. That is how the Robeson County tests (already filed: Seltzer, 22 of 209) came about

LENS (WW9)The front doors were for those already on the federal list; everyone else had to prove half-blood on records written to erase it

OPENHow many individuals nationally were certified under the one-half clause (needs deep research, BIA records)

SOURCE25 U.S.C. § 5129, Cornell LII.