The 1950s were known as the "Termination Era" in US federal policies toward Native American tribes. During this period, the government sought to terminate federal recognition of all Indian tribes and to relocate them from their lands. The relocation involved the Bureau of Indian Affairs moving Indians from their reservations into urban cities, according to the US Library of National Medicine. The policy of termination was pursued through a three-pronged approach of relocation, termination of status, and extension of state jurisdiction into Indian territory. By 1963, a total of 33,466 American Indian and Alaska Native people had been relocated. Additionally, the federal status of over 100 tribes was terminated and over a million acres were taken from them.
