[5][6] The BIA is one of the oldest federal agencies in the U.S., with roots tracing back to the Committee on Indian Affairs established by Congress in 1775.

[4][7] First headed by Benjamin Franklin, the committee oversaw trade and treaty relations with various indigenous peoples, until the establishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun in 1824.

[4] As of 2020,[update] the majority of BIA employees are American Indian or Alaska Native, the most at any time in the agency's history.

[4] Headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C.,[8] the BIA is headed by a bureau director who reports to the assistant secretary for Indian affairs.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs was formed on March 11, 1824, by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, who created the agency as a division within his department, without authorization from the United States Congress.

[16] It was not until the court case Worcester v. Georgia, when Chief Justice John Marshall allowed Native American tribes to be recognized as "domestic dependent nations."

These court cases set precedent for future treaties, as more Native tribes were recognized as domestic and dependent nations.

When reparations from the treaty were unfulfilled, the Senate Committee on the Indian Affairs made the final settlement in 1850.

With the rise of American Indian activism in the 1960s and 1970s and increasing demands for enforcement of treaty rights and sovereignty, the 1970s were a particularly turbulent period of BIA history.

[20] The rise of activist groups such as the American Indian Movement (AIM) worried the U.S. government; the FBI responded both overtly and covertly (by creating COINTELPRO and other programs) to suppress possible uprisings among native peoples.

[22] The BIA was implicated in supporting controversial tribal presidents, notably Dick Wilson, who was charged with being authoritarian; using tribal funds for a private paramilitary force, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (or "GOON squad"), which he employed against opponents; intimidation of voters in the 1974 election; misappropriation of funds, and other misdeeds.

The grievances allege widespread violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and claim tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Cobell vs. Salazar, a major class action case related to trust lands, was settled in December 2009.

In addition, the settlement establishes a $2 billion fund enabling federally recognized tribes to voluntarily buy back and consolidate fractionated land interests.

However, this has been a difficult task as the BIA is known by many Indians as playing a police role in which the U.S. government historically dictated to tribes and their members what they could and could not do in accordance with treaties signed by both.