Indian Relocation Act of 1956

The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 (also known as Public Law 959 or the Adult Vocational Training Program) was a United States law intended to create a "a program of vocational training" for American Indians in the United States. The act has been characterized as an attempt to encourage American Indians to leave Indian reservations and their traditional ancestral lands and to assimilate them into the general population in urban areas, thus weakening community and tribal ties. As such, it has been characterized as a component of the assimilatory Indian termination policies passed between 1940 and 1960, which terminated the tribal status of numerous groups and cut off previous assistance to tribal citizens. The Indian Relocation Act encouraged and forced American Indians to move to cities for job opportunities. It also played a significant role in increasing the population of urban Indians in succeeding decades.

At a time when the U.S. government was decreasing subsidies to American Indians living on reservations, the Relocation Act offered to pay moving expenses and provide some vocational training for those who were willing to move from the reservations to certain government-designated cities, where employment opportunities were said by the legislators to be favorable. Types of assistance offered included relocation transportation, transportation of household goods, subsistence per diem for both the time of relocation and up to four weeks after arrival, and funds to purchase tools or equipment for apprentice workers. Vocational training was oriented towards jobs in industry and other professions that hadn't existed in rural communities. Additional benefits offered included: medical insurance for workers and their dependents, grants to purchase work clothing, grants to purchase household goods and furniture, tuition costs for vocational night school training, and in some cases funds to help purchase a home. However, not all who accepted these offers actually received these benefits once they arrived in the cities, leading to some cases of poverty, culture shock, joblessness and homelessness among this population in the new, urban environment. A major issue for the American Indians that came with this was the then inability for them to return to their reservations. If relocation had been completed, the reservation the American Indians had previously lived on was dissolved. From 1950 to 1968 almost 200,000 American Indians migrated to cities, leaving reservations almost completely a thing of the past.