Boss Indians Around (Bureau of Indian Affairs or BIA nickname)

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior responsible for the administation and management of Native American land in the United States. Critics of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have nicknamed it “Boss Indians Around” (or ” “Bosses Indians Around” or “Bossing Indians Around”), cited in print since at least 1970.
   
Another nickname of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is “Bureau of Incompetent Asses.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of 55,700,000 acres (225,000 km2) of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American Tribes and Alaska Natives.
 
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is one of two bureaus under the jurisdiction of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs: the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education, which provides education services to approximately 48,000 Native Americans.
 
12 February 1970, Mitchell (SD) Daily Republic, “Indians Condemn BIA, Tell of Despair and Hope on Reservations” by Mark Winheld, pg. 3, col. 1:
“BIA…doesn’t that mean Boss Indians Around?”
 
25 August 1970, The New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM), “New Mexicana” by Jack Sitton, pg. A3, col. 2:
THIS AND THAT: A printed sign noted on an Indian’s windshield at the Indian Market here Sunday: “B.I.A. Bossing Indians Around.”
 
23 January 1972, San Diego (CA) Union, “Indians Skeptical: Indian Affairs Bureau Looked On As Necessary Evil,” pg. A-3, col. 2:
Indians like to say that BIA stands for “Bad Indian Administration.”
 
And they’ll tell you that the BIA people have yet another Interpretation: “Boss Indians Around.”
   
Google Books 
The Atlantic Monthly
Volume 241
1978
Pg. 63:
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which is supposed to act only as trustee over Indian property, interferes too much in matters that do not concern it; the letters BIA really mean “Bosses Indians Around.”
   
Google Books
November 1987, Mother Jones, pp. 40-41:
Despite such findings, the relocation commission— and now the BIA, which some Navajo maintain is an acronym for “Bossing Indians Around” — plunged ahead, chasing a deadline that was never attainable in the first place.
     
Google Groups: alt.religion.wicca
Are You Ceremonial Or Craft?
Oldone
9/18/00
(...)
BIA?  “Boss Indians Around?
 
Google Groups: alt.native
BIA Still the BOSS!!
Glenn Gehring
4/18/01
BIA Still the BOSS!! (Cherokee Nation)
Should the BIA have such power over tribes?  Isn’t our history and current events filled with evidence of BIA incompetence?  The “missing” _billions_ of dollars of tribal money they hold in “trust” for tribes and individual Indians, as well as documentation within the Federal government implicating the BIA as the worst managed of all Federal Agencies seems to indicate that they aren’t capable of even managing themselves!  Why should they “Boss Indians Around” (some folks think BIA stands for Boss Indians Around…I’ve heard less flattering things such as Bureau of Incompetent A…you’ll have to fill in behind the A yourself)?  I’m obviously NOT a fan of the BIA.
 
Google Groups: alt.sysadmin.recovery
Unrecovery-related paperwork
Mike Andrews
8/21/02
(...)
For values of “BLM” which equate to “Boss Indians Around”.
 
BLM is Bureau of Land Mismanagement. Little or nothing to do with bossing Indians around, which is BIA’s stock-in-trade.
   
Twitter
Donna_Barr
‏@Donna_Barr
“BIA—Bossing Indians Around” @ http://aclnk.com/ar1572160
6:19 PM - 25 Mar 2009
 
Twitter
jon_bon_jonesy
‏@jsjones70
@LakotaKid My Navajo friends call the BIA Bullying Indians Around.
9:11 PM - 27 Sep 2010
 
Twitter
C.Holdy
‏@NativeSuperWmn
Dealing w/the Dept of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) aka Boss Indians Around. Makes me wanna get my bow & arrow #grrr
5:20 PM - 26 May 2011