Reparations Payments Made in the United States by the Federal Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Universities, and Corporations
1970-1989
1970: Richard Nixon signed into law House Resolution 471 restoring Blue Lake and surrounding area to the Taos Pueblo (New Mexico). The land had been taken by presidential order in 1906. (
A History of the Indians in the United States by Angie Debo (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984, p. 422); see also "
Taos Pueblo celebrates 40th anniversary of Blue Lake's return" by Matthew van Buren,
Santa Fe New Mexican, September 18, 2010.)
The payments from 1971-1988 are taken from the booklet
Black Reparations Now! 40 Acres, $50 Dollars, and a Mule, + Interest by Dorothy Benton-Lewis; and borrowed from
N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America).
1971: Around $1 billion + 44 million acres of land:
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
1974: A $10 million out-of-court settlement was reached between the U.S. government and Tuskegee victims, black men who had been unwitting subjects of a
study of untreated syphilis, and who did not receive available treatments. (“
The Tuskegee Timeline”, CDC, updated March 2, 2020.)
1980: $81 million: Klamaths of Oregon. ("
Spending Spree" by Dylan Darling,
Herald and News (Klamath Falls, OR), June 21, 2005.)
1980: $105 million: Sioux of South Dakota for seizure of their land. (
United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371 (1980).)
1985: $12.3 million: Seminoles of Florida. (see
Racial Justice in America: A Reference Handbook by David B. Mustard, 2002, ABC-CLIO, p. 81.)
1985: $31 million: Chippewas of Wisconsin. (see
Racial Justice in America: A Reference Handbook by David B. Mustard, 2002, ABC-CLIO, p. 81.)
1986: $32 million per 1836 Treaty: Ottawas of Michigan. (see
Racial Justice in America: A Reference Handbook by David B. Mustard, 2002, ABC-CLIO, p. 81.)
1988:
Civil Liberties Act of 1988: President Ronald Reagan signed a bill providing $1.2 billion ($20,000 a person) and an apology to each of the approximately 60,000 living Japanese-Americans who had been interned during World War II. Additionally, $12,000 and an apology were given to 450 Unangans (Aleuts) for internment during WWII, and a $6.4 million trust fund was created for their communities. ("
U.S. pays restitution; apologizes to Unangan (Aleut) for WWII Internment," National Library of Medicine.)
2010-2019
The reparations payments marked with
† are taken from "
How Chicago Became the First City to Make Reparations to Victims of Police Violence" by Yana Kunichoff and Sarah Macaraeg,
YES Magazine, Spring 2017; and
Long Overdue: The Politics of Racial Reparations: From 40 Acres to Atonement and Beyond by Charles P. Henry, 2007, NYU Press.
2014: The state of North Carolina set aside $10 million for reparations payments to living survivors of the state’s eugenics program, which forcibly sterilized approximately 7,600 people. ("
North Carolina Set To Compensate Forced Sterilization Victims" by Scott Neuman,
NPR, July 25, 2013; "
Families of NC Eugenics Victims No Longer Alive Still Have Shot at Compensation" by Anne Blythe,
News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), March 17, 2017.)
2015†: The City of Chicago signed into law an
ordinance granting cash payments, free college education, and a range of social services to 57 living survivors of police torture (Burge Reparations). Explicitly defined as reparations, which totaled $5.5 million, the ordinance includes a formal apology from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a mandate to teach the broader public about the torture through a memorial and public school curriculum.
2016†: Georgetown University has acknowledged that the school has profited from the sale of slaves and has "reconciled" by
naming two buildings after African Americans and offer preferred admission to any descendants of slaves who worked at the university.
2016: The state of Virginia, one of more than 30 other states that practiced forced sterilizations, followed North Carolina’s lead and has since 2016 been
awarding $25,000 to each survivor. ("
Virginia Votes Compensation for Victims of its Eugenic Sterilization Program" by Jaydee Hanson, Center for Genetics and Society, March 5, 2015.)
2016: The U.S. government reached a settlement of $492 million with 17 Native American tribes to resolve lawsuits alleging the federal government mismanaged tribal land, resources, and money. (“
U.S. Government To Pay $492 Million To 17 American Indian Tribes” by Rebecca Hersher, NPR, September 27, 2016.)
2018: The Supreme Court, in a 4-4 deadlock,
let stand a lower court's order to the state of Washington to make billions of dollars worth of repairs to roads, where the state had built culverts below road channels and structures in a way that prevented salmon from swimming through and reaching their spawning grounds, that had damaged the state’s salmon habitats and contributed to population loss. The case involved the
Stevens Treaties, a series of agreements in 1854-55, in which tribes in Washington State gave up millions of acres of land in exchange for "the right to take fish." Implicit in the treaties, courts would later rule, was a guarantee that there would be enough fish for the tribes to harvest. Destroying the habitat reduces the population and thus violates these treaties. This decision directly affects the Swinomish Tribe. ("
A Victory For A Tribe That’s Lost Its Salmon" by John Eligon,
The New York Times, June 12, 2018.)
An Historical Timeline of Reparations Payments Made From 1783 through 2023 by the United States Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Universities, Corporations, and Communities
guides.library.umass.edu
