Challenge / WI: Bureau of Negroes and Indians

Premise: At some point during the 19th century the United States emancipated its slaves, but were unwilling to grant them citizenship en masse. Instead the freedmen were granted titular sovereignty in the form of geographically defined "nations", with their own reservations (on marginal land in the deep south), their own tribal councils and courts, and so on. The system was integrated with the existing Indian Office to form the Bureau of Negroes and Indians (BNI), within the Department of the Interior.

So...

Granted a POD anytime after 1776, how could this situation come about? Or is it impossible?

Could it last as long as the OTL tribal system, or would it break down due to the much larger population of blacks as compared to Indians?

What would be the ramifications for blacks, Indians, and whites? How would race relations be different from OTL?

What would be the broader effect on U.S. politics?
 
I'm not sure about the real feasibility (it certainly matches contemporary thinking, but doesn't sound practical). If it was done, though, it would cause massive dislocation. It would also face strong opposition from several quarters

Southern landowners, who would be losing their labour (they need the blacks living on good land and working cheaply, not away in some marginal area scratching a living independently)

Northern free blacks, who would resent (and quite possibly resist) being assigned tribes and reservations.

People already living in the marginal areas assigned to the blacks.

It's not impossible - the South african government did something a lot like it in the 40s and 50s, complete with evicting integrated urban black communities into theire 'ancestral lands'. But it's not easy, cheap, or uncontroversial. And it will leave bitter memoiries. I'm noit sure if it would be worse than OTL, but certainly not better, and with less obvious avenues for reconciliation given even the pretense of equality is missing.
 
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