Native American Reservations

Before European colonists arrived in the New World, America was home to a number of tribes, known today as Native Americans or Indians.  Each tribe had a unique set of beliefs, leading to a vast variety of cultures and peoples.  However, with the arrival of European colonists, the Native Americans were forced to make room for the newcomers.  The flourishing variety of tribes was diminished underneath the rule of white Americans chasing their "manifest destiny."

A photo of Cherokee people.  The Cherokee are currently
one of the largest recognized tribes in the United States.

White Americans quickly disrupted the life of Native Americans upon their arrival.  The firm belief in manifest destiny throughout the country led many settlers to claim what they wanted, regardless of the impact on other populations.  The newcomers to America would remove the native Americans by force from lands they desired, whether it was for valuable resources or just expanding American territory.

In the 1800s, the government passed several pieces of legislation that systemized removing native populations from areas desired by Europeans and forcing Native Americans to assimilate into white, Christian culture.  As native Americans were forced off of their sacred lands, the government was forced to find someplace for them to stay.  Initially, they were forced to move west, into land unsettled by the white colonists.  This led to conflict between the tribes who lived in the west originally, and the nomadic tribes who were seeking land.  In 1851, the Congress authorized Indian reservations, allowing settlers to encroach on territory and resources that belonged to Native Americans.

This image shows the Native American territories
from 1784 to present-day, which consistently
decreased over time.

In 1887, Congress altered the reservation policy by distributing land to individual members of a tribe, instead of giving land parcels to tribes as a whole.  Most Native Americans viewed land as something communal to be used by all members of a tribe.  They did not believe that land was something that could be bought or sold.  The new reservation policy overturned this belief, and only served to increase tensions between native Americans and the white Americans.

Although Indians were granted land, they were usually given land that nobody else wanted.  Reservations were a fraction of the size of the areas Indians used to roam, and they had to deal with poor living conditions in addition to the loss of their sacred land.  In many reservations, there were issues of poverty, drug abuse, poor nutrition, and poor education.  These issues persist today, made better known by the work of authors like Sherman Alexie, with works including The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

Sherman Alexie, an author who draws on his experience
growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and living
as a Native American.