Why Do Native Americans Live On Reservations

A dreary sadness permeates throughout, the melancholy of a once-great people today destitute and plagued by strife. Although the Reservation physically exists within the United States, it by no means feels that way. In measurements such as standards of living, life expectancy, and median income, Pine Ridge is very remote from America. This colossal remove is the child of both historical American policy purposely created to destroy American Indian culture and decades of a national failure to confront the acute suffering occurring everyday in Indian

From the onset of Europe 's exploration to the new world, the Native Americans have had the land that they once called their own stolen from them. As history continued to play out, the Indians could never escape the stigma that they were wild savages. This is no more evident than with the Indian Removal acts of the early nineteenth century in which many Indians were sent to their death on the Trail of Tears. Then came the age of reservations which began just before the Civil War, placing Indian Tribes onto land that they were assigned. This is where they have remained for many years because at the time it was just easier to put them aside. Even though the history between the two has been rough their relationship evolved overtime. The United States have become an important ally for the tribes even they were the ones who put them on the reservations in the first place. The United States government should do more to help Indian casinos, domestic violence cases, and poverty and land disputes because of the sovereign nation’s troubles with these issues.

Living on the reservation you may be surrounded by your own people, but you can still live other places and have a better life. They can still ride bulls if they really want too. They would rather much prefer a real less risky job out in the business world. The indians really get tortured even though they were promise land for their people. They are cut and striped of all the modern day necessities. Just for water they have to race to a well just to get water, if some don't make it their lucked out.

As many people already know Indian land reservations for AI/AN people were established through years of court cases, treaties, unconstitutional forced migrations and oppression. Those in power in the United States during these times began to create treaties with tribal nations to secure land. Fortunately, American Indian self-determination has in

Indigenous people are faced with colonization and assimilation every day. Throughout history, Indian policy has been created as a target of eliminating

One-third of Native Americans live under the poverty line. Most families struggle with finding a suitable and manageable job that allows them to provide a home and food for their families, (“Native American Living Conditions on Reservations”). However, a lot of their efforts go to waste. According to the article “Native Americans”, Native Americans have “high rates of poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, and low high school completion rates,” (“Native Americans”). The main causes of these problems can be traced back to the beginning of the settlement of the United States. Although Native Americans have lived in America for thousands of years before the Mayflower arrived in America, they have been deprived of their rights and opportunities by settlers, and have been the

This research proposal aims to gain understanding of the Native American experience living on reservations and explore how they are treated at the intersection of race, gender, and class. What does their culture look like in the modern reservation? What problems do they encounter and how responsible is the United States government for it?

As a 20-year-old American Indian living in the 1960’s-1970’s, I would have experienced and observe quite a change in living conditions for my people. Previously Native Americans were treated like second class citizens, they began to become more assertive and aggressive in wanting improvement in their living conditions, as well as working conditions, and began demanding that they have equal rights to other citizens. The group itself started to become more visible politically and formed groups such as the National Indian Youth Council, which was created to reestablish national pride, and the American Indian Movement, they began to protest their equal rights and made their voices heard to the United States government. They not only protested their

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 26.6 % of single race American Indians and Alaska Natives were living in poverty in 2015, the highest rate of any race group (American Indians By The Number). This statistic is even more surprising when informed the Indian Reservations are managed by the Federal Government. The Indian Removal Act, Federal Trust Doctrine and Reservation Period played a major role in current Native American economics. These historical policies were designed over 200 years ago to prevent Native American prosperity and they need to be eliminated.

Indigenous peoples throughout the world have suffered and continue to suffer ever since white people stepped foot onto their lands. In the Americas, countless incidents of genocide and blatant violations of human rights have occurred time and time again. Those indigenous to North America, known commonly as Indians or Native Americans, have faced an immense amount of racism, hatred, and oppression on the very same land that was once their own, before it was stolen by the colonists. Native Americans have faced economic hardships that are unmatched by any other race in the United States; the statistics are absolutely staggering and horrifying to know that such

As a result, many Native American advocacy organizations complied the testimonies and proof of the alarming statistics and presented this before Congress. This information included documentation of the devastating effect of governmental policies and actions toward Indian children were having not just on the children themselves, but on the larger tribal communities from which they were taken. (The Tribal Institute, 2000). As a result of the policies and practices of State social service agencies as well as the Federal Indian boarding and mission schools, vast numbers of Tribal children had been raised and educated by non-members and non-Indians. (The Tribal Institute, 2000). These large numbers of youth being raised by non-Native American families, posed a threat to many tribes’ cultural heritage in that it would be lost or forgotten. If these families continued to deteriorate and children were removed from their native homes, there would soon be very few native tribe members able to carry on the duties, obligations and expectations that surround the fundamental ways in which tribal customs and traditions are expressed and exercised. (The Tribal Institute, 2000). The fear for losing native decedents of Indian tribes was a portion of a larger fear that many Indian practices, cultural and heritage components, beliefs, languages and communities would be lost. This was a large contributing factor to

Many tribes suffer from exclusion, neglect, and under-development due to their cultural isolation from the mainstream. Urbanization has led people to migrate to other cities that are more beneficial. Cities with better economy, lower costs, and the increased of division of labor are one of the benefits people migrate to better structural cities. Laws that issued the right of tribe’s greater opportunities to shape their own future and still have the same benefits as the people in cities have been long forgotten and ignored. Despite the efforts, tribes have been most underdeveloped. Tribes go find a better future and shift to urban areas. The need for movement to the urban areas is the only option for the tribal people to gain the benefits as

Since the settlement of America, Native Americans have received the short end of the stick. Settlers continuously encroached upon Native American land, completely disregarding the fact the Indians were there first. After years of displacing the Indians and fighting with them, the government allotted reservations for the Indians to call their own. Now that tribes have been finally given a chance at economic development, many reservations have taken advantage of casinos to provide a better life for tribal members. Moral issues have been brought up, from government to non Native Americans. Even tribal members argue the moral issues. "People who are fighting this are fighting it for a variety of reasons. It's just how it would change the whole community, the flavor. Having a 24-7 bright-lights, honky-tonk feel, it's just not what people want." Says Susie Dewberry, a Suislaw tribal member. (Pittenger)

Racial identity is defined as the contributing factors to a race’s culture, pride, teachings, and history. Racial attitudes and the legal and political status of American Indian nations and Indian people influenced Native American identity. During its early history, the US often made treaties with the leaders of Native peoples and established a government to people relationship with Native tribes. With the increasing volume of movement westward, the United States began a common policy of “relocation” and “removal” of some of those tribes with whom treaties had already been signed. To this day, Natives haven’t recovered. It can be seen in statistics regarding poverty rates, Reservation Indians have a 39% poverty rate while

Throughout our public-school education, we have all learned about the many corrupt things that Native Americans have had to endure at the hands of the U.S government. These lessons keep the plight of the American Indians in the past. It is common place to hear people up in arms over sports mascots or appropriating a head dress at a music festival. Issues like these are the least of the Native American problems. Were you aware that Indians have the highest poverty level of any racial group in North America, almost two times the national average? (Macartney, Bishaw, & Fontenot, 2013) The United States is the richest country in the world, yet we have the creation of third world countries within our boarders. The poverty level seems to contribute to many other factors such as: alcoholism, gang membership, higher rates of suicide, and sexual abuse. (Riley, 2016)