You may have seen this but it is worth posting.
Click the link to see an animated map of the loss of Tribal lands from 1784 on.
Click the link to see an animated map of the loss of Tribal lands from 1784 on.
Oh good.My mistake, they did show a couple.
I grew up in South Dakota which has a lot of reservation area. In the early 20th century the Indian ranchers were very successful and had big spreads off the reservation. The stupid government forced land sales on them and forced them back to the reservation and tried making farmers and not ranchers out of them. It didn't work.
Once a year when I was a kid the Indians got new equipment as gifts from the government and there would be a day of delivery. It literally was an all day event of equipment driving out of town for delivery to the reservation. The farmers new they didn't want the equipment so they would drive out to the reservation and buy the equipment for 50 cents on the dollar. A day or two later you would see the equipment coming back. I often wondered if this charade still occurs.
It used to be that the people on the reservation could get new houses when their houses were judged unfit. There was always good summer work on the reservation putting up new houses. If you went back 5 years later that house was being rebuilt as it was no longer livable. As an example of a common occurrence, the families would chop a hole in the wall so their cows could drink out of the bathtub. So many things like this it was a loosing battle to keep them in housing.
The real shame of the reservation is the drugs and booze that start young and keeps the people enslaved most of their lives. I lived in Washington state for a while and had a lot of business dealings with an Indian family that was very successful and lived off the reservation. We had a long talk about this and he said the reservation was killing his people and his biggest hope is they close them down and make the Indian people be Americans and not the Indian Nations, it isn't working. I agree with his assessment. I grew up with young Indian friends, but when they were teens they they became lost to booze. Its a huge problem looking for a solution.
What people don't realize, Jen, it's not the reservation that drags people down, it's the fact they were 'concentration camps'. Their culture was stripped from them, they weren't allowed to speak their languages or live their natural way of lives. They're not 'Indians', which is just another example of culture being stripped from them. Where the culture has been reclaimed, the people are actually growing in strength and confidence. Nixon, with the 'self-determination' act, gave Native people the right to reclaim this. They don't want to be 'Americanized', they want to determine their own destinies. America needs to realize that taking away their rights is what has destroyed so many lives. I tell people I am not 'Indian', I am Anishnaabe, and we have done a lot to improve life on the res. Casinos have given the reservations the ability to create an economy that works for the people. Something they never used to have due to gross unemployment. So many people could not find work because of bigotry, and Eisenhowers idea of shutting down the reservations didn't work because the people were moved to city slums.
I know. I know the reservations were concentration camps although Suquamish is a beautiful little town and the culture is very much alive and thriving there. My friend works for the tribe and she loves her heritage.
And I recoil at the word "Indians" . I don't use it unless I am talking about people from India. "Native Americans" is the best I can do but without knowing more, it's all I can do.
Thank you for giving me some instruction. I appreciate it.
I lived on the Canoncito res for a little while back in the '80sI lived on the Port Madison Reservation in Washington (Kitsap County) in Suquamish where Chief Sealth (Seattle) is buried. I have a very dear friend who is a member of that tribe. Even so....... I don't know nearly enough about our the people who were originally on this land.