Roberta Granger, age 12, of Billings, Montana, for her question:
HOW MANY INDIAN RESERVATIONS ARE THERE?
An Indian reservation is an area that is set aside for the exclusive use of Indians. There are about 285 federal and state Indian reservations in the United States and they cover more than 50 million acres of land. The reservations are located in about 30 states.
There are about 800,000 Indians living at the present time in the United States and almost half of them make their homes on reservations.
Canada has more than 2,200 acres of land set aside exclusively for Indians. These areas are called reserves. More than 250,000 Canadians are registered today as Indians.
In 1758, the New Jersey Colony established the first Indian reservation in North America. The colony set aside land for the Delaware Indians at Indian Mills in what is now Burlington County.
During the early and middle 1800s, advancing white settlers claimed more and more Indian lands. The federal government moved the eastern Indians to newly established reservations west of the Mississippi River. By the late 1800s, most of the Indians in the United States had been moved to reservations in the West.
In 1824, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was established. Its activities included the lease or sale of forest, mineral and other natural resources on Indian reservations to non Indians. The bureau used the income from these activities to help provide welfare and other federal services for the Indians. The tribes had little voice in the policies of the bureau.
The bureau maintained strong control over federal reservation programs during the first half of the 1900s. Then, in the 1960s, many tribal leaders and younger Indians started a movement to give control of these programs to the Indians themselves.
In 1970, President Richard Nixon sent a special message to Congress calling for a new era of Indian self determination. Since then, tribes have been given increased authority.
Reservations differ greatly in size. Some in California, known as rancherias, cover less than 10 acres each and have fewer than 10 Indians.
Largest United States reservation is the Navajo reservation that covers about 14 million acres of land in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. In size, it is about half as large as the state of West Virginia. This reservation is also the nation's most heavily populated Indian area. About 100,000 Navajos live there.
Some of the land in Indian reservations spreads across desert and mountain areas of the Southwest, and others occupy forest and lake regions of the Midwest and Northwest. Still others cover the great plains between Oklahoma and Montana.
Farming ranks as the chief economic activity on most Indian reservations. Manufacturing provides a small but growing source of employment and income.
Leading industries on Indian lands include jewelry making and wood processing.
A number of tribes lease mineral rights, operate businesses and offer tourist attractions on their reservations.
Living conditions on many of the reservations, unfortunately, are generally rated to be substandard. Educational and health facilities are in need of improvement.