Van Wilson, age 12, of Norristown, Penn., for his question:
HOW MANY INDIAN RESERVATIONS ARE THERE?
An Indian reservation in the United States is an area set aside for the use of Indians exclusively. There are 285 federal and state Indian reservations in the nation.
All of the Indian reservations in the United States cover about 50 million acres. They are located in 30 different states.
About 800,000 Indians live in the United States today, and almost half of this number make their homes on reservations.
Largest reservation in the country is the Navajo reservation which covers about 14 million acres of land in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. All together, this reservation is about the same size as the state of West Virginia. About 100,000 Navajos live there.
Some California reservations are called rancherias and they cover less than 10 acres. Some have fewer than 10 Indians.
Canada has more than 2,200 acres set aside for Indians. These areas are called reserves.
Farming is the chief economic activity on most Indian reservations but manufacturing is a growing source of employment and income. Leading industries on Indian lands include jewelry manufacturing and wood processing.
A number of tribes lease mineral rights, operate businesses and offer tourist attractions on their reservations. But most reservations lack well developed economics. About 40 percent of the reservation Indians have no jobs.
Indians who live on reservations have the highest unemployment rate and the lowest average income of any United States group.
Also, unfortunately, living conditions on many of the reservations are generally substandard. In addition, Indians also have the least education and the poorest health among all United States groups.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency of the Department of the Interior, manages most of the federal programs on Indian reservations.
The nation's first reservation was estabiished in 1759. Called the New Jersey Colony, it set aside land for the Delaware Indians at Indian Mills in what is now Burlington County.
During the early and mid 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 Western states.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in 1824.