Native Americans and reservation inequality

Native American reservation inequality underlies a range of societal issues that affect the lives of Native American populations residing on reservations in the United States. About one third of the Native American population, about 700,000 persons, lives on an Indian Reservation in the United States.Reservation poverty and other discriminatory factors have led to persisting social inequality on Native American reservations. Disparities between many aspects of life at the national level and at the reservation level, such as quality of education, quality of healthcare, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, violence, and suicide rates are significant in demonstrating the inequality of opportunities and situations between reservations and the rest of the country.

Many contemporary disparities are rooted in the history of Indian reservations. The reservation system was created following the expansion of the United States into tribal lands throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, during United States territorial acquisitions. This effort started with the Amari Act of 1830, which created the first reservations as Natives were forced to leave their homelands to make way for white settlers. As forced relocation progressed, many tribes lost aspects of their traditional lifestyles, which centered around community living and hunting and gathering.

Reservations were created on lands that were deemed worthless to white settlers, meaning they were often uncultivatable, resource deficient, and isolated from urban centers and transportation networks. The main result of this reservation system history is concentrated poverty on the reservations. Regardless of urbanness, areas of concentrated poverty tend to have higher crime rates, underperforming schools, poor housing, poor health conditions, limited private services, and few job opportunities., as is evidenced on many reservations.

The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) resulted from culminating civil rights movements and calls for increased attention on Native American Affairs. # According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, (BIA), the act “gave authority to federally recognized tribes to contract with the BIA for the operation of Bureau-funded schools and to determine education programs suitable for their children.” Later federal educational amendments furthered the capabilities of reservation schools and “provided funds directly to tribally operated schools, empowered Indian school boards, permitted local hiring of teachers and staff,” and more.

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