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Reservations
Modern Reservations, Reserves, and
Communities of the Sioux
The term "reservation" arose from the
imposition of treaties in which the tribes were
essentially forced to give away most of their
land (often in exchange for grossly inadequate
consideration) but "reserved" part of it for
themselves.
In 1851, the
United States Congress passed the
Indian Appropriations Act which authorized
the creation of Native American reservations in
modern day Oklahoma. Relations between settlers
and Natives had grown increasingly worse as the
settlers encroached on territory and natural
resources in the West.
President Ulysses S. Grant pursued a stated
"Peace Policy" as a possible solution to the
conflict. The policy included a reorganization
of the Native American Service, with the goal of
relocating various tribes from their ancestral
homes to parcels of lands established
specifically for their inhabitation. The policy
called for the replacement of government
officials by religious men, nominated by
churches, to oversee the Native American
agencies on reservations in order to teach
Christianity to the native tribes. The Quakers
were especially active in this policy on
reservations. The "civilization" policy was
aimed at eventually preparing the tribes for
citizenship.
In many cases the lands granted to tribes
were hostile to agricultural cultivation,
leaving many tribes who accepted the policy in a
state bordering on starvation.
Reservation treaties sometimes included
stipend agreements, in which the federal
government would grant a certain amount of goods
to a tribe yearly. The implementation of the
policy was erratic, however, and in many cases
the stipend goods were not delivered.
Controversy
The policy was controversial from the start.
Reservations were generally established by
executive order. In many cases, white settlers
objected to the size of land parcels, and they
were subsequently reduced. A report submitted to
Congress in 1868 found widespread corruption
among the federal Native American agencies and
generally poor conditions among the relocated
tribes.
Many tribes ignored the relocation orders at
first and were forced onto their new limited
land parcels. Enforcement of the policy required
the United States Army to restrict the movements
of various tribes. The pursuit of tribes in
order to force them back onto reservations led
to a number of Native American Wars. The most
well known conflict was the Sioux War on the
northern Great Plains, between 1876 and 1881,
which included the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Other famous wars in this regard included the
Nez Perce War.
By the late 1870s, the policy established by
President Grant was regarded as a failure,
primarily because it had resulted in some of the
bloodiest wars between Native Americans and the
United States. By 1877, President Rutherford B.
Hayes began phasing out the policy, and by 1882
all religious organizations had relinquished
their authority to the federal Native American
agency.
In 1887, Congress undertook a significant
change in reservation policy by the passage of
the
Dawes Act, or General Allotment (Severalty)
Act. The act ended the general policy of
granting land parcels to tribes as-a-whole by
granting small parcels of land to individual
tribe members. In some cases, for example the
Umatilla Indian Reservation, after the
individual parcels were granted out of
reservation land, the reservation area was
reduced by giving the excess land to white
settlers. The individual allotment policy
continued until 1934, when it was terminated by
the
Indian Reorganization Act.
Therefore a Native American reservation (also known as Indian
Reservation) is an area of land managed by a Native American
tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's
Bureau of Indian Affairs. Because the land is federal territory
and Native Americans have limited national sovereignty, laws on
tribal lands vary from the surrounding area. These laws can
permit legal casinos on reservations, which attract tourists.
There are approximately 310 Native American Reservations in the
United States, meaning not all of the country's 550-plus
recognized tribes have a reservation, some tribes have more
than one reservation, others have none. In addition, because of
past land sales and allotments, discussed below, some
reservations are severely fragmented. Each piece of
tribal,
trust, and privately held land is a separate
enclave. This random mixing of private and public real
estate can create significant administrative difficulties.
The collective geographical area of all Reservations is 55.7
million acres (225,410 km˛), representing 2.3% of the area of
the United States (2,379,400,204 acres; 9,629,091 km˛).
There are twelve Native American Reservations that are larger
than the state of
Rhode Island (776,960 acres; 3,144 km˛) and nine
Reservations larger than
Delaware (1,316,480 acres; 5,327 km˛). Reservations are
unevenly distributed throughout the country with some states
having none.
The tribal council, not the local or federal government, has
jurisdiction over Reservations. Different Reservations have
different systems of government, which may or may not replicate
the forms of government found outside the Reservation. Some
Native American Reservations were laid out by the federal
government, others were outlined by the states.
As far as internal matters are concerned, unless specifically
limited by treaty or act of Congress, Native American
self-government generally includes the following areas:
1. The right to adopt and operate under a form of government
of their choosing.
2. The right to determine the requirements for membership.
3. The right to regulate domestic relations of its members.
4. The right to control the methods used to enacting municipal
legislation
5.The right to administer justice.
6. The right to levy taxes.
7. The right to regulate the use of property within the
territorial jurisdiction of the tribe.
At the present time, a slight majority of Native Americans
and
Alaska Natives live somewhere other than the reservations,
often in big western cities such as
Phoenix, Arizona and
Los Angeles, California.
Sioux Reservations
Fort Peck Reservation
Montana
Bands residing
Hunkpapa, Lower Yanktonai, Wahpekute, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Assiniboine (Canoe
Paddler, Red Bottom)
The
Fort Peck Indian Reservation lies in north-eastern Montana. It is the homeland of the
Assiniboine and
Sioux tribes. It is the ninth-largest
Indian reservation in the United States and comprises parts of four
counties. In descending order of land area they are
Roosevelt,
Valley,
Daniels, and
Sheridan counties. The total land area is 8,519.480 km˛ (3,289.389 sq mi),
and a population of 10,321 was counted during the
2000 census. The largest community on the reservation is the city of
Wolf Point.
The Fort Peck Tribes are federally recognized, therefore they
are viewed as a sovereign government, separate from the federal
government. The Tribes has its own court system, jail,
treatment centre, fish and game, and even a state controlled
tribal newspaper.
The Tribal Government has control over most activities inside
of the reservation borders. In addition to the Tribal
Government, there are also city and county governments, as well
as a newly formed Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Council. The Tribal Headquarters are located in Poplar, widely viewed
as the capital of the Reservation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
Fort Peck Agency is also located in Poplar.
In 1878, the Fort Peck Agency was relocated to its present day
location in Poplar because the original agency was located on a
flood plain, suffering floods each spring.
Attempts by the
U.S. government to take the Black Hills and bind the Sioux to
agencies along the Missouri in the 1860s resulted in warfare,
reopening the issues that had been central to the Great Sioux
War (1866-68). As part of the Sioux agreed to come in to
agencies, part chose to resist. Army efforts to bring in the
other Sioux (characterized as "hostiles") led to battles in the
Rosebud country, and culminated in the Battle of the Little
Bighorn in 1876.
As the victors dispersed, Sitting Bull led followers north
into the Red Water country, where contact with the Sioux of Fort
Peck Agency kept the Hunkpapas and assorted Tetons supplied.
When military pressure increased, Sitting Bull led most of his
followers into Canada in 1877. The military presence increased
in an effort to induce Sitting Bull to surrender.
Camp Poplar (located at Fort Peck Agency) was established in
1880. Finally, without supplies and barely tolerated by Indians
in the area of present day southern Saskatchewan, Sitting Bull
came in to surrender at Fort Buford on July 19, 1881. Some of
his Hunkpapas stragglers intermarried with others at Fort Peck
and resided in the Chelsea community.
The early 1880s brought many changes and much suffering. By
1881, all the buffalo were gone from the region. By 1883/84,
over 300 Assiniboines died of starvation at the Wolf Point
sub-agency when medical attention and food were in short supply.
Rations were not sufficient for needs, and suffering
reservation-wide was exacerbated by particularly severe winters.
The early reservation traumas were complicated by frequent
changes in agents, few improvements in services, and a difficult
existence for the agency's tribes. Negotiations the winter of
1886-87 and ratified in the Act of May 1, 1888, established
modern boundaries.
Also in 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act, which provided
the general legislation for dividing the hitherto tribally-owned
Indian reservations into parcels of land to be given to
individuals. During the turn of the century, as the non-Indian
proceeded to inhabit the boundary areas of the Reservation, the
prime grazing and farmland areas situated within the Reservation
drew their attention. As more and more homesteaders moved into
the surrounding area, pressure was placed on Congress to open up
the Fort Peck Reservation to homesteading.
Finally, the Congressional Act of May 30, 1908, commonly
known as the Fort Peck Allotment Act, was passed. The Act called
for the survey and allotment of lands now embraced by the Fort
Peck Indian Reservation and the sale and dispersal of all the
surplus lands after allotment. Each eligible Indian was to
receive 320 acres (1.3 km˛) of grazing land in addition to some
timber and irrigable land. Parcels of land were also withheld
for Agency, school and church use. Also, land was reserved for
use by the Great Northern (Burlington Northern) Railroad. All
lands not allotted or reserved were declared surplus and were
ready to be disposed of under the general provisions of the
homestead, desert land, mineral and townsite laws.
In 1913, approximately 1,348,408 acres (5,456.81 km˛) of
unallotted or tribal unreserved lands were available for
settlement by the non-Indian homesteaders. Although provisions
were made to sell the remaining land not disposed of in the
first five years, it was never completed. Several additional
allotments were made before the 1930s.
Educational history on the Reservation includes a government
boarding school program which was begun in 1877 and finally
discontinued in the 1920s. Missionary schools were run
periodically by the Mormons and Presbyterians in the first
decades of the 20th century, but with minimal success. The Fort
Peck Reservation is served by five public school districts,
which are responsible for elementary and secondary education. In
addition, an independent post-secondary institution is located
on the Reservation: Fort Peck Community College, which offers
nine associate of arts, six associate of science, and ten
associate of applied science degrees.
Fort Peck Reservation is home to two separate Indian nations,
each composed of numerous bands and divisions. The Sioux
divisions of Sisseton/Wahpetons, the Yanktonais, and the Teton
Hunkpapa are all represented. The Assiniboine bands of Canoe
Paddler and Red Bottom are represented. The Reservation is
located in the extreme northeast corner of Montana, on the north
side of the Missouri River.
The Reservation is 110 miles (180 km) long and 40 miles
(64 km) wide, encompassing 209,331 acres (847.13 km˛). Of this,
approximately 378,000 acres (1,530 km˛) are tribally owned and
548,000 acres (2,220 km˛) are individually allotted Indian
lands. The total of Indian owned lands is about 926,000 acres
(3,750 km˛). There are an estimated 10,000 enrolled tribal
members, of whom approximately 6,000 reside on or near the
Reservation. The population density is greatest along the
southern border of the Reservation near the Missouri River and
the major transportation routes, U.S. Highway 2 and the Amtrak
routing on the tracks of the Burlington Northern Railroad.
The Fort Peck Tribes adopted their first written constitution
in 1927. The Tribes voted to reject a new constitution under the
Indian Reorganization Act in 1934. The original constitution was
amended in 1952, and completely rewritten and adopted in 1960.
The present constitution remains one of the few modern tribal
constitutions that still includes provisions for general
councils, the traditional tribal type of government. The
official governing body of the Fort Peck Tribes is the Tribal
Executive Board, composed of twelve voting members, plus a
chairman, vice-chairman, secretary-accountant, and
sergeant-at-arms. All members of the governing body, except the
secretary-accountant are elected at large every two years.
Spirit Lake Reservation
North Dakota
Bands residing
Wahpeton, Sisseton, Upper Yanktonai
The
Spirit Lake Tribe (In
Santee: Mni Wakan Oyate, formerly Devils Lake Sioux) has its
reservation located in east-central
North Dakota on the northern shores of
Devil's Lake. Established in
1867
in a treaty between
Sisseton Wahpeton Bands and the United States Government,
the reservation consists of 1,283.777 km˛ (495.669 sq mi) of
land area primarily in
Benson County and
Eddy County. Smaller areas extend into
Ramsey,
Wells and
Nelson Counties. According to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs in
1998,
there are 5,086 enrolled members of the tribe, while according
to the
U.S. 2000 census, 4,435 members were living on the
reservation. The unemployment rate was at 47.3% as of
2000.
The largest community on the reservation is
Fort Totten.
The tribe currently operates one casino, the
Spirit Lake Casino. Formerly, the tribe owned two smaller
casinos which were closed in
1996
to make way for the larger facility. The reservation also
contains the
Sullys Hill National Game Preserve,
Fort Totten State Historic Site, and is home to the tribal
college,
Cankdeska Cikana Community College.
Privately owned businesses on the reservation
are few. They include such small, local
operations as Paul's Grocery. Spirit Lake
Consulting, Inc., which had over a million
dollars in federal contracts in 2006 and is the
only private company providing professional and
technical employment. Wireless access is also
hard to come by. Fort Totten is the
reservation's economic and government centre.
The tribal administration, tribal college and
Spirit Lake Consulting offices all have their
headquarters in Fort Totten. Also on the
reservation is a Vocational Rehabilitation
program, which works to assist the tribal
members in finding employment.
Standing Rock Reservation
North Dakota - South Dakota
Bands residing
Upper Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfoot
The
Standing Rock Indian Reservation is a
Dakota and
Lakota
Indian reservation in
North Dakota and
South Dakota. It is the sixth-largest
reservation in land area in the United States
and is comprises all of
Sioux County, North Dakota and all of
Corson County, South Dakota, plus extremely
small slivers of northern
Dewey County and
Ziebach County in South Dakota, along their
northern county lines at South Dakota State
Highway 20. The reservation has a land area of
approximately a million acres and a population
of 8,250 as of the
2000 census. The largest communities on the
reservation are
Cannon Ball, North Dakota and
McLaughlin, South Dakota.
The Standing Rock reservation was at the
center of the so-called Ghost Dance uprising
among the Lakota in 1890. Standing Rock was home to
Sitting Bull,
(who was a Hunkpapa) and whose murder by Indian police
sparked a panic that led ultimately to the
massacre at
Wounded Knee.
Lake Traverse Indian
Reservation
South Dakota
Bands residing
Sisseton, Wahpeton
The
Lake Traverse Reservation is
the homeland of the
Sisseton–Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the
Sioux. The reservation is located
in parts of five counties in extreme
north-eastern
South Dakota and parts of two counties in
southeastern
North Dakota,
USA. Over 60 percent of its land area lies
in
Roberts County, South Dakota, but there are
lesser amounts in
Marshall,
Day,
Grant, and
Codington Counties in South Dakota, as well
as
Sargent and
Richland Counties in North Dakota. The total
land area is 3,754.596 km˛ (1,449.658 sq mi),
and a resident population of 10,408 persons was
counted during the
2000 census. About one-third of its
inhabitants claim to be of solely Native
American heritage. Its largest community is the
city of
Sisseton, South Dakota.
The
Lake Traverse Reservation
and it's boundaries were
established by the
Lake Traverse Treaty of 1867.
Between 1884 until the 1913 the
tribe's government was based
upon the concept of the
Soldier's Lodge, however due
to external pressures from
federal Indian agents and the
missionaries as well as internal
turmoil the system was changed
in 1913 to an advisory committee
which was the basis of
government until 1946. In 1934
the tribe was urged to adopt the
provisions of the
Howard-Wheeler Act, also
known as the
Indian Reorganization Act
and by 1946 the current system
of bi-laws and tribal government
was established at
Old Agency Village,
returning governance to the
Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe
citing the authority to do so
established by the Lake Traverse
Treaty of 1867.
The Sisseton
Wahpeton Oyate were known as the
Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe
from 1946 (and briefly in 1992
the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota
Nation) until the 2002 general
elections in which a measure was
passed altering Sioux Tribe
to the traditional Dakota word
Oyate meaning people or
nation.
Flandreau Reservation
South Dakota
Bands residing
Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton
The Flandreau
Santee Sioux Tribe is comprised primarily of descendents of "Mdewakantonwan",
a member of the Isanti division of the Great Sioux Nation, and
refer to themselves as Dakota, which means friend or ally.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian
Reservation is 5,000 acres of combined trust and fee tribal
land located along and near the Big Sioux River in Moody County,
South Dakota, in a region know as the Prairie Coteau, which
consists primarily of undulating or gently rolling land.
Today, the major employers on
the Flandreau Santee Sioux Reservation are Tribal
administration, Tribal health care, education and Tribal Casino
operations. In addition to Tribal government and services, the
Tribe also operates the Royal River Casino and bingo, motel, gas
station/convenience store and a bowling alley. Other major
employment is provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the
Flandreau Indian School.
Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation
South Dakota
Bands residing
Minneconjou, Blackfoot, Two Kettle, Sans Arc
The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created in 1889
by the breakup of the
Great Sioux Reservation, following the defeat of the
Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. At present the
reservation covers almost all of
Dewey and
Ziebach counties in
South Dakota. In addition, there are very tiny pieces of
off-reservation trust land in
Haakon,
Meade, and
Stanley counties. The total land area is 11,051.447 km˛
(4,266.987 sq mi), making it the fourth-largest
Indian reservation in land area in the
United States. Its largest community is
North Eagle Butte.
The terms of the
Treaty of Fort Laramie concluded in 1868 granted the Lakota
a single large reservation that covered parts of
North Dakota,
South Dakota, and four other states. However, about one half
of this reservation was confiscated by the United States
government. Then the damming of the
Missouri River, started in 1948, submerged an additional 8
percent of the Reservation.
The
2000 census reported a population of 8,470 persons. Many of
the 13 small communities on the Cheyenne River Reservation do
not have water systems, making it difficult to live in sanitary
conditions, although great strides have been made in recent
years with construction of water systems tapping the Missouri
Main Stem reservoirs, like
Lake Oahe, which forms the eastern edge of the Reservation.
With few jobs available many tribal members do not have jobs and
two-thirds of the population survives on much less than
one-third the American average income. These dismal living
conditions have contributed to feelings of hopelessness and
despair among the youth.
Indian Country Today reports than one in five girls on
the Cheyenne River Reservation has contemplated suicide and more
than one in ten have attempted it.
The CRIR is the home of the
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) or Cheyenne River Lakota
Nation (Oyate), which is made up of parts of four (the
Minnecojou,
Sans Arc,
Blackfoot and
Two Kettle) of the traditional seven bands of the Lakota,
also known as Teton Sioux.
The CRIR is bordered on the north by the
Standing Rock Indian Reservation, on the west by
Meade and
Perkins Counties, on the south by the
Cheyenne River, and on the east by the Missouri River in
Lake Oahe. Much of the land inside the boundaries is privately
owned. The CRST headquarters and BIA agency are located at
Eagle Butte, South Dakota, and the reservation is reached
via
US-212.
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