Reservation poverty

Reservations in the United States, known as Indian reservations, are sovereign Native American territories that are managed by a tribal government in cooperation with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, a branch of the Department of the Interior, located in Washington, DC. There are 334 reservations in the United States today. As of 2008, almost a third of Native Americans in the United States live on reservations, totaling approximately 700,000 individuals. About half of all Native Americans living on reservations are concentrated on the ten largest reservations.
Reservations vary drastically in their size, population, political economy, culture and traditions. Despite such variation, all reservations share similar histories of colonization, and face similar contemporary challenges. One of these challenges is poverty. In 2010, the poverty rate on US reservations was 28.4 percent, compared with 22 percent among all Native Americans. The U.S. poverty rate among all groups is much lower, at 12.7 percent as of 2016. In addition to poverty rates, reservations are hindered by education levels significantly lower than the national average. Poor healthcare services, low employment, substandard housing, and deficient economic infrastructure are also persistent problems.

Background

The official poverty rate on reservations is 28.4 percent, compared with 12.7 nationally. About 36 percent of families with children are below the poverty line on reservations, compared with 9.2 percent of families nationally. These figures are absolute poverty rates as determined by the US Census. In 2010, the poverty threshold for a family of four with two children was $22,113. Some reservations in Washington, California, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona, and New Mexico fare worse, with more than 60 percent of residents living in poverty.
Income levels on some reservations are extremely low. Five of the lowest per capita incomes in the country are found on reservations. Allen, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, has a low per capita income in the country, at $1,539 per year. Overall, the per capita income of American Indians on Reservations is half that of all Americans. The median income on reservations is $14,097, compared to $41,994 nationally.

Poverty rates on the ten largest reservations

Reservation	Location	Poverty Rate	Poverty Rate
Navajo Nation	Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah	46.5	42.9
Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation	Utah	54.4	20.2
Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation	Arizona	44.3	46.4
Cheyenne River Indian Reservation	South Dakota	42.3	38.5
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation	South Dakota and North Dakota	41.2	40.8
Crow Indian Reservation	Montana	31.5	30.5
Wind River Indian Reservation	Wyoming	22.6	20.9
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation	South Dakota	52.8	53.5
Fort Peck Indian Reservation	Montana	58.5	35.3
San Carlos Indian Reservation	Arizona	52.6	50.8
National Average		9.2	12.4

''Figures from the 2000 census.''

Deep poverty

The deep poverty rate of a population is the percentage of families earning less than half of the poverty threshold. For a family of four in 2010, the deep poverty threshold was approximately $11,000 or less than $3,000 per person. On large reservations, the deep poverty rate is as much as six times the national rate. On average, the deep poverty rate on the largest reservations is almost four times the national rate. A breakdown is provided in the following table.

Deep poverty rates on the ten largest reservations

Reservation	Location	Deep Poverty Rate
Navajo Nation	Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah	14.9
Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation	Utah	4.2
Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation	Arizona	20.7
Cheyenne River Indian Reservation	South Dakota	14.6
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation	South Dakota and North Dakota	16.6
Crow Indian Reservation	Montana	9.7
Wind River Indian Reservation	Wyoming	13.4
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation	South Dakota	20.9
Fort Peck Indian Reservation	Montana	10.1
San Carlos Indian Reservation	Arizona	25.1
National Average		4.0

''Figures from the 2000 census.''

Changes over time

Historic data on poverty on reservations is extremely limited because of the tumultuous history of gathering data in these areas. American Indians were not included in census counts until 1840. Reservation-specific data was only produced following 1870.
In the 1970s, poverty on reservations decreased by as much as 20 percent on many reservations. In the 1980s, however, these gains were lost, and rates rose to levels comparable to those in the 2000. Through 2016, though, rates again rose, and rates in 2000 were very close to those in 1969. Explanations for these fluctuations suggest a need for further research, and careful consideration of how data was gathered, to ensure that figures reflect true changes in poverty rates rather than changes in reporting.

Changes in poverty rates on largest reservations

Reservation	Location	1969	1979	1989	2000
Navajo Nation	Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah	62.1	47.3	54.2	46.5
Cheyenne River Indian Reservation	South Dakota	54.8	47.5	57.2	42.3
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation	South Dakota and North Dakota	58.3	44.2	54.9	41.2
Crow Indian Reservation	Montana	40.0	29.6	45.5	31.5
Wind River Indian Reservation	Wyoming	42.0	35.2	47.8	22.6
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation	South Dakota	54.3	48.4	59.5	52.8
Fort Peck Indian Reservation	Montana	46.7	26.8	42.8	38.5
San Carlos Indian Reservation	Arizona	62.3	45.9	59.8	52.6

Historical data not available for Uintah and Ouray and Tohono O'odham Reservations.
''Figures from Trosper.''

Historical factors

Early development

Following the American Revolution, the United States' strategy for native relations was to purchase Native American land by treaties. The United States also sought to assimilate Native Americans. The reservation system was created following the expansion of the United States into tribal lands. White settlers were considered unable to live alongside native peoples, and so various treaties continually limited the lands Native people were "allowed" to inhabit. This effort started under the presidency of Andrew Jackson with the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which created the first reservations. As forced relocation progressed, many tribes lost access to tribal traditional lifeways, which centered around community living and hunting and gathering.
During this violent period, tribes were often forced to move to geographic areas unfamiliar to them, most commonly from Eastern states to Western states. Reservations were created on lands that were deemed worthless to white settlers. Reservations were placed on lands considered resource deficient, unfit for agriculture or cultivation, and which were isolated from urban centers and transportation networks. Mainstream political discourse of this era favored removing tribes from areas populated by or desirable to the white population. During the nineteenth century, many Native American nations resisted forced migration by mounting upheavals which often turned bloody. Known as the American Indian Wars, these battles between American settlers or the United States government and Native Americans culminated in the Massacre at Wounded Knee of 1890, during which US military forces killed more than 150 Lakota men, women, and children.

Dawes Act era

As the white population began moving West, into the land formerly assigned to tribes, government policy underwent a transformation. In 1887, the Dawes Act was passed. The Dawes Act represented a shift in federal policy towards American Indians. This legislation divided tribal lands into individual parcels to be assigned to individual tribal members. The net result was more land available for non-native settlers, and less land held by American Indians. Policies starting with and following the Dawes act attempted to eliminate native lifeways, cultures, and communities. Political leaders asserted that forcing American Indians to hold private property would assimilate them into American culture. To facilitate assimilation, they were given food, housing, and clothing. The explicit aim of these policies were to forcibly eliminate traditional cultures, and "kill the Indian, save the man".
During this era, Native American children were removed from the home and sent to boarding schools, where they were given Western clothes, food, and education. They were allowed little to no communication with families, and siblings were often separated. Boarding school students were prohibited from practicing tribal traditional lifeways and from speaking indigenous languages. In several instances when students were caught maintaining Native culture or language, students were physically abused.
Forced assimilation took away the livelihoods of many Native people, without providing anything in its place. Tribal members were prohibited from making a living through hunting, fishing, and arts. Furthermore, native people who provided educational, religious, medical, and culinary services to their communities were replaced with non-native, government and Church-sponsored individuals. In the early twentieth century, tribes were further hindered by the Indian Reorganization Act, which imposed particular forms of governance and organization for tribal leadership. Traditional systems of social and political organization were replaced by forced constitutional forms and acted as a tool for further assimilation.
Forced assimilation policies explicitly aimed to forcibly strip Native people of their history, identities and their livelihoods. Because the land on which reservations were created tended to be barren, resource deficient land, there was little chance of developing economically viable agricultural enterprises. Prohibition of tribal traditional lifeways combined with the remote locations of the reservations created very few opportunities for economic solvency within reservations and for very few opportunities for economic interaction with white settlements.