Maribeth George, age 12, of Marion, Ohio, for her question:
WHERE IS THE FIRST AMERICAN INDIAN RESERVATION?
An Indian reservation in the United States is an area set aside for the exclusive use of 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 mid 1800x, 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.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was established in 1824. Its activities include 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 to 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 began a movement to give control of these programs to the Indians themselves.
President Richard Nixon sent a special message to Congress in 1970, calling for a new era of Indian self determination. Since then, the government has given the tribes increased authority over reservation housing, hospitals, schools, public works and other facilities.
The United States has about 285 federal and state Indian reservations that cover move than 50 million acres of land. They are located in 30 states. About 800,000 Indians live in the United States today and about half of them make their home on a reservation.
Canada has more than 2,200 acres set aside for Indians.
Reservations differ greatly in size and population. Some California reservations, known as rancherias, cover less than 10 acres and have fewer than 10 Indians.
Largest reservation in the United States is the Navajo reservation. In area, it is about the size of the state of West Virginia. It covers about 14 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. This reservation is also the nation's most heavily populated Indian area. About 100,000 Navajos live there.
Indian reservations consist of a wide variety of land. Some spread across desert and mountain areas of the Southwest while others occupy forest and lake regions of the Middlewest and the 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 land include jewelry making 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.
Living conditions on many of the reservations are generally substandard. Also, unfortunately, Indiana have the least education and the poorest health among all United States groups.