Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life

In northern Minnesota, near the Mississippi River, there is a sign welcoming visitors to Leech Lake Indian Reservation, which is home to the Leech Lake Band of the Ojibwe people. The sign asks visitors to keep their grounds clean and to protect their natural resources. It also notifies them that no special licenses are required to hunt, fish, or trap animals on the reservation.

There are approximately 310 Indigenous American reservations in the United States. There are 564 federally recognized nations, but not all of them have reservations. Although Brazil, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are among many countries with tribal areas, only the US and Canada have reservations. Twelve in the US are larger than Rhode Island; nine are larger than Delaware, which was named for the tribe that was displaced from this region. Other reservations are extraordinarily tiny, and most reservations are impoverished. A handful, including the Seminole of Florida and the Oneida of Wisconsin, have grown wealthy. The Oneida had been American allies during the Revolutionary War. They fed the colonists at Valley Forge and helped them defeat the British Army in New York. The Iroquois Confederacy provided “one of the many models for the American constitution” (10). Indigenous Americans have fought in every American war.