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Appendix D:

Indian Nations

The American Indian Digest

An Indian reservation is an area of land held in trust by the Federal Government reserved for Indian use (see Tables D.1 and D.2). The Secretary of the

Interior is the trustee for the United States. The Bureau of Indian Affairs

(BIA) is responsible to the trustee for administration and management of

Indian trust lands.

• Approximately 300 reservations are Federally Recognized totaling

some 55 million acres.

• 44 million acres are tribal trust lands.

• 11 million acres are individually owned.

• There are 12 State-recognized reservations.

Indian nations range in size from some California rancherias of less than

1 acre to the Navajo Nation at more than 17 million acres.

A few reservations are 100 percent tribal trust lands, and others are almost

entirely owned by individuals.

Some Indian tribes have an impressive array of resources on their trust

lands. It seems poetic justice that some of the desolate reservations have

become valuable land because of minerals resources, pristine resources,

and urban locations.

• 44.0 million acres in range and grazing.

• 5.3 million acres of commercial forest.

• 2.5 million acres of crop area.

• 4 percent of U.S. oil and gas reserves.

• 40 percent of U.S. uranium deposits.

• 30 percent of Western coal reserves.

• $2 billion in trust royalty payments.

Historically, Indians have been allowed to occupy lands until an economic

and/or political requisition was mandated. The discovery of gold in the

Black Hills of South Dakota, the cultivated lands of the five “civilized tribes”

in the Southeastern States, and the discovery of oil in Oklahoma are

Indian Nation

Resources
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Table D.1.—Indian Landholdings in Acres

Tribal Trust Individual Trust Total

Tribe State Land Allotments Indian Land

Navajo AZ, NM, UT 14,715,093 717,077 15,432,170

Tohono O’odham AZ 2,773,850 320 2,774,170

Pine Ridge SD 749,883 1,314,624 2,064,507

Cheyenne River SD 1,150,546 872,843 2,023,389

San Carlos AZ 1,826,541 0 1,826,541

Wind River WY 1,710,169 101,196 1,811,365

Rosebud SD 1,135,230 641,009 1,776,239

Ft. Apache/White Mt AZ 1,664,972 0 1,664,972

Hopi AZ 1,560,993 220 1,561,213

Crow MT 408,444 1,107,561 1,516,005

Standing Rock ND, SD 422,512 825,822 1,248,334

Ft. Berthold ND 596,257 604,409 1,200,666

Yakima WA 904,411 225,851 1,130,262

Colville WA 1,023,641 39,395 1,063,036

Uintah & Ouray UT 1,007,238 14,318 1,021,556

Hualapai AZ 992,463 0 992,463

Blackfeet MT 302,072 356,630 937,702

Ft. Peck MT 391,769 512,914 904,683

Jicarilla NM 823,580 0 823,580

Warm Springs OR 592,143 51,348 643,491

Flathead MT 581,907 45,164 627,071

Ft. Belknap MT 235,595 385,376 620,971

Ute Mountain CO 588,825 8,483 597,308

Red Lake MN 564,452 0 564,452

Ft. Hall ID 260,837 299,041 489,878

Pyramid Lake NV 476,729 0 476,729

Laguna NM 458,933 2,165 461,098

Mescalero NM 460,678 0 460,678

Northern Cheyenne MT 318,072 118,875 436,947

Gila River AZ 274,278 97,652 371,930

Source: Annual Report of Indian Lands, BIA Office of Trust Responsibilities, Sept. 30, 1985; BIA area offices Aberdeen, SD, Billings,

MT, and Phoenix, AZ.
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Table D.2.—State With the Greatest Acreages of Indian Land

Percent

State Tribal Individual Governmenta Total Land

Alaska 44,086,773 884,100b 0 10.7

Arizona 19,775,958 311,579 90,697 27.7

New Mexico 7,252,326 630,293 270,276 10.5

Montana 2,671,416 2,868,124 11,803 5.9

South Dakota 2,399,531 2,121,188 1,606 9.2

Washington 2,097,842 467,785 3,164 5.6

Utah 2,286,448 32,838 87 4.3

Nebraska 2,141,996 43,208 7 4.4

Wyoming 2,908,095 101,537 1,296 3.2

Nevada 1,147,088 78,529 4,946 1.7

Oklahoma 96,839 1,000,165 2,298 2.5

Idaho 609,622 327,301 32,532 1.3

North Dakota 214,006 627,289 624 1.9

Minnesota 779,138 50,338 103 1.5

Oregon 660,367 135,052 378 1.3

Colorado 795,211 2,805 32 1.2

California 520,049 66,769 808 0.6

Florida 153,874 0 333 0.4

Maine 163,570 0 0 0.7

New York 118,199 0 0 0.3

aLand within a reservation which has been reserved by the Federal Government for schools, agency buildings, and so forth.

bThis includes the 44 million acres distributed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) and owned in fee title by Alaska

Natives.

Source: Bureau of Indian Affairs Acreages of Indian Lands by State, 1990.
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explicit examples. The 500-year history of Indians versus the U.S. Government speaks for itself. Congress giveth and Congress can taketh away.

A few reservations are 100 percent occupied by Indians, and others are

almost entirely occupied by non-Indians.

• According to the 1990 Census, there are 808,163 people living on

Indian reservations.

• 437,431 (54 percent) are Indians; 388,000 Indians lived on 78 reservations with a population of 1,000 or more.

• 370,732 (46 percent) are non-Indians.

The 1830 Removal Act precipitated the infamous “Trail of Tears,” which

refers to the 1838 forced march of some 15,000 Cherokee Indians from their

coveted farmlands in the Southeastern United States to Oklahoma Indian

territory. More than 4,000 Indians died during the march from disease,

exposure, and starvation.

In a broader context, the “Trail of Tears” was typical of the forced removal of

some 60,000 members of the five “Civilized Tribes” (the Cherokee, the Creek,

the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, and the Seminole) that lasted for nearly 10

years.

The forced removal was in violation of a Supreme Court decision by Chief

Justice John Marshall in favor of the Indians to which President Andrew

Jackson responded, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him

enforce it.”