Reserves were created initially to concentrate Indian populations into fixed, stable locations. Early colonial administrators and the clergy pursued policies that reduced the mobility of Indian families to facilitate efforts to civilize and Christianize the First Nations. As European settlement expanded west from the East coast through the St. Lawrence valley and into the Prairies, colonial administrators negotiated land surrenders and treaties with local First Nations and extended the principle of fixed lands, reserves, solely for the use and occupation of the first people. It is true that economic and social conditions in a majority of reserves are equal to or lower than many Third World and developing countries. Education completion rates among First Nations students are the lowest in Canada and the chronic unemployment rates throughout a majority of Indian reserves are higher than those in Atlantic Canada.
Home means many important things to most people.
Home is where formative years are spent. One becomes part of extended family at home. One acquires and shares values, beliefs and behaviour as a member of group which resides in and around a home. Above all, a reserve is a manifestation of a visceral and spiritual connection to the land and tangible, albeit shrunken, evidence to most Indians that they were the original people of this country. The strength of the connection and evidence is immeasurable and profound.