About 91,000 Navajo live there. Indian reservations consist of a wide variety of land. Some spread across desert and mountain areas of the Southwest, and others occupy forest and lake regions of the Midwest and 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 lands include jewelry making and wood processing. Some tribes lease mineral rights, tax mineral production, operate businesses, and offer tourist attractions on their reservations. But most reservations lack well-developed economies. Indians who live on reservations have one of the highest unemployment rates and one of the lowest average incomes of any U.S. group. Living conditions on the reservations are generally substandard.