"Reservations Aren't Traditional"

... analysis of Tommy Orange's quote from ​There There

It is curious that most Americans think that to be Indian means to live on a reservation and wear feathers in your hair everyday. Urban Indians live in cities and are "real Indians." Reservations are a western construct. Before contact, Indigenous Peoples moved without lines drawn on maps and across boarders. 

End of Treaty Making - ​The Appropriations Act of 1871

Reservations did not exist before 1851. In 1851, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act, creating the Indian Reservation System to manage Indigenous Peoples. 

• Reservation treaties occurred between 1850s - 1890s.
• Assimilation of America's Indigenous Peoples began between 1870s - 1930s. 
• Reservations were a short era of history between Tribal Nations and the U.S. Government.

"It what was supposed to be a routine bill providing funds to Indian Agencies. The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 included a significant clause declaring that Indigenous people did not belong to "independent nations" and could therefore not enter treaties with the United States. A departure from previous US-Indigenous relations, the Act dealt a major blow to Indigenous sovereignty" according to the Colorado Encyclopedia. 

The Appropriations Act of 1871
"Under the Constitution, treaty making was the prerogative of the president, acting with the advice and consent of the Senate. The House of Representatives had no say in creating treaties and was only responsible for allocating funds to carry out their provisions. By the 1870s, however, the House had new members representing new constituencies in western states, many of whom lobbied for the removal of Indigenous people. The House as a whole had also come to resent its minor role in Indigenous affairs, going so far as to refuse to fund new treaties. As the House debated the Appropriations Act of 1871, representatives hitched a rider denying Native sovereignty to what was otherwise a routine allocations bill. Even though the rider increased the House’s power in Indigenous affairs, the Senate approved the bill on March 3, 1871, and President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law."

http://recordsofrights.org/assets/record/000/000/802/802_original.jpg

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Work Cited 
https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/image/indian-appropriations-act-1871

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