Indigenous Peoples of the United States Reservations

United States American Indians  Reservations

Background
Reservations are land set aside by the United States or individual states for use as American Indian home lands. Some reservations are for one tribe or band, and some reservations are shared by two or more tribes. There are 310 reservations in the United States and about 550 recognized tribes, so not every tribe has a reservation. A few tribes have more than one reservation. The largest is the Navajo Nation Reservation consisting of a significant portion of several counties in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Some reservations are on tiny pieces of land not much more than a acre surrounded by large urban areas, for example, the Las Vegas Reservation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Reservations are distributed unevenly in the United States with the bulk of them in the mountain west states.

Less than half live on reservations. In 2012 only about 1 million of the approximately 2.5 million American Indians lived on reservations. Nevertheless, many genealogical researchers know a reservation where an American Indian ancestors once lived.

Finding Records. If you know the reservation where an ancestor lived, use that information to determine the Bureau of Indian Affiars agency, and the tribe associated with that reservation. Almost all records useful for genealogical research were created by the BIA agency. Use the reservation, tribe, and BIA agency information to help identify which agency records to research. Many BIA agency records also are available from the National Archives, its branches, or from the Family History Library.

Wiki List of Reservations
For an alphabetical list of those reservations in the United States which are described in this Wiki, see the Category:American Indian Reservations.

Key to the Reservations Map
The numbers from this key correspond with the numbers on the map of reservations below. For example, this key shows the #32 reservation on the map (in South Carolina) is the "Catawba" Reservation.

Reservations Map
To enlarge this map, click on it, pause, and then click on it again.