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<br />Yankton, Lower Brule, Crow Creek, and Cheyenne
<br />River, and a portion of two others, Standing Rock and
<br />Sisseton, are in South Dakota. The Santee, Winnebago,
<br />and Omaha, and a portion of two others, the Sac and
<br />Fox and the Iowa, are in Nebraska. The Potawatomi and
<br />Kickapoo reservations and a portion of two others, the
<br />Sac and Fox and the Iowa, are in Kansas.
<br />
<br />Table 29 - INDIAN-OWNED LAND AND
<br />POPULATION BY RESERVATION, 1965
<br />
<br /> Indian-owned Estimated
<br />Reservation Subregion landI Population
<br /> (Acres) (No.)
<br />Blackfeet Upper 945,008 6,600
<br />foort Belknap Missouri 595,768 1,635
<br />Fort Peck 890,975 4,000
<br />Rocky Boy's 107,612 880
<br />Crow Yellowstone 1,574,230 3,190
<br />Northern Cheyenne 433,227 2,495
<br />Wind River 1,887.372 3,580
<br />Standing Rock Western 851,866 4,640
<br />Cheyenne River Dakota 1,456,634 3,840
<br />foort Berthold2 275,927 1,080
<br />Lower Brule 100,117 570
<br />Pine Ridge 1,501,394 9,600
<br />Rosebud 938,457 5,200
<br />Yankton Eastern 35,506 1,320
<br />Crow Creek Dakota 107,370 1,140
<br />Fort Berthold2 148,576 1,620
<br />Sisseton3 108,621 2,275
<br />Santee Middle 5,802 320
<br />Omaha Missouri 27,703 1,090
<br />Winnebago 29,368 750
<br />Iowa 1.463 235
<br />Sac and Fox 119 30
<br />Kickapoo4 4,949 565
<br />Potawatomi4 21.485 980
<br /> -
<br />Missouri Region 12,049,549 57,635
<br />
<br />I Acres of land owned hy Indians, the title of which is held in
<br />trust by the United States Government.
<br />2Fort Berthold Reservation is in both the Eastern and Western
<br />Dakota subregions.
<br />3Except for small portions in North Dakota and Minnesota
<br />most of the Sisseton Reservation is within the Eastern
<br />Dakota Subregion; however, only 38,000 acres of the
<br />reservation land and about 770 of the 1965 population are
<br />within the hydrologic boundary of the Eastern Dakota
<br />Subregion (see figure 18).
<br />4Kickapoo and I'olawatomi reservations are within the
<br />hydrologic boundaries of the Kansas Subbasin but within the
<br />Middle Missouri Subregion.
<br />
<br />Eighty-five percent of the Indian land is grazing land
<br />and most of the remainder is cultivated. While most of
<br />the cultivated land is dry-cropped, a relatively small
<br />percentage is irrigated. Additional land, both grazing and
<br />cultivated, is irrigable.
<br />Most of the reservations have natural resources that,
<br />to a considerable extent, remain undeveloped or have
<br />not reached their full potential. For example, there has
<br />been significant oil and gas production during the last
<br />20 years on some reservations, but development of
<br />extensive coal deposits found on some reservations has
<br />just started. Timber resources on the reservations, which
<br />are found almost exclusively in Montana and Wyoming,
<br />
<br />50
<br />
<br />are being harvested under sustained yield cut. Recreation
<br />resources on several reservations are beginning to be
<br />developed, but tourism is, by and large, an undeveloped
<br />resource. Accelerated development of Indian resources
<br />for agriculture, industry, recreation, and other uses is
<br />essential to the development of the economy of the
<br />entire region.
<br />The major undeveloped Indian resource is the human
<br />resource. This is reflected in 1966 unemployment which
<br />ranged from a low of 24 percent to a high of 69 percent
<br />of the employable work force. Much of the employment
<br />in the reservation areas comes from seasonal agricultural
<br />work. The present average family income of the Indian
<br />segment of the population is generally less than $2,000
<br />per year, though it varies widely from one reservation to
<br />another. There is a serious shortage of job opportunities
<br />on or near the reservations, and because of social and
<br />cultural factors, the labor force is highly immobile; the
<br />Indian people are reluctant to leave the reservation
<br />largely because they are neither adequately trained nor
<br />culturally equipped to enter the off-reservation labor
<br />force. For several decades, the Indian population has
<br />remained at an almost static 88-percent rural, while the
<br />rural population for the region as a whole declined from
<br />60 percent in 1940 to 43 percent in 1960.
<br />
<br />Until recent years, there had been very little develop-
<br />ment of industry on or near most of the reservation
<br />areas. However, as a result of programs of the Bureau of
<br />Indian Affairs, the tribes, and other government agencies
<br />designed to assist depressed areas, industry has been
<br />developed on some reservations to the mutual benefit of
<br />the employers and the Indian people. While industrial
<br />development is providing much needed jobs on some of
<br />the more favorably situated reservations, such as the
<br />Crow, it is being held back on other reservations by
<br />many of the same factors that are holding back
<br />development in many of the non-Indian areas of the
<br />region. Some of the factors holding back development
<br />are distance from markets, distance from raw materials,
<br />lack of adequate transportation facilities, undesirable
<br />living conditions, lack of ancillary services, shortage of
<br />trained and skilled workers, and insufficient funds to
<br />construct the buildings and facilities frequently required
<br />by a company considering a rural or semi-rural location.
<br />In retrospect, problems inherent in the development
<br />of the Indian segment of the economy are in many
<br />respects similar to, but more complex than, the prob-
<br />lems inherent in the overall development of the region.
<br />While the Indian-owned resources must be developed as
<br />an integral part of the resources of the region, it is
<br />essential that the problems peculiar to Indian-owned
<br />resources be recognized. These problems are a cultural
<br />difference between Indians and non-Indians, a relatively
<br />immobile labor force, relatively undeveloped human and
<br />natural resources, and a critical imbalance between
<br />population and developed resources.
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