INDIAN RESERVATIONS

territory set aside for the exclusive use of Indians by the United States Government. This practice was begun even in colonial days, by Ma achusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, the terms of the treaties usually being that in exchange for the greater part of their hunting lands the Indians would be left unmolested in more restricted territory, and receive annual allowances in the form of clothing, proVisions and other means of livelihood, to take tthe place of their lo of hunting grounds. After the Revolution, this policy was pursued by the Federal Government, notably in the allocation of Indian Territory to the five ‘civilized tribes,’ the Cherokees, Semi noles, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chick a saws, Many evils followed in the wake of this policy; the Indians were demoralized by Government support, and there was constant aggre ion on the part of white settlers to obtain land in the reservations with the most fertile soil, the Government often being obliged to send out troops to drive out squatters. Tho Dawes Act, pa ed by Congre , in 1887, marked a change in this policy, by providing for individual ownership of land by the Indians, together with a program of popular education and a istance in agricultural enterprise. This course has been slowly pursued with succe , and at the present time the area of Indian reservations has been considerably reduced. In 1923 there were about 180 reservations in the United States, covering the states of Oklahoma, Arizona, South and North Dakota, New Mexico, California, Montana, Washington, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon; and New York,