Life on reservations during the mid-2oth j century wasn’t easy. Poverty was a way of life for many, often accompanied by rampant unemployment and illiteracy. With such poor living conditions came skyrocketing alcoholism and suicide. These conditions contributed to the lowest life expectancy of any cultural group in the United States. Poisoned ground-water and soil from mining activities near or on reservation land also contributed to low life expectancy. Still, most people weren’t motivated to leave the reservations because that was where their communities were.
The federal government officially started the Urban Relocation Program in 1952 with the hopes of eventually terminating reservations. Approximately 200,000 Native Americans took part in this program and moved from reservations to urban areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, and Dallas. Others left on their own until more than half the Native American population lived in cities.
The Urban Relocation Program provided oneway bus fare and assistance with housing and employment. BIA relocation officers identified people on the reservation, often young adults, to relocate. Other relocation officers helped “reloca-tees” adjust to the city when they arrived. People in the Urban Relocation Program were supposed to receive temporary housing, job assistance, and other community resources, plus enough money to get through the first four weeks. For a family of four, this meant $80 a week.
Some people found jobs, but others didn’t. Sometimes the change was just too different and people couldn’t adjust. While life was economically better for some urban Native Americans, it came at a price. People were cut off from their native roots. Just as children had suffered from a loss of identity when removed to boarding schools, so did many young Native American adults and families who moved from reservations to cities.
People had a better chance of adjusting to city life when they had contact with other Native Americans, even those who belonged to a different nation or band. American Indian Centers provided places where they could go to be with others who understood their culture. Powwows, health care, and cultural traditions all brought people together in the cities. In this way, people adopted Pan-Indianism, when the focus of their identity changed from the specific one of band or nation to the larger one of being Native American. Intertribal marriages
Increased, resulting in children claiming membership in two or more Indian nations.
Meanwhile, society was changing. Activism was popular, particularly for young Americans who protested for civil and equal rights and against the Vietnam War. Stirrings of protest were heard in Native American communities as well.
World History
