Indian Reservations in the United States: Territory, Sovereignty, and Socioeconomic Change

In the most comprehensive and detailed cultural-geographic study ever conducted of the American Indian reservations in the forty-eight contiguous states, Klaus Frantz explores the reservations as living environments rather than historical footnotes. Although this study provides well-researched documentation of the generally deplorable living conditions on the reservations, it also seeks to discover and highlight the many possibilities for positive change.

Informed by both historical research and extensive fieldwork, this book pays special attention to the natural resource base and economic outlook of the reservations, as well as the crucial issue of tribal sovereignty. Chapters also cover the demography of American Indian groups and their socioeconomic status (including standard of living, employment, and education). A new afterword treats some of the developments since the book's initial publication in German, such as the effects of the 1988 Indian gaming law that allowed Indian reservations to operate gambling establishments (with mixed success).

"Provides a good overview of the basic questions and problems facing reservation Indians today."--Peter Bolz, Journal of American History (on the German edition)

The publisher's decision to translate University of Innsbruck geographer Frantz's 1993 study of the Native American reservation system was wise. Not just a historical overview, this comprehensive analysis, supported in large measure by extensive use of tables and figures, provides an insightful view of the development of the system that supports most rural Native Americans. The conflicting use patterns for water, forests, and other natural resources hedged against strong native cultural features lends urgency to solving the myriad issues reservation citizens contend with daily. These homelands have allowed Native American communities, with their unique cultural attributes, to remain distinct from the overwhelming dominant society. Frantz's book has set a high standard, although Kirke Kickingbird and Karen Ducheneaux's 1973 One Hundred Million Acres (LJ 3/1/73) offers firmer socio-legal rationale for continued development of the reservations. An epilog updates the text.AWilliam Kenz, Moorhead State Univ. Lib., MN Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.