What are the most populated or urban communities on Indian Reservations/First Nations

[3rd&Brown]

I think technically the entire Tulsa metropolitan area is on one of a few Indian reservations that all intersect in that region. I've long wondered how it worked, tbh.

[JManc]

I don't think much changed for Tulsa if you're not native. All that really changed was anyone who was native now fell under the jurisdiction of tribal governments and the federal government; if you committed a crime, you would be tried in a tribal (or federal) court not by the state of OK.

[robk1982]

Basically the northern half of the city of Mt. Pleasant, MI is falls in the Isabella Indian Reservation. The city has a total population of 21,000 and the part inside of the reservation has a population of 8700.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pleasant,_Michigan

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I think technically the entire Tulsa metropolitan area is on one of a few Indian reservations that all intersect in that region. I've long wondered how it worked, tbh.

Not all lands in an Indian reservation are actual Indian lands. Most reservations are a patchwork of tribal-owned land, private land owned by tribal members, and private land owned by non-Indians. The boundaries of the reservation describe a general area the tribe has some administrative say over, but they don't have complete control of everything within that boundary.

I worked for a tribe north of Seattle for 7 years so I know all about this.

It's not unlike a national forest: There are some lines describing the boundaries of the national forest, but within those boundaries is really a patchwork of federally-owned land and private land.

Probably Tulsa might be technically within the boundaries of some reservation, but the land long ago got deeded to non-tribal entities and a city was gradually built on those lands.

[xzmattzx]

So is Tulsa not really on a reservation, if Native laws only affect Natives? It seems to be a halfway situation. Do Whites in Tulsa pay income taxes or gasoline taxes or anything that are exempt on reservations? Does the tribe run the government, like county government? If peoples' lives are the same as if they were on non-reservation land, like in Nashville or Detroit or Boston or Tampa, then I wouldn't say Tulsa is a reservation community.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

So is Tulsa not really on a reservation, if Native laws only affect Natives? It seems to be a halfway situation. Do Whites in Tulsa pay income taxes or gasoline taxes or anything that are exempt on reservations? Does the tribe run the government, like county government? If peoples' lives are the same as if they were on non-reservation land, like in Nashville or Detroit or Boston or Tampa, then I wouldn't say Tulsa is a reservation community.

You're talking about non-native owned? Gas stations owned by tribes are open to the public and and I try to tell California forumers to get their gas there.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

Tuba City, AZ is the most populated city in the largest Native American reservation (Navajo Nation). It is 90+% Native American and has as of the 2020 census 8,662 people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuba_City,_Arizona

Window Rock, AZ as a daytime population of ~20,000, but the permanent population is only around 2,500.

With that said, there are more than 40,000 Native Americans that just live in the Phoenix area.

I covered Window Rock in a photothread HERE.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

Probably Tulsa might be technically within the boundaries of some reservation, but the land long ago got deeded to non-tribal entities and a city was gradually built on those lands.

But then in effect, the boundaries of metropolitan Tulsa are rigidly defined? Meaning, what can be developed in the future as Tulsa sprawls outward is already known as land is either privately owned or not?

That would be notable in and of itself.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Gallup, NM is a decent-sized city that is overwhelmingly Native American and sits on an Indian reservation. It's one of the classic Route 66 towns.

Gallup is completely surrounded by reservation land, but the city itself is not part of any reservation.

[SIGSEGV]

Kotzebue? Utqiagvik? Iqualuit?

Not reservations but I think all are Inuit-majority.

[Acajack]

It seems like most of the discussion has focused on populated places on Indigenous lands, but that are generally populated by non-Indigenous people.

It would be more interesting to talk about places with large populations that are primarily Indigenous.

In Canada for example, you have a number of places that have 10-12,000 people with most everyone there being Indigenous:

Six Nations of the Grand River, in southern Ontario near Brantford

Kahnawake, just south of Montreal

Akwesasne, near Cornwall, Ontario, but the community also has territory in Quebec and New York State.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Kotzebue? Utqiagvik? Iqualuit?

Not reservations but I think all are Inuit-majority.

Not sure about the places in Alaska but Iqaluit is about half Inuit and half non-Inuit.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It seems like most of the discussion has focused on populated places on Indigenous lands, but that are generally populated by non-Indigenous people.

It would be more interesting to talk about places with large populations that are primarily Indigenous.

In Canada for example, you have a number of places that have 10-12,000 people with most everyone there being Indigenous:

Six Nations of the Grand River, in southern Ontario near Brantford

Kahnawake, just south of Montreal

Akwesasne, near Cornwall, Ontario, but the community also has territory in Quebec and New York State.

According to the source linked below, the U.S. metros with the biggest populations of indigenous are:

Los Angeles (233,745)
New York (178,677)
Phoenix (161,178)
Tulsa (138,573)
Oklahoma City (104,789)

https://usafacts.org/articles/native...t-has-changed/

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Not sure about the places in Alaska but Iqaluit is about half Inuit and half non-Inuit.

I wonder what the differences are between management and how they are operated for our two countries/natives.

Tribal map of CA:

source

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by TWAK

I wonder what the differences are between management and how they are operated for our two countries/natives.

Tribal map of CA:

source

From what I gather, reserves in Canada are typically much smaller than reservations in the US. The communities that inhabit also have less autonomy than they would in the US. There are some exceptions to this but generally I think it's true.

Also, reserves in Canada are only for First Nations people, once known to some as "Indians" or "Native Americans".

Métis and Inuit people in Canada don't have reserves.

Iqaluit is the capital and largest town (8,000 people) of the Nunavut territory which is huge. It doesn't have a special status as an Inuit community, though it's understood that the territory was created for the Inuit people.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Kotzebue? Utqiagvik? Iqualuit?

Not reservations but I think all are Inuit-majority.

Are those reservation towns, or "regular" towns that happen to be almost all Inuit?

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Are those reservation towns, or "regular" towns that happen to be almost all Inuit?

"regular" towns that I believe are majority Inuit (though maybe I'm wrong about Iqualuit...)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

"regular" towns that I believe are majority Inuit (though maybe I'm wrong about Iqualuit...)

As I mentioned, Iqaluit is just over 50% Inuit. It doesn't have any special reserve status, though the territory it's in (Nunavut) was created as an Inuit homeland of sorts.

[jmecklenborg]

Not entirely on-topic, but I saw this this past weekend...an improvised punk rock venue on a reservation out west:

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Not entirely on-topic, but I saw this this past weekend...an improvised punk rock venue on a reservation out west:

I've always found the degree to which native peoples seem to appreciate punk/metal to be interesting. I went to a metal show in Arizona recently for the first time in probably a decade and was surprised again at the demographically over-represented native crowd. This native news outlet mentions one take:

https://ictnews.org/news/punk-band-n...be-bad-indians

“This is a really interesting part about Indian Country as a whole. The connection that Native people feel to punk rock and metal is just inherently there, and it always has been,” Deal said. “I think the statements of disenfranchisement and frustration with power structures that exist in the ethos of punk rock speak to a shared feeling of frustration that are already there in Native communities,” Deal says.