No reservations

What if, in the United States, the reservation system is never adopted? I know virtually nothing about the establishment of reservations aside from the desire to remove Native Americans from places Americans wanted to be. So, without reservations, what happens to these people?

Also, the idea of having Native American states, as opposed to reservations, is somewhat attractive to me. Is there any scenario where the reservations are given some sort of representation in Congress? I know that's super far fetched, but hey this is alternate history!
 
IIRC the reservation system is partly the remainder of land purchase. West of the Appalachians, the native tribes (in theory) willingly ceded large tracts of their land in exchange for payment and guarantees to the remainder of their territory. Large chunks of this land were still taken away by settlers and the government, but the little bits that stayed Indian are the current reservations.

Essentially, lack of a reservation system could be the result of the U.S. government deciding not to bother with the fig leaf of treaties and just starting massive land grabs. In this scenario, I don't see the natives getting their own state-instead, there would be even more forced integration than OTL.
 

Redhand

Banned
If they integrate into society than I don't think reservations would even be needed. This is very unlikely.
 

Driftless

Donor
A radical plan would be for purchase/emminent domain of the lands. The impacted nations or tribes would be paid as an entity. The members of the nation or tribe are recognized as citizens of the US, giving them a real legal standing.

It gets even more complicated for nomadic tribes, especially out on the Great Plains, where enormous tracts of land were involved.

For cultures where ownership is an alien idea, this real easily becomes a metaphorical swamp. Unfortunately, the OTL alternative was very destructive anyway.

Either way the Amerinds got the short end of the stick.
 
Maybe the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) becomes an Indian State? After the Civil War?

AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS FLOW CHART (Pre 1960's)​

ARE THESE PEOPLE WHITE?
[[
[[
[If Yes, integrate them and give them rights!
[
[
[If No, murder them and steal their stuff!



EDIT: Took me two tries for the flowchart. Sorry for any confusion!
 
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