Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life

Stories about life on reservations in the 1950s and 1960s are often tales of hardship. In 1938, anthropologist M. Inez Hilger did a survey on White Earth Reservation and found that about half of the nearly 250 homes she visited “were merely tar paper shacks” (122). Few had wooden shingles. Only one had a foundation. The shacks were damp, cold, and made of highly flammable materials. Some had toilets, but without any walls for privacy.

Larger, better-connected tribes got money from Housing and Urban Development (HUD), while smaller tribes were frequently overlooked. However, HUD initiated a program to build housing tracts on reservations across the country in the 1960s. The homes looked like those in white suburbs. Instead of streets and alleys, there were cul-de-sacs. This planning model, it was believed, would discourage crime from presumed outsiders. Families signed up for housing as soon as they could, which they received in order of application, through a lottery system, and through nepotism. Some paid a small rental free, while others had free housing. The houses had heating, running water, a bathroom, electricity, and a sturdy roof. What HUD ignored was that they placed families from different tribes, some of whom had rivalries, beside each other as neighbors.