Land set aside in the USA for the occupancy and use of Native Americans. The Canadian equivalents are called reserves. The reservations were first created by a policy inaugurated in 1786. President Andrew Jackson first practised removal to reservations on a large scale after Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This sent the Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Cherokee tribes to an “Indian territory” in modern Oklahoma. In all some 200 reservations were set up in over 40 states. All but a handful were on poor quality land and proved economically unviable, so furthering the indigenous peoples’ poverty.