Important Places - First Nations Reserves

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Important Places - First Nations Reserves

1SJaneDoe
Edited: Jan 30, 2024, 1:02 pm

I don't think this has been discussed before, but please let me know if I'm wrong. When entering place names that are First Nations/Indigenous reserves (I think in the US they're generally referred to as reservations). I noticed that there doesn't seem to be a standard as to how these are entered.
I came across it when entering Six Nations of the Grand River, in Canada. I see some have entered Six Nations Reserve, Brantford, Ontario, Canada. This is definitely incorrect, as Six Nations is near Brantford, but absolutely not in it. In fact, the reserve is larger than the entire city of Brantford. Anyway, that got me thinking: if these are managed by the federal government and whatever band/tribal administration exists, but are physically in a province or state, should they be entered as XYZ Reservation, Province, Country or XYZ Reservation, Country? Or just XYZ Reservation? When I search reservation it looks like people have entered all of these options, e.g. Pine Ridge Reservation, USA vs. Navajo Reservation, Arizona, USA. It's further complicated by the fact that many of these places cross state boundaries.
Just curious about others' thoughts.

ETA: this is also an issue I'm seeing for Places of Residence and Birthplace.

2Cynfelyn
Jan 30, 2024, 12:19 pm

As an outsider living in a country without 'first nations reserves' (some would say more's the pity, but that's another story), does the colonising country, be it the Australia, Brazil, Canada, USA or wherever, claim sovereignty over the reserve, or does it stop at the border?

3MarthaJeanne
Jan 30, 2024, 12:45 pm

All these vary not just by country, but also by time. Whatever the name now, what name was the area known by when the book was written / at the time depicted in the book? Which of those three should be listed? This is a question for many areas in Europe. Kafka is listed as "Nationality
Czech Republic". Garbage! He was a German speaker in one of the major cities of the Austro-Hungarian empite.

4lilithcat
Jan 30, 2024, 12:49 pm

>2 Cynfelyn:

That is an incredibly complicated situation, and it won't be the same answer in different countries, or, indeed, in the same country, depending on the issue. You can learn more about how it works in the U.S. here: https://www.bia.gov/frequently-asked-questions

5SJaneDoe
Jan 30, 2024, 1:00 pm

>2 Cynfelyn: It's complicated, and I am by no means an expert, but my understanding is that reserves in Canada generally have their own governments/councils, police, etc. The Canadian government oversees all of them and has obviously claimed sovereignty over them in the past, but the different indigenous groups consider themselves sovereign nations.

I'm not sure about other countries.