From Rural to Urban: Displacement and Relocation

Figure 1: Timeline of Selected Harmful Federal and State Policies Toward Native Americans Since white colonizers landed on the shores of Turtle Island and entered the Columbia River, Native Americans in Oregon have endured racist policies and practices meant to dispossess them of land, community, and sovereignty through displacement and discrimination. Displacement occurred through forced relocation to reservations, removal of tribes’ lands, and the termination of tribal status, all of which limited spatial and economic sovereignty and mobility.x

From Rural to Urban: Displacement and Relocation

Between 1900 and 1950, the urban Native population grew from less than one percent to over 13 percent.xi World War II drove many Native Americans looking for work to urban centers like Portland, which experienced a surge in its Native population during this time. After the war, the federal government forcibly moved approximately one-third of Native Americans from reservations to urban areas.xii

In 1952, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officially launched the Voluntary Relocation Program, which sought to entice Native Americans to move to cities with the promise of training, jobs, and housing. Portland became a BIA headquarters, overseeing Native land policies in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.xiii In 1956, Portland was designated as an urban area or Native relocation.xiv Four years later, Congress passed the Indian Relocation Act, also known as the Adult Vocational Training Program, which sought to provide Native young adults with two years of training and education.xv Thousands of Native Americans moved to cities. But, as Claudia Welala Long (Nez Perce) explains,

“For many, the federal programs did not work, and relocated Indians struggled to find jobs, housing, and medical care . . . Relocation also left thousands of Indians unprepared for city life. They were hampered by social and cultural barriers, including language and spiritual and religious traditions, and had little or no access to resources or services.”xvi

The relocation offices designed to support new arrivals were considerably underfunded and understaffed. Many Native Americans did not have the support promised by the BIA to adjust to urban living.xvii Those who wanted to move back to their reservations experienced prohibitive cost barriers as the BIA refused to fund return trips, making relocation a one-way journey for many Native families.xviii