An
Indian reservation is a legal designation for an area of
land managed by a
Native American tribe under the
US Bureau of Indian Affairs, rather than the
state governments of the United States in which they are physically located. Each of the 326
Indian reservations in the United States are associated with a particular Nation. Not all of the country's 567
recognized tribes have a reservation—some tribes have more than one reservation, some share reservations, while others have none. In addition, because of past
land allotments, leading to some sales to non-Native Americans, some reservations are severely fragmented, with each piece of
tribal,
individual, and privately held land being a separate
enclave. This jumble of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties.