Final answer:
Life on Native American reservations was difficult due to federal neglect and corruption, and the legal status of reservations changed over time according to court rulings and policies like termination. Native resistance led to the eventual shift toward policies supporting self-governance and the revitalization of reservation life.
Step-by-step explanation:
The reservation system established by the federal government for Native Americans posed severe challenges and resulted in various negative consequences for indigenous peoples. Initially, reservations were lands given to tribes as supposedly permanent places for their communities to live and practice their culture. However, life on these reservations was marked by poverty, malnutrition, and lack of adequate health care due to insufficient federal aid and corruption among government officials.
The legal status of reservations was affected by the Marshall court trilogy, which established that Native nations were 'domestic sovereign nations' within the US but reliant on the federal government for sovereignty. Despite this, the federal government often violated treaties, and with the introduction of policies like termination in 1953, the government voided treaty agreements, ending federal recognition of tribes and selling off reservation land.
Natives resisted these impositions, leading to various forms of collective action and pushback. The federal government's policy towards Native Americans shifted towards assimilation, with the ultimate failure of policies such as termination leading to campaigns aimed at strengthening Native self-governance and revitalizing reservation life.