Final answer:
Indigenous women often left reserves due to forced migration, loss of cultural identity, poverty, and inadequate protection. Reservations offer little economic opportunity and high rates of poverty and discrimination exist against those who leave. Historic movements like the Okie migration illustrate the struggles faced by Indigenous peoples in search of better lives.
Step-by-step explanation:
Indigenous women often left reserves as a result of several factors, including forced migration, involuntary removal from their homelands, poverty, alienation, and loss of cultural identity. The repercussions of these movements included major cultural and economic consequences for Native American populations. The outside society offered few employment opportunities and resulted in high poverty rates among Indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the experience of Indigenous women in non-Indigenous society is marked by inadequate protection and representation, with disproportionately high rates of violence, disappearance, and kidnapping.
Many Indigenous communities that live on reservations endure extreme poverty, face high addiction and alcoholism rates, and have low educational completion rates compared to other demographic groups. The insufficient economic opportunities on reservations due to restrictions like the Nonintercourse Act have compounded these challenges. Despite the difficulties, living on reservations provides Indigenous people the comfort of their own culture and a community with less discrimination.
The movement of Indigenous people off reservations has not always resulted in better living conditions. The historic Okie migration is an example of Indigenous peoples moving westward during the Dust Bowl crisis in search of employment, often finding only low-paying, seasonal jobs. This upheaval further fragmented tribal populations and had lasting effects on their economic and cultural viability.