“I get sick and tired reading about Indian issues around here tossed about by people who have no clue of the history or the actual treaties or laws governing the trust relationship.”
You make good points, but the fact remains that the arrangements are completely detrimental to many of the people living on them. While they are officially wards of the state (unlike many of our urban “takers”), they exhibit much of the same behavior regardless of the historical arrangements.
As they were designed to be in the 19th century, to keep the defeated Indians docile and "on the reservation."