Relocation
In the last half of the 20th Century, a government program that was little known at the time and is largely forgotten today created the largest movement of Indians in American history. The final scope and meaning of this massive social experiment is still impacting native peoples today.
Relocatees were supposed to receive temporary housing, counseling and guidance in finding a job, permanent housing, community and social resources. The new migrants also were given money to tide them over on a sliding scale based on the number of children in the facilitate’s what they were promised. Some found that the promises were not kept. Not every relocatee found a job, and those that did were generally at the lower end of the economic lateralized more decided to return to their reservation. But over the years, it’s estimated that as many as 750,000 Native Americans migrated to the cities between 1950 and 1980.
—excerpt of an article from Indian Country Diaries, http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/relocate.html, accessed on July 27, 2011, reprinted by permission
The Installation and Project
"Relocation" is an Installation (currently on display in the Reinberger Gallery in The Cleveland Institute of Art) depicting the layers of industry and history "covering" the story of Relocation to the Cleveland area.The installation consists of a series of photographs and the first of the stories collected for an oral history of Relocation in Cleveland.
